MATCA artspace

31/03/2026

Sâmbăta asta de la ora 17:00 te invităm la un prim tur ghidat prin expoziția CONNECTIONS:FORWARD alături de Alexandra Mocan, artistă vizuală și co-fondatoare MATCA artspace, unde dezvoltă proiecte curatoriale dedicate scenei artistice tinere.

Ni se vor alătura curatorii de generație9 Gabriela Moldovan, Diana Molnos, George Nicolae și Andreea Samoilă.

Participarea este gratuită și deschisă publicului larg, în limita locurilor disponibile, prin înscriere accesând formularul din comentarii.

CONNECTIONS:FORWARD | Șapte proiecte curatoriale emergente la Rezidența9 are vernisaj vineri de la 19:00. Te așteptăm

Sâmbăta asta de la ora 17:00 te invităm la un prim tur ghidat prin expoziția CONNECTIONS:FORWARD alături de Alexandra Mocan, artistă vizuală și co-fondatoare MATCA artspace, unde dezvoltă proiecte curatoriale dedicate scenei artistice tinere. Ni se vor alătura curatorii de generație9 Gabriela Moldovan,
Diana Molnos, George Nicolae și Andreea Samoilă.

Participarea este gratuită și deschisă publicului larg, în limita locurilor disponibile, prin înscriere accesând formularul din comentarii.

CONNECTIONS:FORWARD | Șapte proiecte curatoriale emergente la Rezidența9 are vernisaj vineri de la 19:00. Te așteptăm.

02/03/2026

Au mai rămas 8 zile în care vă puteți înscrie la apelul nostru dedicat curatorilor emergenți! 💛

Mai multe detalii în materialul publicat de Empower Artists

MATCA artspace lansează cea de-a doua ediție a rezidenței FORWARD cu un apel deschis dedicat curatorilor emergenți care locuiesc în Cluj.

30/01/2026

Sharing some photos from Unda Obscura’s exhibition “Normalcy Protocol”

21–23.11.2025

Curated by George Nicolae13

Moving between illusion and control, human and machine, peace and war, proximity and distance, the exhibition unfolded without hierarchy — a space of duality and mutual dependency. Ruin gave rise to illusion, and illusion affirmed destruction.

Unda Obscura is a multidisciplinary digital art and new media collective creating immersive and interactive experiences through VR, AR, AI, sound design, animation, video mapping, and sensor-based systems. Their practice sits at the intersection of technology and art, exploring perception, digital memory, alienation, and experimental forms of expression.

Photos by Cezar Cîmpeanu


//obscura

30/01/2026

Here is the second photo gallery from SHOW-OFF 7 (2/2)

SHOW-OFF 7
17.10 – 18.11.2025

More like a collective gathering than a curated exhibition — SHOW-OFF brings together artists whose practice we like and enjoy working with:

Sasha Bandi / Norbert Filep / Cătălina Nistor / Simon Sykora / Emanuel Pop / Mara Cucu / Codruț Zele / Alexandra Brînzac / Dan Beudean / Matei Toșa / Ioana Iacob / Risto Ilič / Cellino Tiziana / Vlad Olariu / Mădălin Mărgăritescu / Lucia Ghegu / Alina Buzea / Andriana Oborocean / Norbert Ștefan / Paul Bucovesan / Alexandru Muraru / Matei Țigăreanu / Barbora Ilič / Celina Cordoș / Alexandra Mocan / Sebastian Big / MuLu

Photos by

22/01/2026

Here are some photos from SHOW-OFF 7 (1/2)
second part coming soon!

SHOW-OFF 7
17.10 – 18.11.2025

More like a collective gathering than a curated exhibition — SHOW-OFF brings together artists whose practice we like and enjoy working with:

Sasha Bandi / Norbert Filep / Cătălina Nistor / Simon Sykora / Emanuel Pop / Mara Cucu / Codruț Zele / Alexandra Brînzac / Dan Beudean / Matei Toșa / Ioana Iacob / Risto Ilič / Cellino Tiziana / Vlad Olariu / Mădălin Mărgăritescu / Lucia Ghegu / Alina Buzea / Andriana Oborocean / Norbert Ștefan / Paul Bucovesan / Alexandru Muraru / Matei Țigăreanu / Barbora Ilič / Celina Cordoș / Alexandra Mocan / Sebastian Big / MuLu

