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To live and to die in a performance

Category

2025

Young / Poster

Awarded

Designer / Designers / Design Studio / Agency

Client

Year

Ioana Petcu

Galeria Electroputere

2024

Other Credits

—

Short description

Long description

Commissioned poster for the project "To live and die in a performance" by Galeria ElectroPutere at Sala Omnia, in Bucharest 2024.

The project "To Live and Die in a Performance" explores the notion of performance by examining its intrinsic relationship to space. Bringing together various artists working around the shared theme of performance, the project invites viewers to reconsider the medium through the lens of spatial dynamics.
The poster is built around one of the curatorial texts: “Once performance starts, space is transformed. Audience turns participants. In performance there is no audience, by definition. Performer(s) and participants coexist in performative space.” With this in mind, my intention was to evoke a space that gives open-ended coordinates for building and rebuilding movements.

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Foto: Mihai Ciobanu

Jury Notes

Process Notes: Ioana Petcu

We appreciated how this poster tackles the challenge of representing space and time visually. It manages to bring together three different notations, three types of communication, into a shared visual language. The result may appear messy at first glance, but it remains functional, with each layer still accessible and legible. The simplicity of the approach makes it both effective and interesting.

 

JG: It’s an interesting idea to play with space and time on a poster, and a very difficult thing to represent and play with. And it’s done in quite a simple, straightforward but effective and interesting way.

 

ML: It’s like three different notations that are just coming together in the same visual language. Three different types of communication that come together in a single poster.


PV: It’s messy but functional, in a way that you can still perceive every layer.

Thinking about the journey from initial idea to the finished piece,which moments had the deepest impact on the project and what made you realise those changes had to happen?

I think one of the most impactful moments in the process happened while working on the poster. I had a lot of productive “ping-pong” with Mihai Iepure-Górski, one of the curators of the exhibition. Our feedback sessions and discussions pushed me to look at the work from a different angle and helped me understand how far the visual language could go. Through those exchanges, it became clear which elements needed to shift and I realised that the poster could communicate much more strongly. Those exchange moments were essential in shaping the final piece.

Collaboration is built on trust and dialogue — within that process, which part of the project feels most authentically yours, and which unexpected voices pushed you beyond your comfort zone?

I think my ongoing interest in working with type is something which ends up being very present and also this practice of working on multiple layers. So in the case of this project I think these two aspects are really authentic to me. And in terms of being pushed outside my comfort zone, I think it was definitely present in the process, through the feedback discussion we had and it definitely shaped the final result.

In what ways do you believe awards like LDA shape (or should shape) the design landscape locally? And is there a responsibility attached to being an awarded designer within that ecosystem?

 I haven’t really thought much about the idea of having a responsibility as an awarded designer :)). But I do think that receiving an award naturally sets a certain standard that I want to maintain in my future work. More broadly, these types of awards help by giving visibility to practices that might otherwise remain more niche. Ideally, they can encourage a culture where good design is recognised and valued, and in that sense, yes being awarded does come with a gentle responsibility to contribute positively to that ecosystem. What I appreciate most is that it also creates a community of people who share the same dedication and the same overall goal of doing good, thoughtful work.

Mentorship, peer‑learning or self‑teaching often shape early practice. Who or what has been your most unexpected teacher, and how did their influence show up in this project?

I’m not sure my example is an unexpected teacher, but the project “To live and to die in a performance” came right after I completed an internship, and one piece of feedback from that experience has stayed with me. I was reminded that this is a job of communicating visually and as obvious and simple, I understood that for me it’s very helpful to have this in mind, kind of as a mantra. I’ve noticed that whenever I feel intimidated by a project or by a work situation, my thinking becomes less clear and the early stages of the design process can feel messy or overwhelming. Keeping this idea in mind, that it’s a job of visually communicating, trying to stay precise and identify what exactly needs to be communicated helped me a lot in this project in particular when I felt like things got tangled.

Sometimes the constraints or groundwork of early projects become the launchpad for later ones. What did you take away from this project that you want to carry forward into your future work?

I think I might repeat myself haha but I have to say that working with type is definitely something which i want to manipulate further. In the context of the poster this is very present. There is also something particular which I actually forgot to try afterwards. It was inspired by the practice of the studio I was working with before, and was about using very “basic” fonts I would say. I remember I was very surprised they used Arial and Times New Roman for a project. And I feel like when I am looking for a font I feel somehow the obligation to go and find something more niche or something new anyway, something designed in the last 5 years. I was genuinely very surprised they use Arial and Times New Roman and then I started to question my impulse of using new fonts. In this poster, for example, I used Arial for the text (though I couldn’t resist so I distorted the letters haha). It opened up a new direction that I would like to explore further. 

As a young designer, your visual language is still developing. Which element of this project feels like the beginning of a vocabulary you want to develop further?

I think one aspect which I’ve been incorporating in my work for a while is the idea of working on multiple layers, of building tension through this way. Is something which I admire super much at designers like Anja Kaiser or in the case of Edition Biceps. 

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