Longing for a Better Past, exhibition 11.09-29.09.2026, tranzit.ro Iași, Romania

Longing for a Better Past

An exhibition on nostalgia, memory and the ways we restore the past

Part of the programme hosted by tranzit.ro/

Opening - 11 September 2026 

7:00 – Round-table discussion |

19:30 – Exhibition openingOn 11 September, at tranzit.ro/ Iași,

WASP Studios opens “Longing for a Better Past / Tânjind după un trecut mai bun”, an exhibition developed within “Living Archives. Memory, identity, and everyday gestures”.

Bringing together 11 artists from Romania and the Republic of Moldova, the exhibition explores how nostalgia, personal memory, and collective memory participate in reconstructing and reframing the communist past.The exhibition is curated by Olivia Nițiș and Andreea Căpitănescu, with curatorial concept and text by Olivia Nițiș.

Works by: Matei Bejenaru, Tatiana Fiodorova-Lefter, Mălina Ionescu, Mălina Moncea, Sarah Muscalu, Delia Popa, Ghenadie Popescu, Marilena Preda Sânc, Carmen Raszovsky, Gheorghe Raszovsky, Renée Renard.Visual identity: Ciprian Ciuclea.

The programme on 11 September begins at 17:00 with a round-table discussion featuring Matei Bejenaru, Sarah Muscalu, Mălina Moncea, and Delia Popa, moderated by Olivia Nițiș and Andreea Căpitănescu. The discussion will address the nuanced dimensions of political nostalgia, particularly nostalgia for communism, from the perspective of artistic practices, while questioning reductive readings of the communism/post-communism divide.The exhibition opening will take place at 19:30, and the exhibition will remain on view at tranzit.ro/ Iasi until 29 September 2026.Visits: by prior appointment at livia.pancu@tranzit.org

Introduced in 1688 by Swiss physician Johannes Hofer, the term “nostalgia” originally described an illness. Today, nostalgia is understood as a common human experience, connected to a longing for a real or imagined past.“Longing for a Better Past” explores the role nostalgia plays in shaping personal, collective, social, and political memory. At its core is the relationship with the communist past and the ways in which lived, inherited, and mediated experiences generate different, sometimes contradictory narratives of that past.

Artists from Romania and the Republic of Moldova enter into a dialogue shaped by differences in generation, geopolitics, and personal trajectories. The resulting works connect individual memory with collective history, everyday experience with political history, and historical reality with ideological fabrication. Some projects have been developed collaboratively by pairs of artists, while others retain the autonomy of situated perspectives that complement one another.The exhibition starts from the premise that nostalgia for communism cannot be reduced either to an idealisation of the past or to a single narrative of the totalitarian experience.

Personal memory preserves contradictions, attachments, trauma, and everyday experiences that coexist and may come into tension with documented history.At the same time, the project critically examines how nostalgia can move beyond the intimate sphere of memory and become a political instrument. The idealisation of the past, selective memory, and promises of a return to supposedly lost values can transform history into an ideological resource, particularly in periods of social, political, and identity crisis. Digital platforms, social media, and artificial intelligence increasingly contribute to the circulation of alternative histories and to the construction of new imaginaries of the past.Against this background, “Longing for a Better Past” proposes a critical reconstruction of a collective past situated at the intersection of memory, history, and ideological fabrication, using artistic practice as a space for reflecting on how the past continues to be negotiated, constructed, and resignified in the present.

Travelling exhibition• 11–29 September 2026 — tranzit.org/ Iasi•

8 October–22 November 2026 — National Museum of History of Moldova, Chișinău• 7–20 December 2026 — National Museum of the Romanian Peasant, Bucharest

Curated by: Olivia Nițiș & Andreea CăpitănescuCuratorial concept and text: Olivia NițișProducer: WASP StudiosPartners: tranzit.org/ Iasi; National Museum of History of Moldova, Chișinău; National Museum of the Romanian Peasant, BucharestSponsor: AQUA CarpaticaThe exhibition is part of “Living Archives. Memory, Identity and everyday gestures / Arhive vii. Memorie, identitate și gesturi cotidiene”.Cultural project co-financed by the Administration of the National Cultural Fund.

The project does not necessarily represent the official position of the Administration of the National Cultural Fund. AFCN shall not be held liable for the project’s content or any use to which the project outcome might be put. These are the sole responsibility of the beneficiary of the funding.tranzit.ro/Iași is part of tranzit.ro, the Romanian member of tranzit.org network. The main partner of tranzit.org is ERSTE Foundation.