ZILELE NORDULUI 2026
TO WAIT WITHOUT HUNTING
Solo Show by Ana Maria Micu
Opening | Saturday, August 8, 2026, 15:00 – 16:00
Venue | Casa Nord, the former chicken processing plant, Mihail Kogălniceanu Street, Darabani, Botoșani County
Dates | August 6 – 15, 2026
Visiting schedule during the festival days ( August 6 – 9) | daily, 10:00 – 19:00
Visiting schedule after the festival | 10:00 – 19:00
Artist talk: Ana Maria Micu in conversation with Ioan Mateiciuc, Friday, August 7, 11:00 – 12:30, Casa Nord
Cultural mediation workshops led by the artist in collaboration with Prof. Elena Arcire:
Saturday, August 8, 11:00 – 12:00, “The Invisible Object / Beauty in the Mind,” for pupils in grades 5 – 6
Sunday, August 9, 11:00 – 12:00, “The Non-Invasive Gaze and Moments of Suspension,” for pupils in grades 7 – 8
https://www.zilelenordului.ro/program
download press release in Romanian
"To Wait Without Hunting" represents for Ana Maria Micu both a synthesis and an evolution of the sustained visual research she has developed in recent years since relocating to Botoșani. While her previous projects emphasized support structures, both physical (interventions within the studio-apartment) and psychological (reconstructing the self through gardening and art), the current assemblage of existing videos and paintings alongside new works proposes a paradigm shift: abandoning the effort of consolidation in favor of pure presence.
This project is grounded in the philosopher Simone Weil’s concept of "decreation," synthesized in the ideal: "To see a landscape as it is when I am not there...". This goal of withdrawing the ego from the act of looking, in order to allow the world to manifest in its absolute autonomy, becomes an ethical benchmark and a highly difficult position—yet, for that very reason, paradoxically necessary—when adopted by an observational draftsperson.
What emerges is a method of working and living based on the silent contemplation of the inhabited space, where plants and everyday objects are not captured as subjects of study, but rather allowed to exist in their own rhythm. In contemporary art, where the image is often the result of a hunt for visual impact, the artist opts for slowness and organic growth, practicing a non-invasive gaze and a form of attention that tends toward the invisibility of the observer. By contrast, in order to question what it means to kill an image and the emotional response this gesture implicitly triggers, even when dealing with an object incapable of feeling physical pain, the antithesis of this idea is exemplified by an installation that integrates drawings caught in mousetraps.
The exhibition articulates a dialogue between the built environment of the host city and the micro-universe of the artist's studio, offering the public an immersive experience centered on resilience, patience, and the fragile beauty of suspended time. Cultural mediation will be conducted through guided tours and includes an educational component directed at middle-school students (grades 5 – 8), coordinated by Elena Arcire, a visual arts teacher at the "Leon Dănăilă" School in Darabani.
TO WAIT WITHOUT HUNTING
Solo Show by Ana Maria Micu
Opening | Saturday, August 8, 2026, 15:00 – 16:00
Venue | Casa Nord, the former chicken processing plant, Mihail Kogălniceanu Street, Darabani, Botoșani County
Dates | August 6 – 15, 2026
Visiting schedule during the festival days ( August 6 – 9) | daily, 10:00 – 19:00
Visiting schedule after the festival | 10:00 – 19:00
Artist talk: Ana Maria Micu in conversation with Ioan Mateiciuc, Friday, August 7, 11:00 – 12:30, Casa Nord
Cultural mediation workshops led by the artist in collaboration with Prof. Elena Arcire:
Saturday, August 8, 11:00 – 12:00, “The Invisible Object / Beauty in the Mind,” for pupils in grades 5 – 6
Sunday, August 9, 11:00 – 12:00, “The Non-Invasive Gaze and Moments of Suspension,” for pupils in grades 7 – 8
https://www.zilelenordului.ro/program
download press release in Romanian
"To Wait Without Hunting" represents for Ana Maria Micu both a synthesis and an evolution of the sustained visual research she has developed in recent years since relocating to Botoșani. While her previous projects emphasized support structures, both physical (interventions within the studio-apartment) and psychological (reconstructing the self through gardening and art), the current assemblage of existing videos and paintings alongside new works proposes a paradigm shift: abandoning the effort of consolidation in favor of pure presence.
This project is grounded in the philosopher Simone Weil’s concept of "decreation," synthesized in the ideal: "To see a landscape as it is when I am not there...". This goal of withdrawing the ego from the act of looking, in order to allow the world to manifest in its absolute autonomy, becomes an ethical benchmark and a highly difficult position—yet, for that very reason, paradoxically necessary—when adopted by an observational draftsperson.
What emerges is a method of working and living based on the silent contemplation of the inhabited space, where plants and everyday objects are not captured as subjects of study, but rather allowed to exist in their own rhythm. In contemporary art, where the image is often the result of a hunt for visual impact, the artist opts for slowness and organic growth, practicing a non-invasive gaze and a form of attention that tends toward the invisibility of the observer. By contrast, in order to question what it means to kill an image and the emotional response this gesture implicitly triggers, even when dealing with an object incapable of feeling physical pain, the antithesis of this idea is exemplified by an installation that integrates drawings caught in mousetraps.
The exhibition articulates a dialogue between the built environment of the host city and the micro-universe of the artist's studio, offering the public an immersive experience centered on resilience, patience, and the fragile beauty of suspended time. Cultural mediation will be conducted through guided tours and includes an educational component directed at middle-school students (grades 5 – 8), coordinated by Elena Arcire, a visual arts teacher at the "Leon Dănăilă" School in Darabani.
|
Tactile Observations
Ongoing series of works started in 2026. Daler Rowney FW Acrylic Ink on Artistico Fabriano Paper 640 gsm (27.3 x 17.9 cm), pressed between two 2 mm transparent acrylic sheets (27.8 x 18.4 cm). 10 works are installed as drawings caught in wooden mousetraps, with variable placements and combinations. go to page ⮕ |
|
repetitions ... sight, does it truly exist?
2026 acrylic and acrylic inks on canvas 95 x 115 cm. go to details ⮕ |
|
|
intrusion in one ... sunrise and sunset,
2025, acrylic and acrylic inks on linen, 195 x 125 cm. go to details ⮕ |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Pretty Removal
october 6, 2024, Hsinchu, Taiwan intervention in public space, video with stereo sound, 1920 x 1080 px., 33m21s go to page ⮕ |
|
|
endless growth. ... believing that hope can be dredged from ruin
2023, video with stereo sound, 1920 x 1080 px.,1h38m go to page ⮕ |