Vlad Nancă and Muromuro Studio: Human Scale

Human Scale, an exhibition and research project by artist Vlad Nancă and architecture duo Muromuro Studio (Ioana Chifu and Onar Stănescu), curated by Cosmina Goagea, represents Romania at the 19th International Venice Architecture Biennale. Human Scale unfolds across the Romanian Pavilion in the Giardini della Biennale and the New Gallery of the Romanian Institute of Culture and Humanistic Research in Venice, inviting reflection on the intersection of visual arts and architecture, through a dialogue between drawings by 20th century Romanian architects and the work of contemporary artist Vlad Nancă.

The Romanian Pavilion
Human Scale explores the vital, emotional and symbolic functions of architecture. In the Romanian Pavilion, the immersive installation by Muromuro Studio builds on the practice of artist Vlad Nancă, whose sculptures are inspired by scale models in architectural drawings, creating an environment in which architecture disappears and human interaction comes to the forefront. A selection of architectural drawings reconstructs a condensed social history of architecture imagined or built in Romania throughout the 20th century, marking critical moments, ideologies and schools of thought. The drawings offer an array of historical inflexion points, from interwar modernist optimism and its postwar adaptation to the new socialist regime, to subtle architectural resistance against the totalitarianism of the 1980s and Romania’s reconnection with the global community following its anti-communist revolution of 1989.

The scope widens through a selection of maps from the 16th to 18th century, where human presence is rendered allegorically. These maps turn drawing into a rhetorical tool, used to project political and social power. Urban representations—based on architects’ drawings—carry symbolic messages about diplomacy, commerce and cultural identity. 

The New Gallery of the Romanian Institute for Culture and Humanistic Research in Venice
The New Gallery of the RICHR expands this exploration through the display of an extensive archive. Hand drawings—old and new, signed by star architects or anonymous students, become intimate spaces for rediscovering fragments of life and shared aspirations. The layout encourages engagement: a central study table sits between two pillars housing an archive and a decade-by-decade exhibition. Ten enclosed metal frames, hinged around a central pillar, present key works in chronological order. A circular library area offers over 300 reproduced drawings in custom folders—which visitors can explore.

Architecture is never neutral—it can harm or heal. It shapes social life, use of resources, and urban futures. In response to the question How should we approach architecture in the 21st century? we are invited to focus on the most sustainable construction—the one already built—and ask how it serves human life today. By returning to the original drawings and focusing on the human silhouettes they depict, we uncover how these spaces were meant to serve life—and how they might still do so today.

Vlad Nancă studied at the National University of Arts, Bucharest, Department of Photography and Moving Image. In his recent work, Nancă explores space in various forms, from public space and architecture to outer space, consistently utilising archival material and references from art and architectural history to create unique subject matter materialising in sculptures and installations.

Muromuro Studio is an architecture and design practice founded by Ioana Chifu and Onar Stănescu, spanning a wide range of typologies, including public spaces, private residences, retail stores and object design. In 2022, they expanded their activity with the opening of Grotto Gallery in Bucharest, a contemporary art and design gallery. 

Cosmina Goagea is an architect, curator and researcher within the doctoral programme at Escola Tècnica Superior d’Arquitectura de Barcelona, and the artistic director of Zeppelin—a platform of communication and action. She has received distinctions including the DASA Award from the European Museum Academy (2021), BigSEE Design Award (2019 and 2022), and was shortlisted for the European Prize for Public Space (2011) and for the EU Mies van der Rohe Award (2024).

Press contacts
Matthew Brown: matthew@sam-talbot.com, +44 (0) 7989 446557  / Alicia Lethbridge: alicia@sam-talbot.com, +44 (0) 7526 204773.

Human Scale
Exhibitors: Vlad Nancă & Muromuro Studio (Ioana Chifu, Onar Stănescu) / Curator: Cosmina Goagea / ​Commissioner: Attila Kim.

Institutional partners
Drawing Matter, The Tchoban Foundation / Museum for Architectural Drawing, Art Encounters Foundation, MARe / Museum of Recent Art, The National Museum of the Romanian Peasant, The National Museum of Maps and Old Books, Goethe-Institut Rumänien, British Council Bucharest, Artewiser Association, Scânteia +, Vellant 

Educational partners
Università Iuav di Venezia, Politehnica University of Timișoara - UPT / Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism (FAUT), The "Ion Mincu" University of Architecture and Urban Planning in Bucharest, De-a Arhitectura Association