The work installed outside the Faculty of Sociology and Social Work (FSAS), co-produced by artist Maria Bălan and musician Adrian Drăguț (Dragutesku), continues the cultural route of street art in Bucharest, offering students, professors, residents and visitors a new opportunity to contemplate the role of activism, articulated by the vibrant colours used by Maria Bălan for this painting. By scanning the QR code inserted in the drawing, viewers can experience the work while listening to the musical fragment composed by Adrian Drăguț (Dragutesku).
Inspired by Sociona, the FSAS superhero, who is concerned that things work well in her community and works to ensure that society protects and promotes human rights, the two artists worked in parallel to create an installation and a musical fragment, which can be discovered in the courtyard of the Panduri premises.
The installation I created here, in the courtyard of the Faculty of Sociology and Social Work, represents Sociona, a hero-character of the faculty, a person who is an activist and fights for various social causes. The character inspired me to make a kind of self-portrait, because I am interested in environmental issues and the art I make has an activist side. I tried, in this installation, to convey the idea of a character who fights with what is at hand. That’s why the character is holding books and drawing and painting tools. The idea is that we fight with what we have at hand and what represents us.
– Maria Bălan
📷 Andrei Neamțu, Un-hidden Romania
“The Faculty of Sociology and Social Work, UB thanks the cultural association Save or Cancel, coordinated by Cristina Popa and Andrei Racovițan, for including us in the program of urban regeneration and humanisation of spaces through art Un-hidden Romania. Thus, the outdoor spaces of FSAS have come to life, offering our students, but also tourists visiting Bucharest, an invitation to explore the complexity of social life, as well as to promote knowledge through street art. In addition to the character Sociona, the UB superhero symbolising the powers conferred by our faculty’s specialisations, as reinterpreted by artist Maria Bălan, we also enjoy the large-scale mural by iZZY iZVNE and BBoy Vean, displayed on the faculty’s calcaneum, a visionary creation expressing six different worlds, portals to light and darkness, coexisting in balance. We also enjoy KSELEQOQYNQYSHY (“Houses with Closed Eyes”), a large-scale work that humanises the entire faculty courtyard by visual storyteller Lucian Niță, representing an infinity of colourful universes that can be discovered through meditation.”
Prof. Dr. Doru Buzducea, Dean, Faculty of Sociology and Social Work, University of Bucharest
Join the programme and experience music and visual art shaping public spaces.
Follow the Un-hidden Romania programme:
Website: https://un-hidden.ro
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/unhidden
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/unhiddenromania
YouTube: https://bit.ly/UHR-playlist
Pinterest: https://bit.ly/UHR-pinterest
feeder.ro: http://feeder.ro/un-hidden/
Photography by Andrei Neamțu, Un-hidden Romania, Maria Bălan
Programme produced by Save or Cancel
Distributed by feeder.ro
Partners: Bucharest Metropolitan Library, National Museum of Contemporary Art (Bucharest), Faculty of Sociology and Social Work (Bucharest), Lente (Bucharest), National Highschool of Arts Queen Mary (Constanța), Artipic Association (Iași)
Media Partners: Igloo, Zeppelin, The Institute, IQads, Revista Atelierul, La pas prin Brașov, Litera 9, Romania Pozitivă, Book Hub, Teen Press, Revista Golan, Modernism, Agenția de Carte, Propagarta
Co-financed by AFCN
The programme does not necessarily represent the position of The Administration of the National Cultural Fund. AFCN is not responsible for the content of the application or the way the program results can be used. These are entirely the responsibility of the beneficiary of the funding.