Watch a recording of Stanca Soare’s performance during the opening of Ecologies of Repair, an exhibition of new works by emerging artists curated by Adelina Luft.

One of the eight artists in the exhibition, alongside Amaia Molinet, Anca Bucur, Andreea Medar & Mălina Ionescu, Diana Popuț, Lucia Ghegu, and Thea Lazăr, Stanca Soare performed an intense, darkly humorous scenario about the eating habits we might end up having, if the grain crisis caused by the war continues. 

Titled Our Daily Bread, the performance complemented her other three works in the exhibition (All Roads, Are Paved, With Good Intentions) which address the questionable managing of wheat residues in the rural area — when villagers don’t use the straw to make decorative objects or bricks, they burn and waste it. The works serve as a wake-up call: what do we do when there are no more grains and all we are left with are the straws?

Stanca Soare, Our Daily Bread, 2022, performance, duration: 13’25’’, overcooked biscuit bread, delayed sound

Stanca Soare about the performance

“Our Daily Bread reacts with dark humor to current mythologies that claim showering for less than 15 minutes will save our planet. Half-joking, half-serious, it literally stages the recipes from stories such as Ciorbă de bolovan (Boulder Sour Soup) and Supă din piatră (Rock Soup), but without the vegetables. 

In a 40-minute speech in May 2022, British politician Alok Sharma described the objectives met by the UN as the Glasgow Climate Pact was delivered at Cop26, in 2021. The slow pace of the speech serves as the background for the performance, which, instead of mincing words, breaks stones. The smashed stone carries a particular sound, similar to the sound of promises or empty words.”

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Ecologies of Repair is on view through November 5, 2022.

Project organised by: Asociația Culturală Eastwards Prospectus and Gaep

Co-financed by: The Administration of the National Cultural Fund (AFCN)

Media Partners: igloo, Curatorial, Radio România Cultural, ArTeVezi, Revista ARTA

The project does not necessarily represent the position of the Administration of the National Cultural Fund. The AFCN is neither responsible for the project content nor for the way in which the project results may be used. These are entirely the responsibility of the grant beneficiary.