With positive and negative moments, 2021 is coming to an end and what it generated leaves an imprint on the destiny of the person, family, the country. IPN spoke with those who care and have what to say about victories and failures, hopes and letdowns, achievements and losses. How 2021 was for the woman and plastic artist Inga Edu, a member of the Union of Plastic Artists of Moldova and of the Union of Plastic Artists of Romania.
The year 2021 was a hard year for the people of culture. The state of public health emergency and the related restrictions left the artists without the main source of livelihood, but, what is more serious, kept them far from the stage and without plays. The plastic artists had yet a ‘small window’. They could mount group or personal exhibitions, even if with fewer invitees.
Painter Inga Edu said she is glad she could travel despite the restrictions and even did it rather frequently. She was invited and took part in art camps in Romania. She became involved in projects implemented on both sides of the Prut. She underlined the projects implemented by the UNESCO Cultural Center “Mihai Eminescu”, such as “With Easel through the Small Paris” in July or “The Black Sea” in August. December is the month when she managed to mount her personal pastels exhibition entitled “Impressions” in Bucharest, at the Calderon Art Studio Gallery inside the Cultural Center “Mihai Eminescu”. She experienced powerful emotions in the period.
Working as a teacher and as the deputy principal of the Academic Lyceum of Plastic Arts “Igor Vieru”, she also achieved nice results. In the lyceum’s gallery, they mounted personal exhibitions of painters Vitalie Butescu from Bucharest and graphic artist Gheorghii Zlobin from Chisinau. There was also staged the first edition of a national painting competition intended for artistic institutions entitled “Native Land”. The exhibition with awardees from all over the country was set to be mounted at the Organ Hall in Chisinau on December 23. Another project was “Child Dream” where students competed with their works, while those who wanted could buy these.
An accomplishment of which she is proud is that he work “Autumn in My City” earlier this month was purchased by the Culture Department of the Chisinau City Hall and will form part of the public collection. Also this year, Inga Edu won an award from the UNESCO Cultural Center “Mihai Eminescu” for promoting arts.
Inga Edu regrets that she failed to mount several personal exhibitions this year and could not go to Bucharest to take part in projects and exhibitions owing to the pandemic restrictions. But she hopes that 2022 will eliminate any barrier. Two years of pandemic brought regression rather than progress in all the areas. Culture hasn’t been extensively supported financially by the state so far, but in 2021 things worsened. Left without events, the artists remained also without sources of livelihood. “2021 left a state of unease that should end in 2022,” said the artist hopefully.
Inga Edu was born in Chisinau on July 19, 1978. She is a member of the Union of Plastic Artists of Moldova and of the Union of Plastic Artists of Romania, the branch in Ploiești. She is an awardee of the Latin Union for young artists in plastic arts, of the Writers Union of Moldova, for the graphic presentation of the collection “Contemporary Bessarabian Writers”. During her career, she received a number of awards for promoting arts, one of which was given by the UNESCO Cultural Center “Mihai Eminescu”.