Cluj-Napoca, Romania

This intervention at Fabrica de Pensule (Strada Henri Barbusse 59-61) dates from October 2016, during Vhils's first journey through Romania — a tour organised by the DU-NE cultural association that also took him to Bucharest and Timișoara before this, its third stop. Installed in the courtyard of the former paintbrush factory, the carved portrait establishes a connection between the building's industrial history and its later transformation into a collective space for artistic production and cultural exchange. The subject is a rural woman, extending that connection beyond the city to Romania's agricultural communities. Executed through Vhils's subtractive process, the work embeds this memory within the fabric of the former factory.