The Liminal Art of Two Colliding Moments

Contemporary Interpretations of Marcel Duchamp’s Vision at Art Encounters

What methods can be used to visually capture invisible changes? How can art reconcile the instinctive desire to leave a mark with the self-erasing depiction of ephemeral moments? And how can artworks portray fleeting  glimpses of everyday life without reducing  them into cliché or kitschy representations? These are the questions explored  by the Art Encounters Foundation’s group exhibition feels like it stopped raining. The compositions were inspired by 20^th-century French surrealist, Dadaist and Cubist artist, Marcel Duchamp’s theory named infra-mince (infrathin). The featured works capture subtle experiences, transient moments, barely perceptible shifts , liminal states and transit areas, opening a dialogue between visuality and language, decay and metamorphosis, finite existence and the endless permanence of repetitions. The ten participating artists take as their point of departure intangible experiences of impermanence: the shadows cast on a wall, the warmth lingering on a chair after someone has risen, or the soft rustling of velvet trousers while walking.  The exhibition will be on view until August 1^st 2026. in the building of ISHO Office 1. in Timișoara. 

The curatorial concept is also reflected in the exhibition’s installation, extending the ideas articulated by the artworks into the display itself. The wall texts are handwritten in graphite on small scraps of paper, a gesture that evokes the duality of decay and permanence, finitude and the desire to leave a trace. In her opening remarks, one of the exhibition’s curators, Diana Marincu, encouraged visitors to pay close attention to the corners of the exhibition space.

In these liminal, transitional areas something is always happening that can bring deeper connections to the surface, in this way inducing an easier spatio-temporal orientation and a smoother interpretation of the creations. 

One such example is ceramic artist Gloria Grati’s installation Azure (2025), which subtly unfolds across the walls of the exhibition space, entering into dialogue with the works of the other artists. Another noteworthy piece by Grati, Captivum (Captive, 2011), depicts a female figure trapped beneath a glass dome. What makes the composition particularly compelling is the feather-light cloud hovering above the dome: despite its apparent delicacy, it bears down on the opening with the weight of lead, blocking any possibility of escape.

The cognitive dissonance generated by this image suggests that the work addresses forms of social and psychological captivity rather than physical confinement. On the one hand, it may allude to the exploitative, objectifying, and sexualizing effects of the male gaze, through which the female body gradually becomes an appropriated and alienated entity, stripped of its sense of freedom and familiarity. On the other hand, the work may evoke the narrowed and distorted perception of reality associated with mental illness, anxiety, depression, and other neurodivergent conditions—experiences that are still frequently met with taboo, stigma, or trivialization.

Her work The Ephemeral Reflections (2026) explores the metaphysics of light and reflection. The crystal-like blue glaze shimmering within the ceramic bowls creates a dynamic visual flow, entering into a singular and unrepeatable dialogue with each visitor. Resembling subterranean chambers, the bowls also evoke Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, in which human perception of reality—like the two-dimensional shadows cast upon the cave wall—is understood as merely a projection of objective truth. Similarly, our memory preserves only a subjective impression of a glint or flash of light perceived for a fraction of a second.

One of Mirela Ivanciu’s hand-embroidered textile installations, Conditioned Self (2023), depicts a mythical creature inspired by medieval representations of dragons and surrounded by delicate floral motifs. The composition also bears the inscription “Clopoței de vânt din monede ruginite” (“Wind chimes made of rusty coins”). In the dialogue between the poetic text and the embroidered ornaments, the timeless airiness of the wind chimes’ tinkling meets the weary materiality of the coins, weathered by time. The work thus blends the enduring nature of folkloric heritage, preserved through collective memory, with the sense of transience evoked by the haiku-like poem.

Raluca Micula’s kinetic installation Conducted Sounds (2026) conveys a similar message. Suspended from thin strings, the bells chime together in constantly shifting sequences and configurations, embodying the duality of transience and permanence, as well as that of uniqueness and repetition.

Musz (Cristina Curcan)’s installation series Cea mai bună zi (The Best Day, 2019–present), created using digital collage techniques, captures various moments from a single day through screenshots arranged in a seemingly random order. However, the fact that the artist has been developing the work for seven years suggests that the sequence of images is not entirely arbitrary but follows an underlying system that she periodically rearranges and reorganizes. As a result, a new pattern continually emerges from the memories of “the best day.”

Through its surrealist imagery and vibrant use of colour, Anna-Mária Szabó’s painting The Drop (2026) captures the fleeting moment when a pebble is thrown into a pond and ripples spread across the water’s surface. Although the water eventually becomes still again, the pebble remains at the bottom of the pond. This symbolic image can also be interpreted from a psychological perspective, as it is often used to illustrate the lasting effects of trauma.

In Anca Adina Cojocaru’s video installation River Says (2002), the movement of the water, the light reflected on its surface, the human body, and the body of the text merge inextricably, continually rewriting and transforming one another. The work also conveys a gesture of reconnection with nature: “Where I used to be / There is now a forest / River says. / Find me.”

Imminent Detour’s (Andreea Samoilă) work Temporary Tattoo (2023) similarly explores the dual gestures of decay and leaving a trace. A tattoo, after all, creates the illusion of permanence on the surface of something as transient as the skin itself. The inscription TEMPORAR (Temporary) on the photographed arm further confronts us with this ambivalence. In another work displayed alongside this composition, the artist portrays herself wearing a shirt backwards. The title both encapsulates and compellingly interprets the image: Wearing a Shirt Backwards Is Me Giving Myself a Hug from the Past (2025).

The gallery becomes a space for experimentation with diverse artistic techniques, approaches, and media. Ciprian Ciobanu’s works (Mediated Gestures-series, 2025; Starting Point I−IV, 2026), which evoke the gestural language of Jackson Pollock’s Abstract Expressionism, provide an excellent example. Ciobanu’s improvisational, nonconformist compositions create a bridge between the static medium of painting and the dynamic medium of performance. He also incorporates elements of graffiti into his compositions, elevating features associated with this pop-cultural movement into the realm of high art.

Finally, as a sort of counterexample, I would like to bring Ray Bradbury’s dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451 into the discussion. The novel reveals what happens when people are systematically prevented from appreciating life’s small beauties and from thinking freely, independently, and critically. By contrast, this exhibition invites us to contemplate the beauty of decay and to immerse ourselves collectively in a moment of transience suspended in time.

feels like it stopped raining (artists: Ciprian Ciobanu, Anca Adina Cojocaru, Gloria Grati, Imminent Detour / Andreea Samoilă, Lucian Indrei, Mirela Ivanciu, Raluca Micula, musz, Szabó Anna-Mária, Dan Cebotari; curators: Diana Marincu & Mihai Toth) Art Encounters Foundation, ISHO Office 1., Timișoara, 19.06.2026−01.08.2026.

Photos: Courtesy of Art Encounters Foundation