September –November 2017
There is a link between external historical realities and interior domestic space: architecture, personal objects, design and functional arrangements and layouts all manifest specific personal histories and political moments. For the 15th Istanbul Biennial, Andra Ursuta is showing two maquette-like sculptural works.
Using everyday materials such as wood, glass, metal and fabric she has created miniature replicas, each housed in a glass case, of rooms in her childhood home on T. Vladimirescu street in the village of Salonta, Romania. Details such as decorative emblems, distinctive furniture and personal effects give the works a naturalistic quality, yet the absence of people is ominous in these spaces for habitation, conversation and repose.
In T. Vladimirescu Nr. 5, Sleeping Room (2013), we can make out two small beds, an oven, a chair and a tapestry affixed to the wall, yellowed like ageing wallpaper. T.
Vladimirescu Nr. 5, Pantry (2013), comprises a small table and simple bench, a ladder and refrigerator, as well as some devices for hanging food. Conspicuously, there are no actual foodstuffs visible in this pantry.
Learn more at the Pera Musuem.