Artist: Felix Aftene
Setup expoziție: arh. Mihai Birtu
Acces liber
2025
Aeroport Iași
“The Seven Hills of Iași” represents a bridge between the concrete and the poetic, between matter and spirit. In this exhibition, the artist not only renders the visual forms of nature but also transforms the place, conferring upon it a sacred dimension through human presence.
A Transformation of Place
Felix Aftene’s works illustrate how man, through the act of creation, spiritualizes the environment. Each work, whether painted or sculpted, reflects the way human presence infuses the place with an aura of sacredness, transforming nature into a temple of introspection. Inspired by the natural rhythm of soil decomposition and recomposition, the artist constructs the exhibition space in visual layers, each “alveolus” becoming a framework for meditation on the relationship between man and nature.
Exhibition Design
Architect Mihai Birtu proposes a stratified organization, where each level highlights the subtle relationships between the exhibited elements. Through technical details, as well as poetic expressiveness, the space becomes an integrated, dynamic, and profound ensemble. Thus, the place, taken over and reinterpreted through artistic sensitivity, transforms into a space that carries within itself the echo of human spirituality.
Located at the city’s gateway, Felix Aftene’s works invite viewers to discover how, through art, man can confer upon an ordinary space a profound dimension, where nature acquires a sacred significance and becomes a bridge between the abstract and the concrete.
Felix Aftene
Visual artist FELIX AFTENE lives and works in Iași, but with a sustained artistic activity on the national and international contemporary art scene. His artistic practice extends across various media – painting, sculpture, mural painting, new media. In 1996, he graduated as valedictorian from the “George Enescu” Academy of Arts in Iași, Mural Painting Department, under the tutelage of Professor Dimitrie Gavrilean.
In 2016, he obtained a doctorate in Visual Arts from the “George Enescu” National University of Arts in Iași with a thesis dedicated to contemporary visual arts. In 1997, he became a member of the Union of Visual Artists of Romania. Between 2013 and 2023, he served as president of the Union of Visual Artists of Romania, Iași branch. Between 1998 and 2022, he worked as a set designer at TVR Iași. In 1997-1998, he received the Union of Visual Artists of Romania Scholarship. In 1998, he won the competition for the mural painting at the headquarters of the Iași General Directorate of Public Finances, with the work titled “Babylon,” 74 sqm.
In 2008, he created an important work for the community, “Time Capsule,” a bronze monument located in front of the Iași City Hall, on the 600th anniversary of the city’s documentary attestation. In 2016, he was awarded the National Painting Prize of the UAP in Romania. In 2019, he placed a project in public space titled “The Table of Memories.” Located near the old summer kitchen next to Ion Creangă’s cottage, the work marks 100 years since the establishment of the first literary museum in Romania. In 2020, the Vaslui City Hall permanently displays his bronze work “Cronos” in the city center.
In 2021, he created the permanent installation “The Angels’ Reserve” at the Museum of Romanian Literature in Iași, dedicated to the poet Emil Brumaru. In 2023, he curated and created the Iași Art Gallery, a permanent exhibition project at the M.N.L.R. Iași, which describes the entire evolution of the Iași school of visual arts. He has received over 40 awards and distinctions for his artistic activity nationally and internationally.
He is a curator, coordinator, and exhibitor in numerous group artistic projects (more than 200). In the field of painting, he is one of the most active contemporary artists in Romania, with over 40 solo exhibitions in museum spaces or international art galleries. His works are found in museums and private collections in Romania and abroad (Austria, USA, Great Britain, Greece, Germany, Switzerland, France, Italy, Spain, Canada, Denmark, Hungary, Israel, Moldova, etc.).
arh. Mihai Birtu
Mihai Birtu (born 1998) is a graduate of the “Ion Mincu” University of Architecture and Urbanism in Bucharest, specializing in Interior Architecture. His diploma work, with a socio-cultural theme, was published in the Diploma Show, and in 2024, he won the Architecture Annual Award. In 2023, he founded the design office atelier AUSTÉR, where he currently works, continuing to explore his architectural valences, combining visual storytelling techniques and the carefully chosen disintegration of order.