The Romanian visual artist Simionescu Alecia-Irina is, first and foremost, a cartographer of architectural ruins and a chronicler of abandoned buildings.
Her ongoing project, “ruin a day” (or “Ruinaday”), is as rich as it is insightful; overall, it is a well-put-together and documented photographic encyclopedia where photojournalism meets poetry.
In a way, Simionescu identifies herself with the ruins so dear to her. She not only instills life in the moss-covered bricks; she is one with them, and they are one with her.
The complete, unaltered “Ruin A Day” manifesto:
“Ruins have become a kind of home for me. That’s where I recognize myself—in the cracks that don’t hide, in the dust that carries traces, in the beams that still stand after everything they’ve endured. And somehow, I see myself in them. Maybe each of us carries a similar inner architecture: light and darkness, flawless and abandoned, fragile and stubborn.”
ruin a day
“And somehow, I see myself in them. Maybe each of us carries a similar inner architecture: light and darkness, flawless and abandoned, fragile and stubborn.”
ruin a day
“I no longer fear the ruin within me. I look at it with honesty, touch it with patience, and let it breathe in its own rhythm. In the peeling walls I find my transformations, and in the remnants of a life once lived I discover a new beginning—every time I need to rebuild myself.”
ruin a day
This is who I am: a gaze searching for truth beyond appearances, a person learning to see beauty in what remains when everything else falls away. And maybe anyone who comes close to ruins—whether outside or within—can feel the same: that sometimes, where something seems lost, wholeness quietly begins.”
ruin a day
Read our “Camouflage” issue in full
RAWGUE.’s 4th issue delved into the grey, moody, and cold atmosphere of winter. Yet it did not sink into the depths of madness or depression. Instead, it embraced this season of hibernation, allowing 31 artists from all over the world to present their timid work beneath a veil of quiet beauty.
We’re a team of writers using our craft to spotlight art in its most honest form. RAWGUE. started as a bi-monthly editorial experiment where each issue’s theme is dictated by the submitted work, thus removing editorial bias from the equation and preserving a more raw approach. We focus on all forms of poetry: written, photographed, painted, drawn, and filmed.
