MATCA artspace

What’s left of the body when it reveals itself only through images, objects, and the structures that shape it? It can hardly be separated from the infrastructures it inhabits, carrying the traces of the systems it has moved through. Throughout the exhibition, stainless steel objects act as shields that both protect and expose a vulnerable body, while post-industrial landscapes from the Valea Jiului situate it within an environment marked by the decline of the mining sector. In the artworks, the body is approached from multiple perspectives—as a carrier of the traces left by the systems that surround it, or through the objects that retain the imprint of its encounters. Using soft, ergonomic textile surfaces and glossy stainless steel, Giulia Crețulescu reflects on a body driven by optimisation and efficiency. Her sculptural objects blur the boundaries between body and object, reflecting on the desire to optimise, protect, and discipline the body, while revealing the fragile tension between resilience and vulnerability. Underneath All Traces of Comfort brings together artworks that navigate the shifting boundaries between body and object while reflecting on the ways bodies are formed and exposed through their relationship with the infrastructures that surround them. Rather than treating the body as an isolated entity, the artists approach it as something continuously shaped through its encounters with places, objects, and images, moving between personal histories and collective environments.