The first exhibition, “Nucleu 0010. Inopportune Meetings,” launched a series of collaborations between artists from the Nucleu group and those with studios provided by the Union of Visual Artists from Romania (UAPR). This documentation project was initiated by the Nucleu 0000 Association, aiming to preserve the legacy of artists working in these spaces before they risk losing them. The project also draws attention to the critical need for affordable studios for artists.

The second part of the Inopportune Encounters connected 4 artists from the artist studios in Doamnei Street in Bucharest that we documented with other 4 artists that have independent studios.

The project Inopportune Encounters highlights a critical issue for the contemporary art scene: the increasingly limited access to affordable creative spaces. Framed as a manifesto, it establishes a platform for dialogue and solidarity, centered on the studio as an essential space for creation, reflection, and experimentation.

The studio is presented as a sanctuary for artists—a space removed from the world, where they can freely experiment, destroy, rebuild, discard, and create without the pressure of judgment. However, this vital resource is becoming harder to access, as neoliberal capitalism’s accelerated changes push artists to the brink of subsistence, forcing them to make sacrifices to afford their workspace.

The events in the project aim to address the lack of affordable creative spaces available to artists, emphasizing that paying for a studio should not mean sacrificing one’s basic needs.

The exhibition, in this context, does not pursue an aesthetic goal or serve as the final outcome of collaborations. It is not arranged according to conventional standards of “coherence” but instead focuses on the artistic experience rooted in the process of “encounter,” with the purpose of exchanging ideas and exploring the unexpected opportunities that arise from “conversation for the sake of conversation.”

The burden of studio rent should not force artists into a life of near subsistence, exacerbated by the relentless changes brought on by neoliberal capitalism. Since 1990, UAPR has lost more than 70% of its studios and has not acquired any new properties. In Bucharest, only about 300 studios remain for 3,000 UAPR artists, while another 300 studios across the country serve an additional 3,000 members. As a result, many artists are forced to rent in the private market at high rates with unstable, short-term contracts.