How to cook an artwork, 2023

instalație video pe ecran iPad, 4 cuburi din cofraje, 30 x 35 x 30 cm fiecare; folie acrilică transparentă, 30 x 30 x 30 cm; plexiglas, 30 x 30 cm; plastic transparent și lemn, 24 x 30 cm

With How to cook an artwork, Diana Roșca talks about transgenerational trauma. The video shown on the four iPad screens that make up the installation symbolically reinterprets the tradition of making wine as a ritual – for the artist, a way to bring to the fore both the customs, conceptions and beliefs that are passed down from generation to generation, as well as the idea of personal transformation.

The four tablets are placed in hollow formwork cubes. They reference the biological cycle of a generation or, in this case, the lack thereof. Together, the cubes would form a table, but Diana decides to separate them in the exhibition space, prompting visitors to set their own route among them and discover different video frames on the screens.

The route also brings them in front of a formwork with grapes, accompanied by the message “Take a slice of my art”. If the video exemplifies the fact that a ritual can be reinterpreted and adapted, “Take a slice of my art” becomes in this context, through the analogy between the wine-making process and the idea of ​​personal transformation, an exhortation for everyone to think of their own way of making this transformation. “We choose what we carry forward from what we inherit, from values, conceptions, beliefs and the way we build our own identity,” says the artist.

The title How to cook an artwork is inspired by the book on which the exhibition curated by Georgia Țidorescu was based upon: Slices of Life, by Elia Romanelli, Piero Vereni and Ottavia Castellina. Diana Roșca invites the audience into her artist “kitchen” – i.e., her mobile studio, in the middle of nature, where her hands perform the gestures of a different kind of ritual.