Kostüm- und Setdesign
Persönlichen Details
Name
Cristina Milea
Professional Titles
Costume Designer, Stage Designer, Scenographer, Lecturer, Founder of Sarlatan.ro
Primary Teaching Institution
Athanor Akademie Passau
Educational Reference
Scenography at the NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF ARTS IN BUCHAREST (BA & MA); BioHack Academy at the WAAG SOCIETY AMSTERDAM
Field of Activity
BERLIN, PASSAU, BUCHAREST, AMSTERDAM, COLOGNE, VIENNA, BUDAPEST
Memberships / Alumni Status
Founder of the interdisciplinary upcycling art platform Sarlatan.ro
Cristina Milea is a Romanian costume designer and stage designer based in Berlin, Germany. She works across theatre, dance, multimedia installations, film, and artistic research. Her practice is interdisciplinary, combining traditional craftsmanship with experimental materials, biomaterials, upcycling processes, and ecological perspectives. She is the founder of Sarlatan.ro, an upcycling art platform developed in collaboration with independent international artists. Through this platform, she develops projects that explore sustainability, cultural memory, and material transformation in performative and exhibition-based formats.
Her work focuses on costume as a living archive and explores themes such as identity, autonomy, symbiosis, sustainability, and survival. She investigates how costume and scenography can function as sites of memory, ecological awareness, and speculative futures. Her artistic research frequently combines biological processes, textile experimentation, and performative installation formats, engaging with microbial life, organic waste, and posthuman narratives.
Kontakt zu
Cristina Milea
Cristina Milea
Connection to the Athanor Akademie
Since 2021, Cristina Milea has been a part-time lecturer in Costume Design at the Athanor Akademie in Passau, Germany. She emphasizes research-based design, encouraging students to approach costume not only as visual composition but as conceptual, ethical, and ecological practice. Her teaching focuses on:
- Sustainable scenography
- Costume as narrative and archive
- Material experimentation
- Feminist historiography
- Character analysis
PROFESSIONAL MILESTONES
| Year | Milestone |
|---|---|
| 2007 | Bachelor of Arts degree in Scenography completed at the National University of Arts in Bucharest |
| 2010 | Master of Arts degree specializing in Upcycling Art and Sustainable Scenographic Practices |
| 2010 | Honored with the Lowendal Scenography Award and the Best Scenography Award at the Piatra Neamț Festival |
| 2013 | First major feature film costume design debut for the theatrical release White Gate directed by Nicolae Mărgineanu |
| 2020 | Winner of the prestigious UNITER Award for Best Scenography for Dangerous Liaisons at Teatrul Mic |
| 2021-present | Part-time Lecturer in Costume Design at the Athanor Akademie in Passau, Germany |
| 2022 | Nominated for the national UNITER Award for Best Scenography |
| 2023 | Awarded the national UCIN Award for Best Film Scenography for Clouds of Chernobyl |
| 2024 | Completed artistic research fellowship at the BioHack Academy of the Waag Society Amsterdam |
| 2024 | Won the Best Show Award at the Sächsisches Theatertreffen for Muttersprache Mameloschn |
| 2024-2027 | Lead Artist and Researcher for the multi-year bioart installation project Purple Power Play |
Awards and Nominations
| Year | Award |
|---|---|
| 2010 | Lowendal Scenography Award |
| 2010 | Best Scenography Award (Piatra Neamț Festival) |
| 2020 | UNITER Award for Best Scenography (Dangerous Liaisons) |
| 2022 | UNITER Nomination for Best Scenography |
| 2023 | UCIN Award for Best Film Scenography (Clouds of Chernobyl) |
| 2024 | Best Show Award (Sächsisches Theatertreffen for Muttersprache Mameloschn) |
Selected Theatre and Dance Productions (Curated)
| Production | Role | Director / Venue |
|---|---|---|
| Bloom (2025) | Costume & Stage Design | Teatro 4Garoupas Cologne |
| The Younger Man (2025) | Costume & Stage Design | Kosmostheater Vienna / Annie Ernaux |
| Muttersprache Mameloschn (2024) | Costume & Stage Design | Freiberg, Germany |
| In Resonance (2022) | Costume & Stage Design | MU Budapest |
| Ramenenjana (2022) | Costume & Stage Design | Radialsystem Berlin / CNDB Bucharest |
| Dangerous Liaisons (2019) | Costume & Stage Design | Cristi Juncu / Teatrul Mic Bucharest |
| Persona (2019) | Costume & Stage Design | Odeon Theatre Bucharest |
| Woyzeck (2017) | Costume & Stage Design | Chișinău |
| Kimberley (2017) | Costume & Stage Design | Comedy Theatre Bucharest |
| Three Sisters (2016) | Costume & Stage Design | National Theatre Târgu Mureș |
| Julius Caesar (2016) | Costume & Stage Design | Craiova |
| Castingul Dracului (2014) | Costume & Stage Design | National Theatre Târgu Mureș |
| The Golden Dragon (2013) | Costume & Stage Design | Piatra Neamț |
| Family Stories (2010) | Costume & Stage Design | Sfântu Gheorghe |
Filmography
| Year | Title | Network / Format |
|---|---|---|
| 2013 | White Gate | Directed by Nicolae Mărgineanu / Feature Film (Costume Design) |
| 2022 | Clouds of Chernobyl | Directed by Ligia Ciornei / Feature Film (Set & Costume Design) |
Installations & Exhibtions
| Year | Production | Role / Function |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 | Inside/Outside (Galateca Gallery, Bucharest) | Solo Exhibition & Installation |
| 2020 | Barbie / Hello Kitty Installation Series | Conceptual Installation Series |
| 2017 | Hikikomori (Kube Musette Gallery, Bucharest) | Scenographic Installation |
| 2014 | Fragile (CNDB Awards, Bucharest) | Exhibition & Design Installation |
| various | Faith Under Plastic | Ongoing Multimedial Installation Series |
| various | Ethereal Ecosystems | Biomaterials Research Installation |
Selected Artistic and Research Projects
| Year | Project / Venue | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-2027 | Purple Power Play (with Waag BioHack Academy, Amsterdam) | A biomaterial and soft-robotic costume installation reimagining female icons such as Empress Theodora through feminist and biopolitical perspectives. |
| 2026-2027 | Hug (Work in progress) | An interactive sculptural project using soft robotics and biomaterials such as wool, exploring how reality takes shape through textures, tactility, and emotion as sensory archives. |
| 2026 | Flee Market (Work in progress) | A collage-based installation exploring liminal childhood memories formed during the transition from a dictatorial political system to democracy in early 1990s Romania, combining organic waste (finding value in the overlooked) with technology. |
| 2024 | Microbial Wander (Scenography Biennale Bucharest) | A research project exploring organic waste leather, mycelium growth, coffee leather, kombucha leather, and textile dyeing with bacteria, investigating microbial growth as a form of material agency. |
| 2024 | Transposthumante / Transhumance (House of European Institutes, Timișoara) | An interdisciplinary exhibition exploring nomadism, migration, and fluid identity through posthumanist theory, applied to the study of lichens and their symbiotic existence. |
Interview
