Doom Mood – People and landscapes in everyday chaos

“Doom Mood” addresses the deep and forced alienation of individuals from their environment and from their own everyday experience. Angelica Maria and Matilda Ardeleanu, through the curatorial concept, interrogate social presence and participation in an imminent collapse of capitalist society, be it the slow accumulation of disasters or the unnoticed erosion of reality. This is the short presentation of the recently opened exhibition at IsThisArt? Gallery at the Photography Resource Center. Ten photographs by Toma Hurduc (RO) and Giulia Mangione (IT/NOR) are the subject of this exhibition. The “pessimistic mood” is captured by them in various ways, it is implied, it is insinuated. ‘Two Suns’ and ‘The Fall’, their two ongoing projects from which the images on display have been selected, examine existential fears and how these anxieties shape individual identities and community bonds. They confront the idea of impending collapse, whether it is the slow road to disaster or the unnoticed erosion of reality, both closely linked to the growing threat of climate change. Hurduc’s “Two Suns” features images of people lost in the chaos of everyday life in various countries, while Giulia Mangione gathers landscapes from the US, Greece and Italy and portrays communities preparing for the apocalypse.

Similar projects, different approaches

“Doom Mood” is part of “Next Generation of Artists”, a project that supports the training and promotion of young artists and curators, helping them to make their voices heard, nationally and internationally. After Bucharest, she will be in Norway at the Nitja Center. The project is funded by EEA and Norway Grants 2014-2021 under the RO-Cultura Program. We chatted with one of the curators, Matilda Ardeleanu, who is at her first exhibition in this capacity. “We already knew Toma, being from Bucharest like us, and our mentor in Norway, part of the project, provided us with a list of Norwegian photographers and we tried to choose one that could fit Toma’s project. We were very lucky to find two very talented photographers who simultaneously had projects on a similar theme but with such different approaches. And it worked. We chose Giulia quite easily”. Things were set in December, and by February 1, the images were chosen, sized, paneled and mounted. “It was an interesting experience. I would love to continue curating. At most, I can say that I have curated exhibitions of my own, but it’s very different to work with someone else’s creation. It’s a different relationship and it’s a different perspective. A project has hundreds of images that the public wouldn’t have time to see, so the curator has to choose, to find the common denominator.” The exhibition at IsThisArt? is a juxtaposition of images – a newly married couple and an abandoned iron bed frame in an American desert. “For me, it creates the richest narrative. It sends me back to an uncertain beginning… to the question of whether it makes sense.”

Matilda Ardeleanu (b. 2004) is a student at the Sculpture Department of the National University of Arts in Bucharest. Her artistic practice focuses on the exploration of personal identity, environment and cultural heritage. In her practice, she often uses found or personal objects that she processes. She has previously worked with photographs from her family archive, an approach that emphasizes her interest in the documentary and ethnographic aspects of photography.