02 – 22 October 2025, Bastion 3, Timișoara
Opening: Thursday, October 2, 6:00 PM
with Csilla Bartus, Tudor Borduz, Ingrid Ene, Andrei Mateescu și Mihai Șovăială
coordinator: Florin Fâra
“Contemporary photography records the fragility of the world while revealing the fragility of the medium itself.”
— Urs Stahel
Fragile Terrains brings together five contemporary artists who question how individual and collective identities are represented, how memory is archived and generated, how urban transformations are documented, and how socio-political crises are made visible. Through diverse visual approaches, ranging from documentary to conceptual, the exhibition explores fragility and change as permanent states of contemporary reality. Each work becomes a form of critical reflection on the environments we inhabit and on how history, space, and society shape human experience.
In a context marked by overlapping crises—climatic, identity-based, geopolitical—photography operates not only as a tool of documentation but also as a practice that records the instability of the contemporary world, while simultaneously reflecting on its own fragility as both material and medium of expression.
The images and conceptual processes move fluidly between the visible and the invisible, the personal and the collective, memory and the present. At the same time, the works propose a careful reading of reality, treating it as a fragile, fragmented space—constantly shifting and open to interpretation.
Here, fragility is not merely a visual theme but a method of reading—a way of paying attention to details, discontinuities, and traces. The artists use it to register the unstable and the ephemeral, that which transforms or disappears before it can be fully understood. Each image is an attempt to frame a process rather than a fixed point: a memory in the making, an identity in transition, a place in ruin or reconstruction.
Between document and fiction, between testimony and meditation, the works invite us to slow down our gaze. Fragile Terrains maps a cartography of collective vulnerabilities and seeks to capture another way in which the photographic medium can be employed—as a critical and radical practice of observation, a form of being present in a world in constant transition.
Mediation Program
🕒 Visiting hours:
Wednesday–Friday: 16:00–19:00
Saturday: 11:00–16:00
👋 Thursday, October 9, 19:00 – A relaxed guided tour with Florin Fâra and Mimi Ciora.
👋 Saturday, October 18, from 15:00 to 17:00 – Photography workshop with Marius Parghel – a hands-on encounter with photography and its techniques. More info and registration coming soon.
👋 Monday, October 20 – Guided tour with Mimi Ciora, dedicated to students from Școala Gimnazială Dumbrăvița.
👋 Wednesday, October 22, at 18:30 – 🤩 Bingo! Finissage!
Join us for The Great Bingo of Finissages, where we won’t be drawing numbers, but names of iconic artists, photographic works, and techniques. If luck’s on your side and you tick off your entire card, you’ll win a disposable film camera.
CSILLA BARTUS (b. 1996) is an artist, designer, cultural organizer, and works in visual education. She lives in Budapest and works in both Romania and Hungary. She graduated in Graphic Arts at UAD and holds a master’s degree in Psychopedagogy. Her practice takes an interdisciplinary approach to art, social psychology, nature, and technology. Her works are created in mixed media, often carrying the imprint of performative gestures.
TUDOR BORDUZ (b. 1987) studied photography at the National University of Arts in Bucharest, where he earned both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in the same field. His photographic work focuses on isolating fragments of the everyday urban landscape, transforming the banal elements of the city into involuntary art.
Alongside photography, Tudor nurtures a deep passion for mechanics and restoration. Since 2013, he has run Biciclete Borduz, where he restores and customizes bicycles with careful attention to detail and respect for craftsmanship. His methodical approach in both photography and mechanics reflects a profound appreciation for artisanal practices and the beauty found in everyday things. He lives and works in Brașov.
INGRID ENE (b. 1993) is an artist and cultural operator with over five years of experience in the cultural field. A graduate of the Faculty of Visual Arts, specializing in Photo-Video (Bucharest), her practice unfolds through a cross-media approach that combines image, text, and sound. She works with artist books, photographic assemblages, and sound installations, focusing on themes related to time, memory, and the archive.
A native of the notorious gray housing blocks, ANDREI MATEESCU (b. 1988, Bucharest) has developed his artistic concerns around the delicate relations shaping the contemporary urban landscape. His fascination with the limits of photography as a medium manifested early on, as seen in the series Multilateral, HYPER, and Rezidențial. His current practice often addresses the transient character inherent to the City, as a vessel of human dynamism. In exhibition contexts, he frequently turns to installation, working within the field of expanded photography.Since 2022, he has also been contributing to the development and promotion of contemporary Romanian photography through writing, curating, founding the platform photographyinflux.ro, and running an artist-run space in Bucharest — CAV Multimedia.
MIHAI ȘOVĂIALĂ (b. 1993) lives and works in Zürich and Bucharest. He completed his Meisterschüler studies in 2020 at the Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst, Leipzig, under the supervision of Joachim Brohm, after graduating from the Photo-Video Department at the National University of Arts in Bucharest. In his practice, Șovăială explores urban and marginal landscapes, reflecting on how built environments influence social transformations and historical narratives. His photographic works are often conceived as site-specific installations or published in the form of artist books.
The exhibition is part of the project Composting past futures – frameworks for artist-run practices, funded by the Municipality of Timișoara through the Project Center and co-funded by Indecis artist-run.
Partners: Faculty of Arts and Design – UVT, The Secret Garden Books
Media partners: Revista ARTA, The Institute, Scena9, Propagarta
Graphic design: Lucian Barbu
Event organized in partnership with the Municipality of Timișoara, through the Project Center. #spacesforcommunity