In the Kitchen: Cake Recipes from Mom | Ana-Cristina Irian and Cristian Bassa
Celula de Artă
Partner: Omnia Photo
Opening: May 17, 2025
link event: https://www.facebook.com/events/7948394445284085
„In the Kitchen: Cake Recipes from Mom” is an intimate installation constructed around a kitchen table, bringing together handwritten recipes from the mothers of artists Cristina and Cristian, photographs from personal archives, and the quiet presence of memory.
This collaborative project intertwines personal history with interdisciplinary research. Anthropological studies on postmemory and intergenerational trauma position food as a significant vector of cultural memory, particularly within contexts of relocation. Recipes often survive beyond language; inherited gestures – mixing ingredients, tasting, preparing food – become quiet rituals of care, continuity, and resilience.
Through a minimal domestic setting – a wooden table, family cake recipes, photographs, and ambient sounds – the installation explores food as a vehicle for memory, identity, and belonging. Visitors are invited to experience the space and contribute to a guestbook, creating a collective archive of memories, recipes, and images that will be included in the next edition of the Chester Photo Festival.
This initiative is not a reconstruction of the past, but rather a living space where food, memory, and tranquility intersect. Ultimately, it represents a quiet struggle for the soul of the kitchen.
The installation also features elements dedicated to the presence of Romanian artists at Chester Photo Festival (chesterphotofestival.com) 2025.
Ana-Cristina Irian (omnia.photo) is a research-based artist, visual arts researcher, and curator working with collections, photographic archives, and multimedia materials. Guided by the motto “No one left behind,” her artistic practice emphasizes memory objects, integrating photographic material into contemporary art. Her works investigate how personal and collective memory is shaped by images, material culture, and spatial transformations, often employing participatory methods and archive recovery. She studied sociology in Trento and Regensburg, visual anthropology in Bucharest and Perugia, and holds a PhD in visual arts (UNArte).
Her projects frequently explore forgotten or intimate histories, particularly those connected to domestic memory and women’s lives overlooked by dominant narratives. Recent works include “Ileana, Mr. B’s Grandmother”, “EERIE”, and “Debara”. Her newest project, “The Titans (and the Vanishing Green)”, will be presented at the Chester Photo Festival in 2025. Ana-Cristina has exhibited in over 50 exhibitions nationally and internationally and is a member of FUTURES and the Romanian Artists’ Union.
Cristian Bassa (bassa.ro) is a photographer, designer, editor, and avid collector of photography books. He has initiated and coordinated four socially impactful photographic projects for charitable organizations, resulting in solo exhibitions and published albums. He is co-organizer of Bucharest Photo Week and author of two documentary photography volumes: “Beautiful Sunrise” and “Forward March”.
Between 2016 and 2024, he collaborated with Dorian Delureanu on the visual documentation of traditional fountains in Oltenia, resulting in three albums and two exhibitions supported by the Romanian Peasant Museum and the Museum of Oltenia. The project received recognition at the National Awards for Visual Arts in 2024.
Together, Cristina and Cristian develop artistic and documentary installations focused on memory, vernacular heritage, and shared histories, situated at the intersection of research and visual expression.
OMNIA PHOTO (omnia.photo) is a cultural association and publishing house from Romania dedicated to contemporary photography and experimental visual art albums. Its primary mission is promoting visual arts, with a special focus on Romanian photography, both contemporary and historical.
Chester Photo Festival (chesterphotofestival.com) is a new international annual photo festival with a vision of developing a self-sustaining platform for people working with photography and making their voices heard. Once a year, the participants get together to develop and create new relationships and introduce their works/projects to the network, building a platform for everyone.
Celula de Artă (celuladearta.ro) is an independent, artist-run cultural project that debuted in 2017 and operates across multiple permanent and temporary contemporary art spaces.
Media Partners: Radio România Cultural, BucurestiFM, spotmedia.ro, IQads, Zile si Nopti, B365.ro, Happening, Cărturești, curatorial.ro, Propagarta, Revista Golan, Ziarul Metropolis, Observator cultural, The Institute, Revista Zeppelin, Modernism Punct Ro, PRwave, Empower Artists, Munteanu.