About
A portrait of a community, and of the place where many of us became ourselves. Photographed by David Burlacu For eighteen years, Control has been more than a venue in Bucharest. Somewhere between the stage, the dancefloor and the conversations that stretched late into the night, it became a space in which a community could find and gradually define itself. This exhibition looks back at the people who were part of that story from its early years: people who met at Control, returned night after night, grew alongside it and, in many cases, came of age within the culture that surrounded it. Returning through portraiture to some of the people who inhabited those debut years creates a dialogue between past and present. The portraits gathered by the anniversary exhibition - CTRL 18. Countless versions of becoming - are not intended as a definitive history of Control, nor as an exhaustive portrait of its community. They are fragments of a collective memory. Each face carries its own relationship with the place, while together they evoke something harder to document: the feeling of belonging to a cultural moment while it was still being created. Eighteen years later, these people have followed different paths. What connects them is not nostalgia, but the memory of a formative space - a place where music opened doors towards other people, other cultures and other possible versions of oneself. They came for the music, but stayed for something beyond. The photographer's own trajectory is intertwined with the world the exhibition remembers. Romanian photographer now based in New York, David Burlacu began by photographing concerts across Bucharest's venues, documenting the city's musical culture from within before eventually moving to New York. Early days found David Burlacu shooting concerts all across venues in Bucharest until he had the opportunity to move to New York. There he got an internship with renowned National Geographic photographer Steve McCurry. Soon after that David shifted his focus towards portraiture and photojournalism, his work being published in The New York Times and Rolling Stone Magazine. He currently shares his time between New York, Melbourne and Bucharest. ”It’s borderline impossible to write just one paragraph about what Control means to me, but I’ll give it a shot. Considering that my student years were shaken up on a weekly basis by this place, the word “epicenter” carries the fidelity needed to describe it. I discovered, created, drank, danced, slept. loved, lost my voice and found my calling under the same roof. My relationship with this place was short, somewhere around 2 years, but the intensity bares the signature of a supernova. Bottom line I grew up in Control and for that I will be forever grateful to the team behind this amazing space.” - www.davidburlacu.com CTRL 18. Countless versions of becoming Photography: David Burlacu Curator: Raluca Oana Radu Commissioned and produced by Control Opening: 3 October 2026, 16.00h Exhibition dates: 3–18 October 2026 Venue: Alt Shift (right upstairs from Control) The exhibition CTRL 18. Countless versions of becoming will also be included in the programme of 11th edition of Bucharest Photofest, taking place 9–18 October 2026, under this year's overarching theme, WITNESS