ALEXANDRA IONESCU (March-May 2020)

The time, space, and silence to work.

"I arrived at Alba: The House of Shared Talents (@albacreative_charleroi) residency in Charleroi, Belgium, at the end of March carrying a very heavy book in my backpack, Globes by Peter Sloterdijk. Melanie came and picked me up from the train station.

As described by Melanie, Alba is "The first glow of the rising sun that is beginning to whiten the horizon." But also, in the literary sense, "The Beginning." The blank page. That special moment of the day when everything is to be written, where everything can still be dreamed of. An immutable cycle. A moment of grace, foresight, contemplation. ALBA is the awakening of our talents."

I've worked more than 12 hours per day during my time there, sometimes not even leaving the house. It was not easy to isolate at this degree, but necessary.

I remember expressing the intention of wanting to find an overhead projector, only to find it two days later sitting at the entrance of my room. I have no idea where Melanie found one, but this is the degree to which she looks after those she deeply cares about. She also restored an old Italian consulate from scratch, finding all the resources to make her dream come true in order for others to create and to become.

My residency ended in May, and I returned to the US."   Alexandra Ionescu 

Some excerpts from my writing at Alba here: https://publications.risdmuseum.org/grad-show-2021-liberal-arts/alexandra-ionescu