![](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6093e23367915a3a418d6d09/f4168ee4-86bf-4b7d-ad80-a1b666d8afcc/Pia+Roma+1_A3_contrast_RGB.jpg)
Rooms
An artistic and research project undertaken as part of the Fresh A.I.R. art residence at the Urban Nation Museum of Contemporary Urban Art in Berlin between Oct 2021 - Mar 2022
Pia Roma Romanian Shop
Digital photograph of 1:20 model
Pia Roma Romanian Shop
Digital photograph of 1:20 model
Pia Roma Romanian Shop
Digital photograph of 1:20 model
Toni's flat
Digital photograph of 1:20 model
Maria's flat
Digital photograph of 1:20 model
The Urban Nation - Fresh A.I.R. artistic residency #6 was intended to replace common stereotypical patterns of portrayal of migrants with new approaches to a topic that is frequently instrumentalised in politics and the media. This means not only talking about migrants, but also including the experiences of migrants and thus making migrant life worlds tangible.
“Rooms” deals with the theme of migration observed in private and public interiors. The work looks at the Romanian immigrant community inhabiting the city, the spaces they occupy and appropriate, and the objects that they surround themselves with. These spaces and the life that they contain are then painstakingly surveyed, documented and recreated through 1:20 paper models and collages.
At the centre of the work lies “Pia Roma”, a Romanian shop in Friedenau that is the centre of the Romanian community in that area and manifests a deep sense of origin for the Romanian diaspora. The scale of the domestic interior, represented by the two private interiors of Maria and Toni, makes the liminal identity of the migrant more visible through a unique set of tangible and intangible signifiers. The series of 6 collages focuses more clearly on the emotionally charged objects and juxtaposes them with the lived reality of an existence in a foreign country.
The project situates the model and the act of making as a tool for engagement, observation and documentation; a slow, time-based method that has the potential to manifest a deep participation in the life of place and people often ignored and made invisible by wider society.
Toni’s Decorative Tea Towel (Stergar)
Paper collage, 16x11 cm
Emanuel’s Religious Icon
Paper collage, 16x11 cm
Nicoleta’s Music Playlist (Gheorghe Zamfir)
Paper collage, 16x11 cm
Maria’s Jewellery
Paper collage, 16x11 cm
Ilie’s Barbeque
Paper collage, 16x11 cm
Ecaterina’s Puf Cake
Paper collage, 10 x 8 cm
The Eastern European shop acts as the main social hubs for a disparate diaspora in Berlin, a public/commercial amenity at the centre of the immigrant network. This is where research into the Eastern European community for the project was commenced.
For border-crossers in particular, the nostalgic association with native objects and artefacts can represent an inner, self-created intangible border, expressing the liminal identity associated with migrancy. The connection with objects found at the domestic scale is also to be found at the urban scale, where the shop acts not only as the main hub for the its specific diaspora in the city, but it is also the repository for the containment and consumption of memory.
The participatory, ethnographic research involved visiting these places, buying and consuming, and using street sketching as a documentation, analysis and community engagement tool. By visiting and spending time in the spaces that were to be replicated later on in model-form, the aim was to create a sense of curiosity and interest in the project, and enable a relationship of trust with the future participants.
![Maria's flat](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6093e23367915a3a418d6d09/c9770f36-ef18-42ba-8ff8-9da94cd0bc79/Maria%27s+Flat_Survey.jpg)
Maria's flat
![Pia Roma Romanian Shop](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6093e23367915a3a418d6d09/ab2df683-85b5-4ae3-a1ca-9f0a17d62b5f/Pia+Roma_Survey.jpg)
Pia Roma Romanian Shop
![Toni's flat](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6093e23367915a3a418d6d09/afa417e2-c625-4d15-a71e-bbd7fb450b63/Toni%27s+Flat_Survey.jpg)
Toni's flat
Map of Eastern European places in Berlin
“Rooms” was exhibited as part of the “Reflecting Migration” group exhibition at the Bülow90 Gallery in Berlin between March 12th and July 31st.
“Meet the Maker” short segment with Ecaterina Stefanescu talking about the project and its aims.
The project was featured in a number of online publications and articles:
Photograph by @berlinartcore
The Fresh A.I.R. artistic residence was set up by The Berliner Leben Foundation as part of a number of projects taking place at the Urban Nation Museum of Urban Contemporary Art with the aim of offering emerging arts funding to explore urban-based projects, integrate into Berlin's cultural life, further develop their artistic skills and to gather important experience for their future professional career.
Foundation Berliner Leben
Alt-Moabit 101 A,
10559 Berlin
Artistic direction
Janine Arndt
“Rooms” is a project by Ecaterina Stefanescu with Sam Eadington and Lee Ivett
Model-making: Ecaterina Stefanescu, Sam Eadington, Agnieszka Kawalec & Grenfell-Baines Institute of Architecture students: Onoseta Felix-ilemhenbhio, Leonardo Lucic, Finley Hartless, Gillian Green, Vera Ngozi Nnachi, JohnMcIlroy
Artist residence: Urban Nation Museum for Urban Contemporary Art
October 2021 - March 2022
Exhibition: Bülow90 Gallery
11 March - 31 July 2022