Orsolya Gál has a background in architecture, fine arts, scenography and puppetry. She was the co-author of the project Selfie Automaton, a work consisting of 33 puppets/5 automatons, which represented Romania at the Venice Biennale of Architecture in 2016. She continued her work in shadow puppetry through performances and workshops. In 2018, her video performance Short Essay on Uncertainty received a special prize at the Festival Incanti in Torino for image and sound design. In 2014 she started an experimental project with plants in motion which materialized in the short film Etudes from an inner garden presented at Bucharest International Dance Film Festival in 2020 and at Fuori Formato Festival Internazionale di Danza a Torino in 2021. Her recent projects orient towards human relations with the natural and material environment. Searching for a secret garden is a series of garden plans, photos and videos first realized with the support of Cluj Cultural Center and România Remarcabilă in 2023.
In continuation of the project Searching for a secret garden, the intervention at Intersecţia will include a mapping collage that illustrates the ways in which water is used by people in the present, following the water streams of Buzau and Acris rivers. A second layer adds a collection of past stories told by the locals in relation to the use of water, while a third component consists of a sound composition of water flows as a ritualistic background played for the future. Orsolya will create the mapping collage in collaboration with the locals, sharing stories and personal experiences around ways of collecting and preserving water in rural, precarious contexts.
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Orsolya Gal (Romania) has been selected to join FLOWING STREAMS, a multi-residency project in rural areas of Romania exploring local approaches to the cultural ecology of water, designed and developed by EUNIC Romania in collaboration with the curator Adelina Luft.
It involves seven cultural institutions operating in Romania – the British Council, the Czech Centre, the Embassy of the Netherlands, the Goethe-Institut, the Italian Institute for Culture, the Polish Institute and Fundația9, each engaged in supporting one residency.
The residencies involved are: In Context/Slanic Moldova, The Experimental Station for Research on Art and Life, Eforie Colorat, Watermelon AIR Residency, Intersecţia, TERRRA – The School of Planetary Gardens, CUCA (Cârțișoara Cultural Center).
Flowing Streams at Intersecţia is suppoted by Fundația9.