Born in Romania in 1979, Dana Cojbuc lives and works in Paris. After graduating from the Beaux-Arts in Bucharest (Romania) and the University of Athens (Greece), Dana Cojbuc started as a photographer before her experiments led her to a combination of techniques. Moving her practice towards drawing by extending her photographic images with handwork, the artist shifts the focus from the real to the imaginary, inviting us to plunge into dreamlike narratives and possible inner worlds. While the 'Conte d'hiver' series (2018) unfolds an intimate story about freedom, reinvesting images from her childhood, among other things, the 'Yggdrasil' series - named after the sacred tree of Norwegian legends - begun in 2019 during a residency at the Sunnhordland Museum, focuses on the idea of a mythology of Nature transcribed through a fragile Anthropocene prism. More recently, his series 'Ouvrir le rivage' (2022), produced for the Planches Contact festival (Deauville) - and awarded the festival's Tremplin Jeunes Talents prize - offers poetic images of Normandy's beaches, where memories - landscapes, characters, and lights from his native Romania - mingle with real elements, thus placing himself in the continuity of a history of art.
Her work has been exhibited across Europe at the Backlight photography triennial (Finland, 2008), the Circulation(s), regards de jeunes photographes européens exhibition (Paris, 2008), the ManifestO festival (Toulouse, 2010), the Sunnhordland Museum (Stord, Norway, 2020), the Confrontations Photo festival (Gex, 2021), the Planches Contact festival (Deauville, 2022) and more recently at the European House of Photography in Bratislava (2022).
Her work is currently on show at the Maison de la Photographie des Landes alongside Benoît Cary. Entitled "Pays imaginé", the exhibition runs until 21 October 2023.
