Special guests: SPLENDIDO SPLENDENTE Discoteca Italiana
19:00
The theme of the New Media District 2026, entitled Ludic Manifest, starts from the general theme of the Romanian Creative Week, JOY.
The concept proposes an articulation of the relationship between play and manifest, two apparently contrasting, but deeply complementary dimensions in the dynamics of contemporary human experience. Play and manifest become the leitmotif of the New Media exhibition, in which the invited artists explore various ways in which the primary playful experiences of childhood — often lost or transformed in adulthood — can be recovered, reinterpreted and reactivated. If play is associated with spontaneity, freedom and sincere forms of expression, the manifest belongs to a reflexive dimension, specific to the cerebral adult, often perceived as serious and programmatic. The reunion of these two registers in an experiential construct brings back into discussion the need of the contemporary individual to find spaces of safety and authenticity.
In a social context marked by uncertainty and information overload, the question “How much joy do we need today?” acquires an acute relevance. More than ever, it is necessary to relearn to enjoy the intensity and sincerity of childhood, in order to color the gray of reality and revitalize relationships based on tolerance and empathy.
Childhood memory is reactivated in various forms. Cezara Pâțâligă (Bursa the Creative), in Am sărit dint- unta înt- alta, converts the gesture of the sătron into a contemporary technological act — an architecture of light that functions as a sensory portal of free movement. Ioana Rusu, in A way of escaping adulthood, reassembles landmarks from personal memory — the facade of her grandparents’ house and a toy house kept from childhood — into a visual experiment about the resistance of play in the face of the norms of the adult world. Teodor Buruiană, in Dreams Come True, transforms the pillow, an intimate object par excellence, into a large-scale public installation that invites us to pause and reflect.
Joy as pure energy of movement runs through the works of Georgea Dura, Marian-Mina Mihai and Alexandru Ilievici. Bubbling (Georgea Dura) transforms the spontaneous gesture of bubbles and laughter into a contagious play of light. PhyllotAxis (Marian-Mina Mihai) reworks the pick-up into a tactile interface, where rotation and scratching become triggers for a visual flow full of vitality. Sfera (Alexandru Ilievici) proposes a minimal, luminous presence in the museum courtyard.
Identity and digital footprint become objects of critical interrogation. Andrei Botnaru, in your blood is RGB, explores the dissolution of personal identity in pixels and digital representation, the work being completed only by the presence of the viewer. Alexandru Radu, Emilian Costin and Giovanna Robertucci, through the performance Reaction Chamber: Digital Footprint, put the human body face to face with its own digital “archive”, in a reflection on the permanence of traces left online. Dan Cebotari, in Sebi 2.0, reinterprets the martyrdom of Saint Sebastian as an allegory of consumerist pressure, and Claudia Nicola Ungureanu (Bursa the Creative), in Almost Enough, invites the audience to scan barcodes in a performative gesture about desire and insufficiency.
The relationship with matter, nature and technology is explored by Radu Marțin, Cătălin Marinescu and Andrei Cozlac in Organic Fields, where plants and organic elements react in real time to the presence of the viewer. Radu Marțin returns, in Dada Dream, with a reinterpretation of Duchamp’s Fountain through the prism of artificial intelligence, presented in the form of a hologram that questions the dematerialization of the art object. Noiseloop proposes two complementary works: Amoeba, an interactive installation about the fluid nature of love, and NOUVEAUX — A Dialogue of Forms, a sensory dialogue between nature and algorithm, activated by touch.
The dimension of humor and social criticism is carried by Mihai-Aureliu Savin, who, in The Giggle, hijacks the figure of the pneumatic street dancer, superimposing it on Munch’s The Scream — a visual gag in which collective anxiety is transformed into a spectacle.
Overall, Ludic Manifest asserts that the joy of play knows no age limitations or social differences. Play can be collaborative, competitive, reflective, or contemplative — but it remains, in essence, a vital form of resistance against the atrophy of empathy and humanity.
Special guests: SPLENDIDO SPLENDENTE Discoteca Italiana
Splendido Splendente is Discoteca Italiana at its most brilliant: an exuberant celebration of iconic Italian music, spectacular pop culture and the glamour of Saturday night variety shows. From timeless classics to contemporary hits, it’s a collective party where nostalgia, freedom and pure excess take over the dance floor.
