Playground of Self-Made Traps
Playground of Self-Made Traps continues the artist’s previous works, Cage Structures and Self-Made Traps, subtly exploring the tension between expectations and reality in a playful manner. The work combines classic playground elements with cage-like forms, building a complex structure that evokes the theme of inner freedom and self-imposed limits, while inviting introspection.
Constructed of wood, mesh and string, the installation combines fixed and mobile elements that provoke a tactile attraction, encouraging the audience to actively engage. At first glance, Playground of Self-made Traps evokes the nostalgia of a childhood playground, but a closer look reveals the complexity of the work. This structure goes beyond the function of a conventional playground, transforming into a symbolic representation of mental architectures.
Playground of Self-Made Traps challenges conformity to predetermined roles and embodies a paradoxical freedom – an invitation to reexamine how we perceive space and its function. The structure highlights the tension between rules and freedom, the familiar and the unknown, transforming itself into a symbolic framework for rediscovery and transgression. Visitors are encouraged to move freely, follow their impulses and find new ways of interacting with the work, thus exploring the limits imposed by both the self and the social context. The work constitutes a metaphor for social constructions, preconceived ideas and inner freedoms.
Lucia Ghegu
Lucia Ghegu (b. 1990, Zimnicea, Ro) studied engineering, fine arts, and industrial design, but drawing has always been an important part of her work. She chooses drawing as a solution against the hyper-technological trend, being an immediate, spontaneous reaction, a quick note, through which she can understand the relations between her and the outside world.
In recent years, Lucia's artistic practice has developed in the area of object design. The artist builds objects that respect the rules of aesthetics, but whose functionality is questionable. Her works are characterized by a dual nature, by the coexistence of opposite principles, of darkness and light, of functionality and uselessness.
In addition to the impossibility of fulfilling the basic function or the uselessness, concepts such as belonging, alienation, community, and migration appear recurrently in his works. Lucia Ghegu frequently builds imaginary houses, cages, portraits of family members, and self-representations. Her personal history has marked her artistic practice so that her works offer an introspective and radical vision of her relationship with family, home, human interactions, and spaces.