INTERWOVEN HISTORIES | MUSEAL PERSPECTIVES WITH LILA PASSIMA AND IRIS ȘERBAN
03.06.2025

Salonul de proiecte
Palatul Universul, Corp B, Etaj 1
Actor Ion Brezoianu 23-25, București

Public presentation: Tuesday, June 3, 2025, 19.00

Salonul de proiecte invites you on Tuesday, June 3, 2025, starting at 19.00, to a series of public presentations by Lila Passima and Iris Șerban, inspired by the exhibition Travels, Photographs, Friendships. Lee Miller, Lena Constante, Elena Pătrășcanu. The two interventions offer different perspectives on the museum as a space for research and artistic expression, exploring the relationships between heritage and contemporary forms of display, as well as the interplay of memory, text, and object.

Starting from the installation Lena Coase (presented at the WASP artistic production center in 2022), Lila Passima will reflect on her encounter with Lena Constante’s work through the book The Silent Escape – a meeting that evolved into both an artistic and emotional endeavor, born out of a moment of personal loss. Her talk will trace significant episodes from Lena’s life – from her participation in the monographic campaigns of the Gusti School, to years of political imprisonment and marginalization, and finally to the posthumous recovery of a visionary body of work situated at the intersection of tradition, play, and the contemporary imagination. Lena Constante’s case is presented as an example of regenerative creative force – a life story insufficiently explored, marked by suffering but also by a remarkable artistic vitality capable of reimagining tradition in personal and visionary ways. Iris Șerban will highlight the exhibition Adorning the Head, inaugurated in 1957 at the Museum of Folk Art of the Romanian People's Republic (now the National Museum of the Romanian Peasant). Dedicated to the feminine rural universe – depicted through the folk art of hair braiding, adornments, and head coverings – the exhibition featured a selection of ethnographic pieces, including ceramic mannequins created by Elena Pătrășcanu and Ileana Popescu, scenographers and co-founders of the Țăndărică Puppet and Marionette Theatre. The 45 glass plate negatives preserved in the Image Archive of the National Museum of the Romanian Peasant document the exhibition and provide a visual basis for the research of museographic scenography in Romania.

Lila Passima is a visual artist, curator, and coordinator of educational programs at the National Museum of the Romanian Peasant. With extensive experience in the field, she approaches visual culture in an interdisciplinary manner, focusing on the relationships between image and object, memory and text. Her installations create a dynamic relationship between self-referentiality and social context, employing an artistic language rooted in affective memory, personal mythology, subjective archaeology, and autobiographical reconstruction. She works with signs, testimonial texts, organic materials, and ready-made objects. She has participated in numerous international exhibitions, shaping an artistic practice that blends museological research, performance, interdisciplinary collaboration, and active public engagement.

Iris Șerban is an anthropologist, curator, and cultural manager. Since 2015, she has been working at the National Museum of the Romanian Peasant, where she currently coordinates the Image Archive. Together with an interdisciplinary team of researchers, curators, and artists, she develops programs that explore the cultural potential of archival collections. She supports action-oriented research, public access to archives, and projects that explore new forms of cultural expression for tangible and intangible heritage. She is co-author of the volumes Martor 24. Politics of Memory (2019), Uranus Now (2021), and Casa de-a Casa (2023). Since 2021, she has been part of the team behind the Museum of Abandonment – a digital, participatory museum-forum dedicated to the history of abandonment in Romania.

Images: Photographs from the exhibition Adorning the Head, 1957, glass plate negatives with gelatin silver bromide, 13x18 cm, unknown photographer, Image Archive of the National Museum of the Romanian Peasant (left/right) / Lena Constante, The Gate of the Night, c. 1970, tapestry, 156x107 cm, Collection of the New Europe College, Bucharest, detail (center)

This event is organized by the Salonul de proiecte Association, as part of the project “Mobilizing Patterns: transnational female solidarities.”

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

The project does not necessarily represent the position of the Administration of the National Cultural Fund. AFCN is not responsible for the content of the project or how the results of the project can be used. These are entirely the responsibility of the grantee.

Partners: National Museum of the Romanian Peasant, Radio Romania Cultural, “George Oprescu” Institute of Art History, Federation of the Jewish Communities in Romania