Artists
Alexandros Ioan Raptis
Born in 1989 in Greece, Alex Raptis works in the field of performing arts. His main areas of interest are theater direction, lighting design and music composition. He obtained his Bachelor’s degree in Performing Arts from UNATC “I.L.Caragiale” in 2012, and then followed the Master’s degree in Sound & Light Design from the same university. Since 2014, he has been creating lighting design or music for performances, installations, jazz concerts and theater shows. The latest projects for which he has signed the lighting design are called NOW TO NOW by AC Leonte, DON QUIJOTE (d. Baczó Tünde) produced by the Nottara Theater in Bucharest, KOMOREBI, BESTIAR and MONSTER, produced by Vanner Collective and hosted by the National Theater Bucharest and the Metropolis Theater.
He lives and works in Romania, but he is also involved in projects and tours in other countries. He makes electronic music and is a drummer in various shows. Currently, he is working on several interactive installations, trying to combine his passion for technology and sensors with sound and light design. His most recent audio-visual installations are called Light Vectors, Tree of Light and Collective Heart and were conceived as part of the Romanian Creative Week 2023-2025.
Radu Marțin
Radu Marțin (born in 1999) is a visual artist from Iași, interested in the video medium, generative technology and performativity in the new media area. Part of his artistic practice is focused on the study of the human psyche in relation to technology, aiming to develop new visual expressions that operate with artistic perception. A graduate of the Faculty of Visual Arts and Design, specializing in “Photography and Video Art”, and currently a doctoral student at the same institution, he actively participates in numerous group exhibitions. In 2021 he exhibits for the first time at the “New Media Alley” exhibition, part of the Romanian Creative Week event, returning in the 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025 editions with works presented in the “New Media District” section. He also signs installations exhibited at events such as “Senzoria” (Iași) or “St.ART Festival” (Bucharest).
Also in 2021, he joined the EdgeMapping group of artists, collaborating on projects such as: “Ship of Fools” or “Fluid Memory”, but also on video mapping shows on buildings such as: the Palace of Culture in Iași, the “Matei Vișiniec” Theater in Suceava, the “Water Tower” in Suceava, the Vaslui City Hall, the Iași Military Hospital, the “Gheorghe Asachi” House in Iași, the Botoșani City Hall, the Vaslui County Museum, the “Balș” Mansion in Darabani, etc. From the same year he began working both nationally and internationally with various theaters, collaborating as a video designer on shows such as “Mickiewicz-Eminescu”, “Erus and the Valley of Gratitude”, “Improvisation with a Dog”, “SilentCehov”, “The Strange Life of Anthony Steadman”, “Andrei”, and in 2023 he collaborated with the artist Andrei Cozlac on the show “Alice in Wonderland”, nominated at UNITER in the “Best Video Design” section.
On the Visuals and Live Performances side, he participated in a long series of electronic music events but also in projects such as: Classix Festival, Rocanotherworld, CathedralMusic Festival, New Music Oasis or Artist In Church. He also collaborates on the media column of Symphony No. 3: “Offering to Brâncuși” by composer Viorel Munteanu, and for Paulina he prepares the video moments from the Summer Well Festival (Buftea) and Electric Castle (Cluj) but also from the concert “Te Iubesc – Te Urăsc” at the Roman Arena, Bucharest. In the field of cinematography, he works as an assistant director of photography on the feature film “Feed the Animal” (2020) directed by Alex Iurașcu and occupies the same role in 2022 on the feature film “The Principle of Uncertainty” directed by Sebastian Bădărău.
Dan Cebotari
PhD in Visual Arts, UNAGE Iași. His artistic interests follow an analysis of the relationship between public space and memory, questioning in particular the logic of monuments. His experimental practice is based on installation sculpture and the use of unconventional materials within them. Often, ironically, he seeks to transpose a personal, critical vision on the problems created by the challenges of consumerism, forced technologization and socio-political reality.
Dan’s sculpture works have been presented in group exhibition projects in the country, including: Cei noi / Graduate Curated, MARe/Museum of Recent Art, Bucharest, Graduation Highlights, Borderline Art Space, Iași, CTRL+ P, Galeria Aparte UNAGE, Young Blood 5.0. Hello, Math! ArtSafari, Bucharest, Salon 10.0, Borderline Art Space, Iași. Finalist in the exhibition-competition ,,New Wave ART PRIZE’’ Catinca Tăbăcaru Gallery, Bucharest.
