Vila Catena

CONTEMPORARY PAVILION: HOME Paradise photo-wallpapers from the ’80s caught in-between reality and fantasy; the forever in waiting good rooms; domestic interiors in which light wrestles heavy furniture. Temporary shelters and Nap Stations where you can recharge and restart, or the 1:1 bedroom of a gamer — charged with screens and cables snaking in like urban vines. Clear-cut geometries, Balkan nostalgia, and lost astronauts sent back home - as if the living room itself might be a landing pad after impossible missions. All this & much more in HOME, a group exhibition where over 30 artists look at what it means to inhabit a space — radically different, yet deeply familiar angles. Here, Romanian painting masters like Nicolae Grigorescu, Gheorghe Petrașcu, Marius Bunescu stand comfortably alongside contemporary voices like Matthias Weischer (DE), Marius Bercea (RO), and Șerban Savu (RO). Interiors gather into a fluid narrative, each room a hypothesis about how living shapes memory and the body. In a distinctive gesture, Lucian Prună revives the still life tradition, reframing it for the present moment. Meanwhile, insertions by Ioana Mincu, Arantxa Etcheverria, and Yvonne Hasan open up new ways of reimagining the intimacy of the shelter. MUSEUM PAVILION: ACASĂ HOME (ACASĂ) brings together over 20 works by Nicolae Grigorescu and marks the second presentation dedicated to one of the great masters of Romanian modern art, following Theodor Pallady: Readings and Open Color, presented in May of this year. The exhibition includes emblematic works such as the Little Shepherds series, Ox Carts, and depictions of traditional rural households, alongside heritage pieces like Princess Elisabeta in Her Study. The curatorial focus highlights Grigorescu’s sustained interest in domestic spaces—both interior and exterior—and in the everyday rhythms of traditional life inhabited by his figures. “From the substantial collection of works by our canonical masters, created from the second half of the 19th century through to the Second World War, the Grigorescu group stands out by reaffirming his status as a national artist. At the same time, this ensemble reflects aspects of the Grigorescu heritage that lie outside state museum collections, shedding light on cases long overlooked by researchers—works held abroad—as well as on previously undocumented pieces. The study of the collection has also led to the rediscovery of forgotten provenances, expanding our understanding of the artistic tastes of the elites who once owned Grigorescu’s works,” notes art historian Ioana Beldiman. Vila Catena (15 Radu Calomfirescu Street, Bucharest) is a cultural space inaugurated in April this year, housed within a recently restored architectural monument. The site organically integrates a Museum Pavilion dedicated to modern art alongside a Contemporary Pavilion. The project is the result of a collaboration between the Fildas Art Foundation—through the Catena for Art program—and Sandwich Gallery, Bucharest.