Adina Mocanu (b. 1990, Videle, RO) lives and works in Berlin (DE) and Bucharest (RO). She holds a BFA and an MFA from The National University of Arts in Bucharest. Between 2015 and 2016, Adina was an art resident of the French Academy in Rome - Villa Medici. In the first half of 2017, she was resident and art teacher at Collins Living-Learning Center, University of Indiana (USA). In 2019, she took part in a transcultural residency called A Villa of One’s Own (Villa Rohannec’h, Saint-Brieuc, France - Cetate Arts Danube, Cetate, Romania) curated by Anca Verona Mihuleț, Iris Ordean and Isabelle Henrion. Adina works mainly with performance and video, but she often integrates installation, photography and drawing in her practice. In 2018, she started an empirical research on the occult and how the otherworldly elements can be integrated in an artistic discourse. In 2021 - 2022, Adina was part of the key exhibition The Chronicles of the Future Superheroes at Kunsthalle Bega, Timișoara, curated by Anca Verona Mihuleț, showing the work Being Nina — a video installation and performance — having as its core the story of Nina Kulagina, a Russian housewife with telekinetic powers. Adina lived in Istanbul from September to December 2023, receiving a residency from the Senate of Berlin to develop an art project related to the life of the Turkish neo-spiritist Bedri Ruhselman (1898 - 1960). In 2024, her first major solo show in an institution is presented at MNAC Bucharest—The National Museum of Contemporary Art, created around the character of Nina Kulagina.
Education:
2014 - 2009 - MFA and BFA, Graphic Art - National University of Arts - Bucharest, Romania;
2012 - 2011 - Erasmus Scholarship - Academy of Fine Arts - Ljubljana, Slovenia;
Collections:
2022 - National Museum of Contemporary Art (MNAC), Bucharest, Romania;
Grants and Residencies:
2024 and 2022 - ‘Grant for artistic creation ''Energy!'' - Project Centre, Municipality of Timișoara, part of "Timișoara - European Capital of Culture in 2023”’;
2023 - ‘Kulturaustauschstipendium - des Landes Berlin 2023 / 2024’, Istanbul, Turkey;
2022 - ‘Recherchestipendium - Senatsverwaltung für Kultur und Europa’, Berlin, Germany;
2022 - ‘Il Diospero C.S.R.’, Roccantica, Italy;
2021 and 2018 - ‘Cetate Arts Danube - Artists in Residence’, 14th Edition and 11th Edition, Cetate, Romania;
2020 - ‘Gabriela Tudor Foundation’, Bucharest, Romania;
2019 - ‘A villa of one’s own’, transcultural residency, Villa Rohannec’h, Saint-Brieuc, France - Cetate Arts Danube, Cetate, Romania;
2016 - 2017 - Visiting Artist at Indiana University, USA;
2015 - 2016 - Villa Medici - The French Academy in Rome, Rome, Italy;
Performances, Festivals and Exhibitions (selection):
2024 - ‘Being Nina’, solo show, curator Sandra Demetrescu, MNAC (National Museum of Contemporary Art), Bucharest, Romania;
2024 - ‘Insight Romania. Rethinking Traditions’, CN Gallery, Seoul, South Korea;
2023 - 2024 - ‘Chronicles of the Future Superheroes, Second Edition’, curator Anca Verona Mihuleț, MNAC (National Museum of Contemporary Art), Bucharest, Romania;
2023 - 2024 - ‘PULS 2021’, 2020x2022 MNAC Art Acquisitions, MNAC (National Museum of Contemporary Art), Bucharest, Romania;
2023 - Romanian Film Lounge #Berlinale 2023, Berlin, Germany;
2023 - ‘PULS 22’ - 2022 MNAC Acquisitions, MNAC (National Museum of Contemporary Art), Bucharest, Romania;
2023 and 2022 - ‘visual art platform - PAV’, First and Second Editions, Sibiu, Romania;
2022 and 2013 - BIEFF (Bucharest International Experimental Film Festival), Romania;
2023 - ‘Residual Glitter’, MV-Sci Art, Timișoara, Romania;
2023 - ‘Made-up stories have long lives’, curator Iris Ordean, Meta Spațiu, Timisoara, Romania;
2022 - ‘DA! Award’, Düsseldorf, Germany;
2022 - ‘Professionally Staging A Dream’, curator Georgia Țidorescu, SAC Bucharest, Romania;
2021 - 2022 - ‘Chronicles of the Future Superheroes’, curator Anca Verona Mihuleț, Kunsthalle Bega, Timișoara, Romania;
2021 - ‘All The Stones I Threw at You Were Covered In My Tears’, Performance Day 2021, curator Alex Mirutziu, Centrul de Interes, Cluj, Romania;
2021 - ‘Blue Coated Summer. Cetate Arts Danube’, curator Simona Vilău, ARCUB & Cetate Arts Danube, Joana Grevers Foundation, Romania;
2016 - ‘The Lesson of Nature’, curator Oana Tănase, Galeria Posibilā, Bucharest, Romania;
2016 - ‘Viva Villa!’ - Palais Royal, Paris, France;
2016 - ‘Teatro delle Esposizione 7’ - Villa Medici, French Academy in Rome - Rome, Italy;
2016 - ‘Untitled (l’autre)’, performance, Villa Medici, French Academy in Rome - Rome, Italy;
2015 - ‘Untitled (XXIV)’, 24 hours performance in Museo Casa Mollino, Turin, Italy;
2014 - ‘VOT’ - Work in progress, Atelier 35, Bucharest and Perform Festival, Iași, Romania;
2014 - ‘Dispositions in Time and Space’ - exhibition generated by the “Mobile Biennale, Club Electroputere” - MNAC - Bucharest, Romania;
2014 - ‘StartPoint Prize RO’, Victoria Art Center, Bucharest, Romania;
2014 - ‘collective lanscapes’ - Galeria Posibilā, Bucharest, RO;
2014 - ‘Nucleu 0001’ - Combinatul Fondului Plastic, Bucharest, Romania;
2014 - ‘MOOON’, Aiurart, Bucharest, Romania;
2014 - Media Art Festival Arad, Romania;
2012 - ‘Five in the House’, Anca Poterașu Gallery, Bucharest, Romania;