Ioana Rusu
Ioana Rusu is a visual artist from Suceava whose practice develops at the intersection of collage, post-photography, installation and video. Her works start from the dynamics of fragmentation and recontextualization, transforming the environment she works with into a method of analyzing memory, vulnerability and identity. The artist is interested in how microsocial traumas, interpersonal relationships and the idea of “home” shape the path of an individual. For Ioana, the human mind becomes a territory of transformation, an autobiographical atlas that highlights the tensions between the real, the imaginary and impermanence.
She has participated in exhibitions such as: Romanian Creative Week (2025), Paratissima Torino (2025), Homemade Lemonade (2025), Diploma Show (2024), Laboratories of Time (MoBU, 2024), Common Matters (2024), Fabulating About a Gelato Machine (2023).
His experience is consolidated through residencies and mentoring programs, including: VID Grant (2025), Culture Moves Europe (Tirana, 2025), Iris Comun (Cluj, 2024), Accelerator (2023-2024) and Home at Hundorf (2023).
Andrei Cozlac
Andrei Cozlac (b. 1986) is a video artist and Lect. Univ. Ph.D. at the George Enescu National University of Arts, Iași, Faculty of Visual Arts, Section of Photography, Video and Computerized Image Processing and adjunct professor at the Media Section of the Faculty of Arts in Romanian Language in Târgu Mureș.
An experimentalist, interested in the latest multimedia technologies, he has collaborated on numerous independent projects of visuals, video-mapping, live projections.
He began his VJ activity in 2005, working in the Drums.ro and DGW crews, while also collaborating with major music festivals in the country and abroad. Andrei has designed the video for plays directed by directors such as Silviu Purcărete, Radu Afrim, Alexandru Dabija, Charles Muller, Theodor Cristian Popescu, Eugen Jebeleanu, Ioana Paun, Octavian Jighirgiu, Florin Caracala, etc. He has created numerous interactive and non-interactive video installations and laid the foundations for the AV// Sattelites project, with which he shared the same stage with artists such as Arms and Sleepers, Sun Gliters, Brazda lui Novac, Yvat, etc.
In 2016, he placed 3rd at the Light Up international video mapping competition, Iași, and in 2017 he returned as a participant in this competition and won 1st place.
In 2017, he received the award for video mapping in theater at the National Comedy Festival, and in 2020, he received the special U.N.I.T.E.R award for video mapping in theater at the UNITER gala, edition 30. In 2021/ 2022, he exhibited, together with artists Felix Aftene and Lucian Dan Teodorovici in Berlin and Paris, and in 2022, he received the second U.N.I.T.E.R for the creativity of video design and video mapping in the show “The Ploughman and Death”, directed by Silviu Purcarete and set design by Dragoș Buhagiar.
At the end of 2022, he received the “Cultural Merit” distinction within the event Valorile Iașului, Valorile României, for his contribution to the field of visual arts.
https://www.instagram.com/cozlac_andrei/
https://www.facebook.com/cozlac.andrei
Artist page link: www.facebook.com/Andrei-Cozlac-Video-Artist
Georgea Dura
Georgea Dura is a plastic artist/sculptor from Iași. In 2008 she graduated from the Faculty of Plastic Arts and Design at the National University of Art, George Enescu, and in 2011 she graduated from the master’s degree at the same faculty. She has been active on the artistic scene since 2005, participating in various exhibitions, festivals and cultural events such as Afterhills, Rocanotherworld, Street Delivery, Romanian Creative Week or St.art Festival Bucharest.
Noiseloop
Noiseloop is an artistic concept and an intermedia pseudonym founded by Lucian E. Matei, art director, new media artist and creative mentor. As an independent studio, his practice develops conceptual works at the intersection of art and technology.
Specializing in new media and theater, Noiseloop creates immersive experiences through interactive digital arts and future storytelling. His work includes video mapping, light sculptures, interactive installations, multimedia design, audiovisual programming, surrealist cinema and motion graphics.
Noise or lack of signal: a discomfort for many, an opportunity for others. An offline concept: disconnecting from the singular virtual flow and reconnecting with technology through socially engaged events. Escape the loop, embrace the #noiseloop.
Alexandru Radu
Alexandru Radu, choreographer and performer, shows a constant interest in experimentation, being constantly in search of new experiences, whose working process is intense and creative. The shows that bear his signature address diverse and provocative choreographic themes. Among them are Take a Seat, DIE(T), RED LINE, Quantum Bodies, Micul Prinț, Spațiu-Suflet-Secundă and KARNAL. In 2023, at the eighth edition of the D-Butan-T festival, RED LINE won the special award offered by Linotip – Independent Choreographic Center.