Photos by

28/11/2025

Throwback to one of our recent shows, BROUGHT FROM BELOW

06.09 – 03.10.2025

Alexandra Brînzac / Luis Alexandru Drăjan / Sasha Bandi / Oana Pop / Andreea Grigoraș / Alexandra Constantinescu / Matei Țigăreanu / Imminent Detour / Adrian Rață / Emanuel Pop / Xianne Han & Cristian Roncea & Stol Collective / Louis Kareem Jamal / Ekaterina Shcherbakova / Alexandra Pop-Arad / Júlia Kusztos & Levente Borenich / Alexandru Muraru / Ernest Budeș / Alexandru Mihai Budeș / Alexandra Mocan

The exhibition is part of Primitive Logistics, a wider project that explores alternative technologies and the inherent capacities of our surroundings—even from before the very notion of “technology” existed. It brings together six outcomes of individual or collaborative practices, selected through a land art open call, alongside a body of ceramic works created during an extended workshop at MATCA in June. These ceramics were later fired in an experimental kiln, built entirely from scratch by MATCA in partnership with Slow Architecture Lab, the participating artists, and close collaborators, under the guidance of Alexandru Mihai Budeș.
The resulting exhibition reflects on practice, experiment, and collaboration in its many forms—from the organizational structures that brought us together, to the intimate exchanges with material, chemistry, temperature, land, and other elemental forces. It speaks more about interaction and process than about a predetermined outcome, allowing objects and interventions to carry their own stories while communicating through the same medium of expression—the ground itself, seen as a source of emergence, transformation, and continuity.

Photos by .studio / .dox

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Cultural project co-financed by the National Cultural Fund Administration (AFCN).
The project does not necessarily represent the position of the National Cultural Fund Administration. AFCN is not responsible for the content of the project or the way its results may be used. These are entirely the responsibility of the funding beneficiary.
Event organized with the support of the City Hall and Local Council of Cluj-Napoca

28/11/2025

While catching up with some posts we’ve been postponing, we’re sharing with you a glimpse of the invisible work that usually doesn’t make it into an exhibition.

This year, we managed to build a ceramic kiln together at Sălicea, under the guidance of Alexandru Budeș, and here are some photos from the project along with some of the meaning we’ve gathered from the experience.

// You need to be careful when building things that require foundation. When modelling and assembling, if something is wrongly placed from the very beginning, the resulting shape will remember, and things will go frail before everything is placed in the right order. This is how mud dictates, this is why ceramics is one of the techniques that humbles you – because before what your mind delivers as a resulting image, you require method, and always need to remember that things have memory – and every action has its consequences. Not knowing the right material might destroy the result. Not knowing the temperature might be dangerous. Not following structure – same outcome. And yet, beyond all the rules, there is also the experiment, and the thrill of discovering along the way.
Working with clay is like a common choreography, there is this matter in your hands that delivers various shapes if you communicate well with it. Almost the same choreography, mutuality and respect is required within collaborations. (...)

artists: Alexandra Brînzac, Luis Alexandru Drăjan, Sasha Bandi, Oana Pop, Andreea Grigoraș, Alexandra Constantinescu, Matei Țigăreanu, Imminent Detour, Adrian Rață, Alexandru Muraru, Alexandru Mihai Budeș, Alexandra Mocan, Ernest Budeș – who inspired this project

Special thanks to all involved and mentioned above, as well as to those who also made this possible: Matei Toșa, George Nicolae, Slow Architecture Lab, Cornel Șimon, Cezar Cîmpeanu, Vlad Ciumăfoaia, Aliz Nagy, Emanuel Pop, Robert Szőlősi, Cristian Chindriș, Paul-Teodor Dâmbean, and everyone else who was part of this. //

Cultural project co-financed by the National Cultural Fund Administration.
The project does not necessarily represent the position of AFCN. AFCN is not responsible for the content of the project or for how the results of the project may be used. These are entirely the responsibility of the beneficiary.

