Essays Atelier LiterNet · 8 September 2026

I Need a Spade

A text about SEEDS, about painting leaving the wall and being brought down to ground level, and about the question that has accompanied the series for ten years: what changes when we alter the place from which we look at painting?

Adrian Dică’s SEEDS installation in the courtyard of Cantacuzino Palace, with paintings placed at ground level and a green spade, Bucharest, 2026

A text about SEEDS, about painting leaving the wall and being brought down to ground level, and about the question that has accompanied the series for ten years: what changes when we alter the place from which we look at painting?

The essay accompanies the transformation of the SEEDS series into an installation and the symbolic gesture of “planting” the twelve paintings at Cantacuzino Palace in Bucharest.

Detail of Adrian Dică’s SEEDS installation, with paintings protected in transparent cases and placed on the courtyard paving at Cantacuzino Palace, Bucharest, 2026
Detail of Adrian Dică’s SEEDS installation, with paintings protected in transparent cases and placed on the courtyard paving at Cantacuzino Palace, Bucharest, 2026

The original essay was published in Romanian by Atelier LiterNet.

Read the full essay on Atelier LiterNet →

SEEDSPainting installationCantacuzino PalaceAtelier LiterNet