Ana Lupas & S P A T A R U | On Ritual Time
21.Feb.27
The exhibition 'On Ritual Time' surveys seven decades of Ana Lupas’s work, presenting the oeuvre of this pioneering figure in Eastern European contemporary art alongside that of artist S P A T A R U.
The multifaceted oeuvre of Ana Lupas (b. 1940, Cluj, Romania) has its origins in early textile works that draw on traditional and inherited techniques such as sewing, knotting and weaving, situating them within a contemporary visual language. This practice forms part of her broader engagement with ancestral knowledge, rituals and spiritual traditions, which also resonates throughout the monumental projects she realised between the 1960s and 1990s. Often developed outside institutional frameworks or in collaboration with local communities, these projects are considered early examples of socially engaged artistic practice.
While her work shares affinities with neo-avant-garde movements such as experimental textile art (Fiber Art), Actions, Conceptual Art and Land Art, it remains deeply rooted in the cultural and historical context of her country. Much of her oeuvre also developed amid the ideological constraints and tensions of the communist regime. Under these conditions, questions of artistic freedom, identity and social transformation acquire particular significance.
An exhibition as a ritual gesture
Time and memory are fundamental to Lupas’s oeuvre. Works often unfold over extended periods or are revisited and recontextualized in response to changing social and political realities. On Ritual Time connects these cyclical movements to the rhythm of Lupas’s own life. Existing works, some of which have rarely been exhibited, acquire new coherence in relation to her increasingly sustained reflections on mortality, inheritance and continuity. The selection of works by sculptor, painter, draughtsman and teacher S P A T A R U (Mircea Spataru, 1937–2011), with whom Lupas maintained a personal and artistic dialogue, touches on these profound concerns. This exhibition is therefore not merely a historical presentation but can itself be understood as a ritual gesture.
Publication
The exhibition is accompanied by the first monograph dedicated to the oeuvre of Ana Lupas, featuring contributions by Tanja Boon, Leontine Coelewij, Marina Lupas, Letizia Ragaglia, Ramona Novicov, Christian Rattemeyer and Mechtild Widrich, jointly published by the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein, Vaduz, and S.M.A.K.
