Elena Brebenel is a textile practitioner who is interested in investigating the intersections between art, craft and design, through a highly experimental process-based and research-driven practice.
Through her design research situated at the intersection with science, she explores the possibility of developing a poetic approach to raising awareness about health and wellbeing in the domestic space through the use of bio-inspired textile artefacts.
In her studio art practice she utilises the same experimental and interdisciplinary approach. This work consists of textile objects and installations and investigates the theme of memory through an exploration of place and the coded language of maps.
What is currently informing her practice are the discoveries she is making while working as a researcher and restored at the National Museum Complex “Moldova” Iasi. First, the fact that used objects carry a history with them, and through the act of repair one must acknowledge and protect the marks that define that history; second that restoration is a practice which involves a constant interaction with materials and is rich in hands-on processes in the same way the art and design practice is, and third that the methodology for keeping these objects alive involves a mix of analogue and digital techniques meant to protect the object, that are either diminishing or enriching the viewers experience.
Elena holds a PhD from Central Saint Martins: University of the Arts London, UK with a thesis titled Bio-inspired Textiles: a poetic approach to raise awareness about air quality at home, an MFA from School of the Arts: University of Kansas, USA with a thesis titled “Encoding [quiet memories]”, and a BA from Faculty of Visual Arts and Design: National University of Arts ‘George Enescu’ Iasi, Romania with a thesis titled “Personal itinerary”. Elena’s work was widely exhibited, including countries such as Canada, France, Italy, Lithuania, Portugal, Romania, UK, Uruguay and USA. She has received numerous grants and was awarded residencies at Contemporary Artists Center at Woodside (Troy, NY, USA), Kala Art Institute (Berkeley, CA, USA), The Fabric Workshop and Museum (Philadelphia, PA, USA), Can Serrat Centro de Actividades Artisticas (Barcelona, Spain), Nature, Art and Habitat Residency (Bergamo, Italy), Contextile 2016 (Guimarães, Portugal), Pocoapoco (Oaxaca, Mexico) and Tescani 2025 (Bacau, Romania).
Elena currently lives in Iasi, Romania where she is a restorer of cultural heritage objects at the National Museum Complex “Moldova”.