The exhibition in Madrid
 

The "Nicolas Salmeron" Cultural Center hosts the installation. The installation brings together Oltenian woven rugs, wooden pillars from traditional houses and a Gorj ie with altiță of over 20 square meters. Ten hands sewed the blouse manually, with motifs inspired by the imagery of the area where Brâncuși was born.

The objects do not appear as isolated ethnographic exhibits. The installation brings them together in a contemporary visual and sensory construction. Wood, cloth, thread and the sewn sign compose a capsule of the world where a child sensed form and sculpture in the things around him, before knowing the meaning of these words. A soundscape inspired by old local music, reinterpreted in a contemporary way, connects the objects and the images.

"Gorj. Constantin before Brâncuși' is not an exhibition of Constantin Brâncuși's works, and the project proposes no simplifying link between the traditional object and modern sculpture. The project brings forward the material, affective and symbolic universe of Gorj, seen as the cultural matrix of his formation, a space where matter, function, gesture and form were organically tied to life," says curator Andrei Fășie.

"We are not taking Brâncuși's works to Madrid. We are taking the world which preceded them, the matter, the objects, the gestures and the signs the artist grew up among. Gorj is not a key to explain his work. Gorj is the place where his sensitivity for matter, rhythm and form took shape," says Daniela Apostol, president of Docuart Association.

The mural in Arganda del Rey

The mural painting measures about 80 square meters and covers an exterior wall of Centro Integrado de La Poveda. The organizers produce the mural in partnership with the Hispanic-Romanian Association Nuestras Costumbres. The work transposes to monumental scale a painting by artist Roxana Irimia, based on the ie with altiță from the Madrid installation.

The mural stays permanently in the urban space of a large Romanian community in Spain. The ie with altiță is an element of cultural identity for Romania and the Republic of Moldova. UNESCO inscribed the blouse in 2022 on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, following a joint nomination by the two countries.

"For the Romanian community in Spain, the project creates a context for reconnecting with the identity of origin, beyond conventional nostalgia or simplified folkloric representations. The project presents heritage as a living resource, able to generate new artistic forms and meanings. For the Spanish public, the project opens a path to Romanian culture through a universal artist and the cultural world he comes from. Brâncuși becomes more than a major name in art history. He is the entry point into a territory, a community and a lesser-known European heritage," says Valeriu Radulian, coordinator of Romania-Spain cultural cooperation.