During the month of love, the Garden of Venus pop-up exhibition opened the first chapter of an itinerant exhibition project dedicated to Romanian contemporary abstract art, conceived and curated by Cristina & Magda Staicut and presented in two of Europolis Real Estate Management’s landmark spaces in Bucharest. The exhibition proposed an artistic experience in which abstract painting, a participatory installation, and architectural space came together to create an imaginary garden devoted to first declarations of love. Not a story about love, but the place where love may begin.
The collection brought together eleven abstract paintings created in mixed media — tempera and 24-karat Pure Gold Leaf — in which green, red, and gold became a symbolic language of beginnings. Green evokes hope and germination, red affirms love, while gold becomes an expression of absolute value and of the desire to transform a moment into a timeless memory. Layered textures, controlled transparencies, and the delicate reflections of Pure Gold Leaf shaped the imagery of a garden at the beginning of spring, where nature, light, and emerging abstract art meet in a subtle balance. Each work invites contemplation and opens a space for reflection on the emotions that accompany new beginnings.
At the heart of the project was the participatory installation, through which every visitor became part of the artwork. The public was invited to place 8 × 8 cm stickers on the floor — the same dimensions as a sheet of Pure Gold Leaf used in Cristina and Magda Staicut’s artistic practice. Reproductions of details and sections from the exhibited works, as well as from other compositions by the artists, these fragments were integrated into a collective composition in continuous transformation. Each intervention added a new vibration, and the space was rebuilt beneath the visitors’ footsteps. The floor became a shared canvas, while the artwork evolved into a living organism, nourished by the presence and curiosity of those who crossed it. In this way, the garden existed not only through the paintings on display, but also through the traces left by each participant.
Garden of Venus does not illustrate love. It creates the garden in which love can be confessed for the first time.
“We did not tell the love story. We created the Venusian garden where lovers met.” – Cristina & Magda Staicut
Selected artworks from the exhibition
Magda StaicutBeads of Hope, 202329 x 39 x 3.2 cm
Magda StaicutGaea, 202452 x 52 x 3.2 cm
Cristina StaicutOverwhelmed in Summer…, 202340 x 40 x 3.2 cm
Magda StaicutSolaris, 202527 x 27 x 3.2 cm
Cristina StaicutSun Mob, 202440 x 40 x 3.2 cm
Cristina StaicutSacred Rain, 202340 x 40 x 3.2 cmExhibition views
Press release
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