20/11/2025

Between August 24th and September 3rd, 2025, Andreea Ilie undertook the Peripatetic Connections project / Rezidențe în mișcare in North Macedonia and Bulgaria, where she explored monuments and memorials that reflect the region’s complex histories. Over the course of a week, she visited key sites to document, observe, and engage with the ways in which public memory is expressed through architecture and landscape.

The residency focused on emblematic socialist monuments such as the Makedonium in Kruševo and the Buzludzha Monument in Bulgaria. Through photography and writing, Andreea examined how these monumental forms balance are decaying. Conversations with local residents provided essential context regarding shifting attitudes toward these structures and their symbolic significance today.

Her visits revealed how monuments gradually transform from ideological statements into quiet witnesses of history. Their present conditions—ranging from preservation to profound neglect—underscore evolving relationships between communities and their past. This experience deepened Andreea’s understanding of how collective memory and political transition shape visual culture.

The materials gathered during the residency contribute both to an upcoming publication and to the new body of work she exhibited in Unbreaking News, our previous exhibition at

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Part of the project Peripatetic Connections
This project is co-financed by the Romanian Cultural Institute through the Cantemir Programme – a funding framework for cultural projects intended for the international environment.
The Romanian Cultural Institute cannot be held responsible for the content of this material.

20/11/2025

Also part of Peripatetic Connections / Rezidențe în mișcare, Alina Andrei spent a research period in Warsaw, tracing the city through its art institutions, museums, and independent spaces. The journey centered around the 29th International Poster Biennale, one of the world’s most significant events dedicated to poster art — a medium deeply rooted in Poland’s visual identity. The Biennale offered a layered reflection on the poster’s evolution: from the expressive aesthetics of the Polish school to contemporary interpretations of ecological, political, and technological crises - illustrating how design can mirror collective anxieties and aspirations.

The artist also launched her publication Why Women Choose the Bear at Turnus Gallery, engaging in conversations with the local ar community.

Part of the project Peripatetic Connections

This project is co-financed by the Romanian Cultural Institute through the Cantemir Programme – a funding framework for cultural projects intended for the international environment.
The Romanian Cultural Institute cannot be held responsible for the content of this material.

03/11/2025

As part of the Peripatetic Connections / Rezidențe în mișcare project, Maria Guțu traveled to Serbia in August 2025 to develop a documentary photography project focused on youth, public space, and marginalized communities. Her research unfolded in Belgrade and Novi Sad, where she documented civic protests, student movements, and everyday life through an intuitive, observational lens.

In Belgrade, she encountered a vivid yet fragmented social landscape — from the energy of the Zeleni Venac district to the flea market, where exchanges between people from different backgrounds revealed invisible lines that both separate and connect. Her photographs trace these fragile borders — between center and periphery, visibility and exclusion. The residency offered her the freedom to observe and reflect on how communities form and fracture under social and political tensions.

Part of the project Peripatetic Connections

This project is co-financed by the Romanian Cultural Institute through the Cantemir Programme – a funding framework for cultural projects intended for the international environment.
The Romanian Cultural Institute cannot be held responsible for the content of this material.

02/11/2025

As part of our project "Peripatetic Connections", we organized four residencies through an open call for "Rezidente în mișcare", an initiative developed to offer artists research contexts abroad.

Within this framework, we selected Andriana Oborocean, who traveled to Spain and the UK to document the contrasts between natural and urban environments.

Her research trip took place between August 26–31, in Bilbao and London, aiming to explore the tension between nature’s organic expression and the artificial rigidity of the urban landscape. In Bilbao, she visited the Urdaibai Natural Reserve, the forested area of Errekalde, and Askorri Beach, documenting small encounters with living creatures and slow contemplative moments through video and close-up observation with a magnifying glass.

In contrast, her experience in London was shaped by the cold geometry of the City of London, where the landscape felt artificial and constrained.

This duality is echoed in a resulting video work which was featured in the exhibition "Unbreaking News" - where natural environments appear expressive and free, while the urban ones feel rigid and heavy.

(Posted in reverse - from UK to Spain. Photos made by the artist)


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Part of the project Peripatetic Connections

This project is co-financed by the Romanian Cultural Institute through the Cantemir Programme – a funding framework for cultural projects intended for the international environment.
The Romanian Cultural Institute cannot be held responsible for the content of this material.