FREEZE FRAME! THE IDEA – Dialogues with an “Adult Inner Child”. Solo Exhibition by Emilia Chirilă

The Cluj-Napoca Art Museum (MACN), a public cultural institution operating under the authority of the Cluj County Council, invites you to visit, between July 3 and 20, 2025, the solo exhibition of artist Emilia Chirilă, titled “FREEZE FRAME! THE IDEA – Dialogues with an Adult Inner Child.” The exhibition explores the intersection of ceramics, glass, related visual arts, and the creative process, all integrated within an eco-cultural practice.

A graduate of the “Ion Andreescu” Institute of Fine Arts in Cluj-Napoca (specialization in Ceramics–Glass–Metal, class of 1978), Emilia Chirilă is a visual artist, researcher, and art therapist. In 2011, she earned her PhD in Decorative and Fine Arts, with a thesis focused on art education and art therapy. She has been a member of the Romanian Union of Fine Artists since 1991 and served as curator of the Ceramics and Glass Biennale – Cluj Artists. Between 2007 and 2022, she was a member of the International Academy of Ceramics (an NGO affiliated with UNESCO), and since 2022, she has been affiliated with the American Art Therapy Association. Her artistic and therapeutic work is marked by an interdisciplinary approach, influenced by psychodynamic theory and person-centered therapy principles. For Emilia Chirilă, art is not merely an aesthetic product, but a process of personal expression and inner transformation.

The exhibition “FREEZE FRAME! THE IDEA – Dialogues with an Adult Inner Child” proposes an innovative model of eco-art-therapeutic practice, specific to postmodern and postindustrial ceramics. The artist embraces clay modeling—with its rhythmic and tactile qualities—as a means of emotional regulation and reconnection with one’s body and with nature, a concept central to eco-art therapy.

Special Event – Book Launch

On the occasion of the exhibition opening, Thursday, July 3, 2025, at 6:00 PM, a book launch will also take place, featuring:

• Art Education and Art Therapy through Ceramic-Specific Media – highlighting the vital role of the visual artist-designer and the art therapist in education and therapy;
• The Relationship between the Visible Artistic Form and the Invisible Essence of Art. Visual Arts-Based Art Therapy – from Therapeutic Value to Aesthetic Value: Creative Potential – case studies with children and “adult children.”

Both volumes are authored by Emilia Chirilă and include an introduction written by the exhibition curator, Dr. Livia Drăgoi.

Distinguished guests at the event include:

• Csata Hermina, President of the Cluj Branch of the Romanian Union of Fine Artists
• Radu Crețu, professor and editor

Sponsor: Transilvania Leaders Foundation