Salonul de proiecte

Artists Ion and Ruxandra Grigorescu reflect on the life and artistic universe of Adela Petrescu — painter, teacher, and a discreet yet remarkable presence within Romanian culture. Through personal memories and reflections, the film reconstructs the intimate world of the Petrescu family, shaped by painting, literature, friendship, and everyday life. At its center is Adela Petrescu’s expressionist practice alongside the creative dialogue she shared with writer Radu Petrescu.

Adela Nicolau Petrescu (1927–2019) was a painter and Romanian language teacher, the wife of writer Radu Petrescu, and mother of Ruxandra Grigorescu. She began studying drawing in 1945–1946 with her aunt, the sculptor Teodora Popp, wife of the painter Sabin Popp, in Cecilia Cuțescu-Storck’s studio. She then attended the Faculty of Philology and preparatory courses at the Academy of Fine Arts with Nicolae Dărăscu. Between 1951 and 1954, alongside Radu Petrescu, she taught Romanian in Dipșa and Prundul Bârgăului, a period during which she continued to paint and draw. She painted landscapes, interiors, and self-portraits in an expressionist style until the end of her life.

Radu Petrescu (1927–1982), novelist and diarist, was one of the leading figures of the “Târgoviște School,” alongside Mircea Horia Simionescu, Costache Olăreanu, and Tudor Țopa. Closely connected to artists such as Paul Gherasim, Horia Bernea, Ion Grigorescu, Florin Niculiu, and Ion Dumitriu, his practice moved fluidly between literature and visual art. He painted, drew, illustrated, and developed a rigorous approach to composition and editing that also informed Adela Petrescu’s artistic process. He was the father of Ruxandra Grigorescu.

🎥 Excerpt from the video interview with Ion and Ruxandra Grigorescu, realized by Maria Grigorescu, 28 min 03 s.

🕐 We invite you to discover the full video in the exhibition space Thu–Sun, 15:00–19:00 until May 31st.

The current exhibition proposes a series of artistic strategies for confronting difficult, seemingly insurmountable situations, understood not only as aesthetic gestures but also as possible life strategies. Bringing together artists from different cultural and geographical contexts, it explores diverse critical positions that challenge seemingly unshakeable systemic conventions, while supporting values such as social inclusion and gender equality and affirming non-normative subjectivities.

For Olof Olsson, humor takes on an absurd form. In Office Work (2010), language recedes and the gesture becomes central: a four-hour performance in which 500 A4 sheets are cut into 8000 A8 papers. Repetition, labor, and futility turn into a quiet confrontation with bureaucratic logic and everyday systems.📄📄📄

⏰Come by to see his video Thu-Sun, 15:00-19:00, until February 15
📍 Universul Palace, Building B, 1st floor, 23-25 Actor Ion Brezoianu

Olof Olsson (DK) is an artist who works with info comedy, a type of performance that straddles the line between lecture, comedy, autobiography, and melodrama. After studying philology, philosophy and translation theory, he pursued visual arts at Konstfack in Stockholm and the Royal Academy in Copenhagen, and since 2007 he has devoted himself to performance.

Office work, 2010,4-hour video, 500 A4 papers are cut down to 8000 A8 papers, excerpt

This exhibition is organized by the Salonul de proiecte Association, as part of the ”Strategic Exchanges” project.

Cultural project co-financed by the Administration of the National Cultural Fund

This project has been supported by