Radu has also collaborated with directors to choreograph theater shows such as: Silent Cehov – Octavian Jighirgiu, Trei piese triste – Radu Afrim, Teorema maimuțelor infinite and IVAN – Antonella Cornici. Radu completed his bachelor’s degree in 2020 at the “George Enescu” National University of Arts in Iași, Faculty of Theatre, Choreography department, two years later he will complete his master’s degree in the Theatre Performance Arts department, and in 2026 he will complete his doctoral studies at the same educational institution. He is currently a freelance choreographer.
Emilian Costin
Emilian Costin is a fourth-year student at the National University of Arts “George Enescu” in Iași, Faculty of Theatre, majoring in Choreography. In parallel, he is also a dancer at the “Constantin Arvinte” Professional Artistic Ensemble of the Iași County Council.
His artistic journey began in the choreographic area, but transitioned to the lighting design area, a field that he is passionate about. He is interested in how light can transform perception, amplify or fragment the body, create rhythm, tension and atmosphere. In his works, dance and light do not function independently, but communicate with each other in a continuous dialogue.
Giovanna Robertucci
Giovanna Robertucci is a classical and contemporary ballet dancer with international experience, noted for her technical rigor, expressiveness and stylistic adaptability. Her artistic path combines the discipline of the classical school with an openness to contemporary choreographic languages, which allows her to approach varied repertoires with coherence and stage maturity. She is currently a member of the ballet ensemble of the Romanian National Opera in Iași, where she performs roles in emblematic productions of the classical repertoire, such as Swan Lake, Giselle or Don Quixote.
In parallel, she attends the courses of the National University of Arts “George Enescu” in Iași, being a first-year student at the Faculty of Theatre, specializing in Choreography. Her academic training provides her with a solid theoretical and practical framework, contributing to the deepening of movement research, choreographic composition and the conceptual dimension of the artistic act.
Mihai-Aureliu Savin
Mihai-Aureliu Savin (b. 1995, Iași, RO) is a visual artist and lecturer at the Faculty of Visual Arts and Design of the “George Enescu” National University of Arts in Iași. His post-conceptual practice investigates the ways in which systems (technical, social, institutional, linguistic, etc.) can function as artistic media. His central premise is that new media emerge through borrowings from domains extrinsic to art, with the artist acting as a para-user who critically tests the mechanisms of these systems. The exhibition thus becomes a laboratory, and the art object is transformed into a demonstration of the trajectory between idea, process and legitimation.
Marian-Mina Mihai
Marian-Mina Mihai is a visual artist interested in the intersection of art, science and technology, exploring how artificial intelligence, interactivity and systems logic can generate new forms of visual expression. A graduate of the Faculty of Visual Arts and Design, with previous training in mathematics and computer science, she develops participatory installations in which sensors, algorithms and reactive audiovisual structures become co-authors of the experience. Her practice investigates perception, emotion and the relationships between humans and the environment, through experiments that bring together digital technology with a poetic imagination on invisible connections.
Teodor Buruiană
Buruiană Teodor is a visual artist specialized in light art installations. A graduate of the University of Art and Design in Cluj-Napoca, the artist coherently combines the mediums of artistic expression to generate unique experiences for the audience.
His artistic practice explores the potential of light to transform space and shape perception. He is interested in the intersection between what is material and immaterial, between object and experience, where light becomes an active medium, capable of generating relationships and reactions.
He approaches the installation as an open system, in which the audience has an essential role. Interaction, movement, sound and chromatic variations are integrated to build immersive contexts, in which the viewer is not just an observer, but a participant.
By using contemporary technologies, he aims to create situations in which space becomes dynamic, and the artistic experience acquires a sensory and reflexive dimension. Light functions simultaneously as a material, symbol and research tool, generating questions about presence, memory and the relationship between the body, environment and technology.
Alexandru Ilievici
Alexandru Ilievici is a 26-year-old visual artist, currently pursuing a master’s degree at the National University of Arts “George Enescu”.
He creates minimalist video and new media installations that explore the relationship between space, perception and the body.
His interactive-immersive works transform personal experiences into visual language, challenging the audience to re-evaluate their own presence in reality. He is currently developing interdisciplinary projects that address current social issues.
