In the project “DEVYAH”, I explore femininity beyond social stereotypes. The aim of the project is to continue the discussion about what femininity means, emphasizing the direct experience of each person irrespective of their gender. To this end, I opened a form that can still be completed, through which each person can explore and share their feminine side. The works made in the project represent a search, rather than a conclusion. Because I do not believe that femininity can be defined generally, each work is made in a different technique to emphasize the diversity through which femininity can manifest itself. The title of the project refers to this variety, being the plural of the Sanskrit word Devī which means goddess. The title also refers to both my spiritual practice and the need to decolonize thinking, to search for other perspectives that are not passed through the lens of Western European thinking.
A first presentation of this project took place in November 2025, at the artouching studio in Timișoara. As a result of this experience, the interaction with the audience, and the responses to the form, new perspectives emerged that led to the change of some existing works, as well as the creation of some new ones.
A second exhibition took place in February-March 2026, at Galeria 5, in Timisoara, which was organized in partnership with artouching and the Municipality of Timisoara through Centrul de Proiecte. This exhibition focused more on the mystic side of femininity, exploring Goddesses throughout time and cultures. During the exhibition, I also organized events focused on exploring femininity through art by :
- creating macrame flowers
- painting with Livia Mateias
- creating dolls with Simon Homorodean
- participating in women’s circle where we also painted among other somatic and spiritual explorations
The works included in the project:
The moment before I woke
„The moment before I woke” is an installation which captures a dream-like moment akin
to that before waking up, right when something unexpected happens, like the bird flying
away. This art installation is the first work in the project “Devyah” which explores
femininity beyond society’s stereotypes. As it represents my conditioned view on
femininity as graceful and delicate, without clear individual features or identity, “The
moment before I woke” represents the status quo I started questioning four years ago
through the project “From an orange point of view” in order to find out what it actually
means being a woman in this society. However, being a woman is only one
manifestation of the feminine…
Technique: netted rope, LEDs
Dimensions: 120 x 120 x 250 cm
2021/2025
The installation was exhibited at Galeria Verticala in Bucharest, in August 2025. The exhibition was organized by Celula de Arta.
It was also exhibited for the first show of DEVYAH at artouching studio in Timisoara.
photos by Eleni Vitali
photos by Livia Mateias
The dress was worn by me during the performance which took place on the 16th November 2025 at artouching:
Who is afraid of Baba Yaga?
This is a participatory performance through which I question the evolution of feminine figures from Goddess to hag in parallel with man’s fear of nature.
photos by Alina-Maria Moldovanu
Close your eyes and look at yourself
The idea behind this work is that if you try to see yourself through the eyes of someone else, you will see yourself distorted.
Technique: Plexiglass mirror, watercolors on transparent paper, modeling wire
Dimensions: 90 x 90 x 5 cm
2025
Exhibited at artouching in November 2025. The work was created with the collaboration of the participants at two workshops which took place before the exhibition. The contribution was for the painted and wire parts.
photos by Livia Mateias
Ode to women
The installation “Ode to Women” is a collaboration with the painter Maria Bratu and consists of two works: the recycled aluminum hands holding candles in their palms and the parietal work crocheted by Maria. The work is an adoration for women with everything that it means to be a woman, especially with the parts stigmatized by society, such as menstruation. Maria portrayed the uterus as a bleeding sword, bringing to the fore both the pain that can be caused by diseases of the female reproductive system that are very little studied or taken seriously by doctors, and the feminine power.
Exhibited in open studios, at artouching in Nov 2025 and Galeria 5 in Feb-Mar 2026.
photos by Georgiana Bosioc
Reconstruction
The work is a participatory installation which visitors can complete during exhibitions or open studios. The idea is to think about the concepts we define or the stories we tell, and reconstruct them in a way it is serving instead of oppressing us. Particularly the dress addresses the reconstruction of the concept of femininity.
Open Studio
Exhibition November 2025
photos by Eleni Vitali
Exhibition at Galeria 5 in Feb-March 2026
Reframing fairy tales
This work is based on the same principle as “Reconstruction”, which is to create something familiar in a different way.
The wings refer to the stories we tell ourselves or hear since we are children and which form a great part of our personality and the fact that we can tell ourselves different stories if the old ones don’t suit us anymore.
The work is interactive and wearable.
Open studio
photos by Claudia Tanasescu
Exhibition Nov 2025
photos by Eleni Vitali
Exhibition Feb-Mar 2026
The dress and the wings were worn by Livia Mateias during her performance “My Orange Touch” on 16th November 2025.
photos by Alina-Maria Moldovanu
Becoming Tārā
This was a performance in collaboration with artist Livia Mateiaș though which we turned the work “The moment before I woke” into the Buddhist Goddess Tārā through painting, in an immersive atmosphere completed by collective meditation and mantra chanting.
The Thread of the Goddess
The thread of the Goddess is a two pieces installation which invokes a return to our roots. The textile collage is a reinterpretation of the Neolithic feminine statuettes found throughout Europe. The embroidery follows two timelines: the white thread depicts the evolution of Goddesses from Neolithic times until today’s saints, and the red thread depicts the evolution of women’s rights throughout time with a focus on Europe and West Asia. The two pieces are connected by the two white and red threads which twisted together represent the cycle of life and death. The work is accompanied by a qr code where viewers can read the embroidered text. History shows us how fragile human (particularly women’s) rights are in the current society, while pointing to the possibility of living differently.
Two-piece installation – 2026
textile collage
scrap textile materials, cotton, natural silk, textile fibers, rope, wires
dimensions: 200 x 200 cm
embroidery on silk
textile collage, embroidery, netting
dimensions: 75 x 200 cm
Exhibited at Galeria 5 in Feb-Mar 2026.
photos by Georgiana Bosioc
The joy of creating 