DANA FABINI | Passing By

“Untitled “Passing By,” Dana Fabini’s exhibition offers us a unique experience, the connotations of which can be interpreted on multiple levels: an autobiographical essay, a confessional poetic-visual discourse akin to a personal diary, but also a suggestive and evocative spatial metaphor for the journey through and toward life, understood as an odyssey of the self (a multifaceted initiatory journey), often marked by transitions, existential crises, and moments of deep introspection, whose echoes are reflected in a formative way in what we usually call… the architecture of our (re)becoming and of the search for a place in the world. 

Structured around a feminist-existentialist perspective, in which the factual reality of life anf the act of artistic creation apper inextricably intertwined, with personal biography serving as the source material from which narratives of universal resonance are constructed, the exhibition takes shape as a space for reflection and encounter with the topography of the inner invisible, constituting, in essence, a sensitive meditation on the complexity of the human condition and the existential dilemmas that accompany it. 

Through a selection that spans diverse media, periods, and modes of expression, the artworks in this exhibition chart key stages and directions in his artistic practice, highlighting the transformations, continuities, and explorations that define his creative process.

 For Dana Fabini, the creative act always has a dual meaning. It is understood both as a profound spiritual experience and as a form of healing and survival. And through this, it also becomes a way of grounding ourselves in the present, which allows us, beyond the authorial persona, to catch a glimpse of the person – and, through them, the humanity that each of us carries within”. (Alexandra Sârbu, excerpt from the curatorial text)

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Curator: Alexandra Sârbu

Graphic Design & Technical Support: Andrei Budescu

Technical Team: Manuil Marcu, Florin Pop, Sebastian Zaga

A brief biography

Professor, coordinator of the Pedagogy of Fine and Decorative Arts program, and doctoral advisor in visual arts at the University of Art and Design in Cluj-Napoca, Dana Fabini (b. 1963, Cluj-Napoca) proposes an integrative vision in which the artistic act coexists with critical-reflective practice, creative investigation and exploration, aesthetic education, pedagogy and art therapy, multilingualism, and intercultural dialogue.

She is the creator of “Bibliotheca Diotima” concept (2010), a genuine guiding creed that shapes her entire creative journey, defined as a space of convergence where her artistic approach organically merges with her philosophical perspective, as well as the founder of the interactive-performative platform “Dialog in Agora” (2016), focused on highlighting and promoting artistic projects of an intercultural and interdisciplinary nature. Under these two generic titles, she has published a series of bilingual volumes (Romanian and German) with Eikon Publishing House, a representative selection documenting key stages of her professional trajectory to date.

Since 1987, the year she graduated from the “Ion Andreescu” Institute of Fine Arts, she has been exhibiting regularly in art galleries, museums, hubs, and cultural centers both in Romania and abroad; some of her artworks have already been included in state collections and public spaces in Romania and Germany. In parallel with the complex teaching work she has been carrying out for over three decades in higher art education – teaching courses, seminars, and collaborative workshops at highly prestigious European art academies and universities – she consistently participates in symposia, conferences, and workshops on important topics within her area of expertise. She is also the author and coordinating editor of books, catalogs, and art albums, as well as literary publications and articles in specialized journals dedicated to artistic creativity and the interrelationships between various forms of visual expression, and to research on the use of art therapy. 

By combining a diverse range of creative and artistic means of expression (from classical techniques to experimental and alternative forms, such as happenings, performance art, installations, and multimedia art), she investigates stereotypes, ideologies, and sociocultural practices, as well as patterns and mechanics of artistic thought and communication, essentially cultivating a “visual linguistics”, eruditely versified (understood as a personal mode of expression and stylistic signature), through which she expresses her feminist convictions from a dual perspective: both as intellectual reflection and as pure emotional experience. 

Her entire visual aesthetic is deeply rooted in the emotional dynamics of her own life journey: from her formative years spent under the communist dictatorship to Romania’s transition to democracy and her radical decision to emigrate to Germany, a phase followed by a continuous, yet extremely fruitful exchange in terms of ideas and creativity, between the Eastern European and Western cultural spheres. 

Since 2019, she has been living and working both in Romania and Germany. 

Additional information is available on the website:www.fabini.eu

Text and documentation: Alexandra Sârbu