Dana Olărescu is a socially engaged artist driven by environmental psychology and ecofeminism. She bends the boundaries between art and design to analyse the co-dependence of socio-economic and political factors, patriarchy, colonialism, and neoliberalism, to engender alternative models based on collaboration. Dana Olărescu enables access to art and knowledge through participatory methodologies, as a means to provide underserved migrant groups the agency to become active producers of culture.
Dana Olărescu co-founded There There, a performance company with Bojana Janković, between 2011 and 2018. 50% Serbian and 50% Romanian, There There toured various festivals which focused on migrant and refugee art. Predominantly concerned with reclaiming Eastern European identity in the West, There There immigrant and national identities, heritage as well as exclusion, to encourage alternative debates around migration. They have collaborated with a plethora of social researchers as well as advocacy organisations, enabling conversations amongst minority groups.
Dana Olărescu’s projects have been supported in the past by Counterpoints Arts as well as other organisations such as the Arts Council, UCL Culture, and Urban Wilderness. She has presented her work in the UK at the Tate Modern, the London Short Film Festival, and Art Gene, to name a few, as well as at various international locations, including Incheon Art Platform (South Korea).
Image (c) Neil Clarke
