Ana Lupas – On this Side of the River Elbe

Born in 1940 in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, Ana Lupas was just five years old when her country fell under the control of the totalitarian regime that would govern it for the next 40 years. As a form of subtle resistance against political oppression and the resulting diminishment of Romanian identity, Lupas began creating art that celebrated the rural communities, rituals and humble materials of her homeland. This exhibition at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam is the first to provide a detailed overview of the artist’s career, from the early 1960s to the present day (9 May–15 September). It centres around Coats to Borrow (1989), an installation comprising jackets stitched together from scrap material that bear the names of local artist friends, as well as a number of other textile, sculpture, photographic and installation works that speak to Lupas’s interest in her Romanian heritage and her commitment to cultural resilience.

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