The Light That Remembers: Catrinel Săbăciag and the Infinite Reflection of Tradition
In Cluj-Napoca, at the intersection of contemporary design and poetic restraint, Catrinel Săbăciag continues to redefine how we perceive light. Her objects are composed with the precision of an industrial designer and the sensitivity of an artist — balancing geometry and emotion, science and ritual.
This year, her latest creation — a candle holder inspired by Romania’s Day of the Dead traditions — joins the Ce Fain! collection. It’s a piece that transforms cultural remembrance into modern form, using light not just as function, but as memory.
Remembering Through Light
Every year, on November 1, cemeteries across Transylvania are illuminated by thousands of candles. Families gather to honor those who came before them. The ritual, quiet and luminous, transforms grief into communion.
Catrinel’s candle holder recalls this moment. With the use of infinity mirrors, she multiplies the image of a single flame, evoking the endless lines of light seen on that night of remembrance. The reflection feels both natural and deliberate — a design gesture that connects contemporary craft to ancestral rhythm.
It’s not an imitation of tradition, but a continuation of it. A way to hold memory within modern materials.
The Language of Reflection
Reflection and optical illusion have long been central to Catrinel Săbăciag’s work. From her early Morfoza light sculptures to the later Onnda collection, her objects play with perception — shifting, mirroring, and refracting the environment around them.
Her pieces often appear kinetic though they remain still, an effect created through layered surfaces and the interaction of natural and artificial light. Across her exhibitions — from Dutch Design Week and Maison&Objet Paris to Milano Design Week and Index Dubai 2025 — this exploration of visual movement has become a defining element of her practice.
The new candle holder continues this investigation. It demonstrates how design can use optical principles to reveal something emotional: the way memory repeats and light renews.
Material Intelligence
Trained in product design at the University of Edinburgh and the Lund School of Industrial Design, Săbăciag approaches material with both technical insight and sensitivity. Her use of glass, mirrors, and metal is deliberate — never ornamental, always structural.
In previous works like Morfoza, she explored transparency, layering, and refracted color. The series earned her recognition across Europe, including the LIT Lighting Design Award (2024) and the Silhouette Award (2024), as well as exhibitions at Romanian Design Week, Transylvanian Design Week, and the Luxembourg Art Prize shortlist.
The candle holder extends this language into an object of stillness. It connects material experiment with a distinctly Romanian narrative — one of light, ritual, and continuity.
Romanian Context, Global Resonance
While Săbăciag’s forms are unmistakably contemporary, her inspiration often draws from Romanian cultural and natural contexts — from local materials to the landscapes of Transylvania. Her participation in international exhibitions has introduced this regional sensibility to a global audience, positioning her work among those who explore light as a sculptural medium.
In features across publications such as Urdesign Magazine, Cultartes, Darc Magazine, and Adorno, her work has been described as transformative and perception-driven — a practice where technology and intuition meet.
The candle holder exemplifies this balance. It distills cultural meaning into form, offering an object that is as much about emotion as it is about structure.
A Design of Reverence
Seen lit in a dim space, the candle holder invites quiet attention. The reflections appear infinite, yet contained — a design paradox that feels deeply human. It acknowledges transience while suggesting continuation, translating a moment of collective remembrance into an intimate ritual of light.
This is design as reflection — both literal and metaphorical.
At Ce Fain!, we see in Catrinel Săbăciag’s work the essence of Romanian design today: contemporary in expression, rooted in heritage, and unafraid of stillness. Her candle holder does not imitate tradition; it illuminates it — softly, endlessly.
The flame repeats, the memory endures. Somewhere in between, beauty remains.
