Romanian born sound artist and musician Ioana Mandrescu completed her studies in her home country, France and Belgium. She is graduate of the EPAS programme in Ghent.

She is the founding member of two contemporary music groups, Quivir Ensemble, together with flutist Diana Muela Mora and clarinetist and conductor Jose Fernandez Camacho, and Opia Ensemble, together with cellist Aleksandra Pykacz.

Strongly influenced by choreography and painting, she developed performances that brought together sound, film and dance. They were presented in Belgium – Bozar Opening Night, Belgium, Festival Courants d'Airs, Poland – FAMA Festival and Iran – First Edition of the Contemporary Music Festival in Tehran.

As a sound artist she was part of group exhibitions in Gouvernment and KASK in Ghent. She performed live sets at MixTree - Amsterdam, Atlantikwall Nocturne – Oostende, La Senne - Brussels, Onder Stroom - Antwerp. She was a resident of Q-O2 and iMAL in Brussels.

She was featured on The Word Radio series FAIR_PLAY as an emerging female composer and her pieces can be found on several international sound art compilations.

She is a founding member of the COM(E)PULSIVE platform for sound art.

Apart from her individual work, she frequently collaborates with many Belgian and international artists.

Since 2020 she collaborates with Norwegian artists Kjersti G. Andvig. Their first work, The Two Seasons, conceived together with the Royal Burundian drummers Ikiyago Legacy, premiered in 2022 in CC Muze, Heuzden Zolder - Belgium.

She has worked in collaboration with Syrian director Eyas Al Mokdad as a sound designer for the installation and theater play Unfolding the Body (Women of Troy), presented in Brussels at ZSenne Art Lab in July 2023 and KVS Box in October 2023.

She is often asked to record performances of other artists, such as Raffaella Crispino and Stijn Demeulenaere.

Mandrescu is also active as a teacher for sound art, music and sound for film. In 2021 and 2022 she was part of the UNESCO project Reviving the Spirit of Mosul which took part in Iraq.

At the core of her work are the human body and human produced sounds and their impact on the world. She is a collector of discarded objects, stories, medical data from various organs, with a particular focus on the heart.

As a sound recordist she is constantly working on updating a personal database of man made sounds which become building blocks for her sound pieces and installations.

Ioana lives and works in Brussels.