Bucharest Scenes: Voices of Contemporary Art

Cosmin Bumbuț, a former fashion photographer for Elle and Esquire, has been traveling across Romania since 2013 in a camper van with journalist Elena Stancu. Together, they document Romanian society through projects on domestic violence and prison life. In 2008, he began photographing intimate prison cells, revealing the human dimension of confinement.

Ioana Cîrlig is a Romanian visual artist working primarily with photography, but also with text, sound, and publishing. A former press photographer in Bucharest, she has been leading Le Nouvel Empire [The New Empire] since 2017, a visual project exploring our relationship with nature. Initially an intimate investigation, it has expanded to themes such as wilderness, plant kinship, botanical research, and the utopia of space colonies.

Albert Kaan is an artist working across a wide range of media: sculpture, installation, drawing, photography, video, and performance. His work is presented both locally and internationally in diverse contexts, including public spaces. His practice revolves around transforming the artist’s personal space into a playground shared with the viewer. Born in Romania a few years after the fall of the communist regime, he currently lives in Bucharest and the rural area of Gulia.

Mihaela Moldovan is a Bucharest-based artist, a member of Malmaison Studios and the feminist collective Group 28. She explores interlacing as a method and color as a sculptural form. Her textile work combines malleable objects, rope nets, and structures reminiscent of haystacks. She also draws inspiration from paper cutting, a traditional craft rooted in her childhood memories.

Sergiu Ujvarosi explores imprinting and casting, questioning material memory and transformation through an artistic tracking approach. Roxana Morar, a Bucharest-based artist and member of Atelierele Scânteia, works with photography, performance, and installation. Her research focuses on the circulation of matter, the transfer of information, and the dynamics of human interaction.

Radu Pandele was born in 1993 in Bucharest. He began his artistic studies at the high school in Arad and continued at universities in Bucharest, Cluj, and Grenoble, France. All of his works—paintings, murals, and sculptures—are influenced by the digital environment, using 3D modeling software. Through his work, he reflects on the relationship between humans and the planet, the laws of physics, and the human condition.