Ioana Lupascu

artistiek onderzoek - schrijven

Artist and designer interested in the poetics of space, graphic form and practices of togetherness. Ioana’s work strongly focuses on play, process, and making, which leads to (co)producing: sound pieces, audio walks, texts, art installations, publications, movement sessions, and workshops. They have a background in architecture and critical theory where moderation and facilitation play a key role. Ioana currently explores the topic of intimacy, residue, ecology and fragmentation.


Ghosts in Town - Event on the 22nd of October 2023 in Wortel Dorp (Be), as part of “dorpsmakersfestival” organised by Ar-Tur, a platform for architecture and space in the Kempen. Contributors: Jonathan De Maeyer, Ioana Lupascu, Claire Chassot & Tijana Petrović What can we do as village dramaturgs in Wortel? How are/can rural conditions in Western and Eastern Europe (be) linked? What makes a house a home?
I am looking at her looking at them looking at me 60′ (audiowalk) - This audio walk - part fiction, part fact, part memories and abstractions - is set between Romania and the Netherlands, as well as the places the listener walks through as they listen to the three sonic chapters. I was interested in how stories of seasonal work abroad give shape to the landscape, the architecture, the habits, the food and the conversations in the village of my childhood summers. It might sound personal, it is definitely not uncommon. Documentation of the research in the Netherlands and Romania was presented during the Seasonal Neighbours group exhibition in Z33. Next to a series of images was a bag containing almost a ton of soil, serving as an object of interaction with the earth, the top layers containing a mix of seeds of weeds, some already sprouting into shape. The visitor was invited to scoop a bit of soil and take it home with them. Also, a booklet was offered containing recipes with the weeds from the dinner intervention, and a QR code that linked to the audio walk.
Fruiting Bodies (Sound installation in 4 chapters, 12’55’’) - The installation is a sonic exploration of the interconnectedness of taste, desire, and decay. It takes inspiration from mycelium structures as a means to distribute, and disturb communication means between learned experiences, interative reactions and conclusions in regards to contemporary food consumption, cravings, and taste. Formally, the site-specific installation is a choreography of interwoven networks of cables embedded into the landscape of the botanical garden in Bergamo. Four sonic chapters are accessible via a multi-point splitter for headphones. Earbuds dressed in fungi-like shapes leak sonic content into the space. The audience is invited to connect and disconnect to the extended structures while noticing the surrounding environment. Text: Ioana Lupascu Sound Composition: Maoyi Qui Voice: Lacey Verhalen, Nash Caldera, Afrang Malekian * The project text takes inspiration from the following texts: T is for Taste, Colleen C. Myles, musings food feminism fermentation, Bubbling Bodies and Queer Microbes: Dispatches from the Foundation for Fermenting Fervor by Stephanie Maroney & SE Nash, Something That's Dead by Jessica Bebenek. * Photos by Maoyi Qui
Is the role of a limit to be a passage to another space? - Sound walk and installation, 16'47'" Concept and Text: Ioana Lupascu Sound Editing: Maoyi (Peixuan Qiu) The piece, disguised as a letter not to be sent, departs from an old photograph of myself and my mother, and the short film A Month Of Single Frames directed by Lynne Sachs and Barbara Hammer. The text explores the relationship of synchronicity across time, techno music, fragmented memory and the relationship to a birthing body. Formally, the work unfolds in the interior of a theater in Arnhem A back door opens, and the audience is encouraged to leave the stage and start playing the audio piece on their phone as they explore the surrounding neighborhood The work was first presented as a facilitated audio walk in Arnhem, NL as part of the presentation on practice at the Dutch Art Institute.
What is the temporality of a fleeting desire? (Audio work. Text. Performance. Workshop) - The work explores the notion of residual intimacy, ecology, memory and desire. In a smoky room under the spell of a moody soundscape, spheric water marbles orient the space, water drops mark the concrete floor falling from a sheer textile while five pairs of friends explore, one at a time the installation space. The room becomes a playful mess. The installation performance comes to an end with a collective clean-up. The first iteration was presented at Centrale Fies, Dro, Italy. (part of MA at Dutch Art Institute) maybe it’s more like sleepwalking: snippets of conversation with Raffia Li sound tech: Derek M F Di Fabio sound piece feedback: Chiara Pagano pairs: Iliada & Dande, Cristina & Gleb, Nash & Nahram, Marika & Dakota, Ioana & Maoyi performers (ice—flickers) Rhode, Alex, Isa Mirjam, Liza, Maud, Emmeli, Lacey end song: Yves Tumor - Limerence