Bursa The Creative
Cezara Pâțâligă
Cezara Pâțâligă (b. 2000, Iași) is a visual artist and a master’s student in Photography and Video Art at the “George Enescu” National University of Art in Iași. Her artistic practice explores human emotions and experiences through the five senses. Her works, of a poetic and introspective nature, propose a visual experience that invites reflection and seeks ways to express feelings and emotions in an accessible and personalized form. Art becomes for her a meeting place between the individual and the collective dimension, anchored in a common history, but expressed through her own voice.
In her current approach, the artist deepens the interdisciplinary dialogue, integrating experimental photography and video installations into a coherent discourse on memory and perception. Cezara investigates the capacity of the technical image to transcend the function of a simple document, transforming it into a sensory vehicle capable of activating the viewer’s affective memory.
Claudia Nicola Ungureanu
Claudia Nicola Ungureanu (b. 2002, Iași) is an emerging artist active in the field of contemporary visual practices. Her practice has a critical dimension and addresses systemic issues related to political structures, the protection of the planet’s resources and the impact of their exploitation on the environment and society.
Her approach began in the field of photography, by exploring digital and analog techniques of image manipulation, and later expanded to experimental video, installation and performance art. She graduated from the Faculty of Visual Arts and Design in Iași and is currently following the master’s program in Photography and Video Art.
Recent projects include installations presented at Catinca Tăbăcaru Gallery, Bucharest (“New Wave Art Prize”, July 2025), Galeria cu Platani, Timișoara (“Scroll, Desire, Repeat”, September 2025) and Atelier Patru, Cluj (“The Weight of Tenderness”, October 2025).
Curators
Andrei Cozlac
Andrei Cozlac (b. 1986) is a video artist and Lect. Univ. Ph.D. at the George Enescu National University of Arts, Iași, Faculty of Visual Arts, Section of Photography, Video and Computerized Image Processing, and adjunct professor at the Media Department of the Faculty of Arts in Romanian Language in Târgu Mureș.
An experimentalist, interested in the latest multimedia technologies, he has collaborated on numerous independent projects of visuals, video-mapping, live projections.
He began his VJ activity in 2005, working in the Drums.ro and DGW crews, while also collaborating with major music festivals in the country and abroad. Andrei has designed the video for plays directed by directors such as Silviu Purcărete, Radu Afrim, Alexandru Dabija, Charles Muller, Theodor Cristian Popescu, Eugen Jebeleanu, Ioana Paun, Octavian Jighirgiu, Florin Caracala, etc. He has created numerous interactive and non-interactive video installations and founded the AV//Sattelites project, with which he shared the stage with artists such as Arms and Sleepers, Sun Gliters, Brazda lui Novac, Yvat, etc.
In 2016, he placed 3rd at the Light Up international video mapping competition, Iași, and in 2017 he returned as a participant in this competition and won 1st place.
In 2017, he received the award for video mapping in theater at the National Comedy Festival, and in 2020, he received the special U.N.I.T.E.R award for video mapping in theater at the UNITER gala, 30th edition, and in 2021 and 2022, he exhibited together with artists Felix Aftene and Lucian Dan Teodorovici in Berlin and Paris, the year in which he received the second U.N.I.T.E.R award for the creativity of video design and video mapping in the show “The Ploughman and Death”, directed by Silviu Purcărete and set design by Dragoș Buhagiar.
He also won the award for best video design at the International Theater Festival “Theater at the Crossroads” in Serbia, Nis for the show “The Plowman and Death”.
At the end of 2022, he received the “Cultural Merit” distinction at the event Valorile Iașului, Valorile României, for his contribution to the field of visual arts.
Artist page link: www.facebook.com/Andrei-Cozlac-Video-Artist
Email: comunicare.andreicozlac@gmail.com
Tel: +40754613354
Andrei Botnaru
Andrei Botnaru – multimedia artist, active in the area of contemporary visual arts. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree (2014–2017) and a master’s degree (2017–2019) from the “George Enescu” National University of Arts in Iași, Faculty of Visual Arts and Design, specializing in Photography, video, computer image processing. Since 2018, he has been the set designer of the “Luceafărul” Theater in Iași, his activity focusing on virtual productions and innovative multimedia concepts. Between 2017 and 2020, he worked in the music video industry, where he explored the fusion of modern art and Romanian cinematography. He is a founding member of the MAPEVERYTHING group and a member of the EDGE MAPPING collective. It constantly collaborates with important cultural institutions, such as the Romanian National Opera in Iași, the “Vasile Alecsandri” National Theater in Iași, the Târgu-Mureș National Theater, the “Matei Vișniec” Theater in Suceava, and the Piatra-Neamț Youth Theater.