"The Unknown" is a special exhibition of the artist Maria Bălan in partnership with Samusocial Din Romania, Seneca AntiCafe and the Creionetica agency, an initiative to raise awareness of the needs of homeless adults in Romania and Bucharest. Between March 7 and 20, the artist exhibits at Seneca Anticafe paintings and graphic works that focus on homeless people: “My project The Unknown was born more than ten years ago, when I was still a student of architecture. That was the first time I really realized the existence of these people, the problems they faced and the fact that in Bucharest they exist in a very large number. Until then, I didn't seem to notice them, they were somehow part of the Bucharest landscape. During my studies at the Faculty of Fine Arts, I started documenting photography and reading several specialized articles. I gathered a series of images and decided to put them on the canvas, to tell the story of the homeless adults in the images. I am still very impressed by their portraits, the expressiveness of their features and the total abandonment of their own image. That's why I decided to paint the sleeping ones. Sleep is something intimate and puts us in an extremely vulnerable position towards those around us. I wanted to illustrate their renunciation of their own image and self. If initially the paintings were closely related to the photos, I gradually moved away from reality, trying to capture the essence of the situation, the experience behind the image. The project had several names, the People of the City, the Invisibles, to become the Unknown, and materialized through a series of twelve paintings and several graphic works. It is the only painting project I have done so far and I wanted to finish it by offering something back. That's how I decided, through the Creionetica agency, to donate half of the money from the works to Samusocial from Romania. ” The opening of the exhibition is on Saturday, March 7, starting at 16:00. The exhibition with donation can be visited until March 20 inclusive, and admission is free. About the partners: The artist Maria Bălan has a special energy through her creations and is a multidisciplinary artist, with a passion for experiments with the engraving technique. He also studied Graphic Arts at the National University of Arts in Bucharest and is also a non-practicing architect. Maria's heart beats a lot for everything that urban space means and she has a lot of interesting street art projects. At the same time, the main things that inspire her are nature and the environment. Her portfolio also contains book illustration, digital art, concept art, animation and poster design, with socio-political works displayed within the Răcnet 5.0 project, organized by Graphic Front. Maria won the Prize of the International Biennial of Poster and Book Illustration of Young Artists in Timișoara in 2013. The artist's passion for interacting with art lovers was manifested through linocut workshops for children and adults. As part of the Rampa One @ Plant Village collective initiative, together with John Dot S and Robert Obert, her workshop colleagues, the artist opened her workshop to visits and the process behind her works. With the group exhibition Un-hidden Bucharest, she was also part of Romanian Design Week 2019. Recently, Maria completed a project where art and technology intersected: ANOMALICA with One Night Gallery. The show was built around her latest project, Anomalica, a series of creatures that come to life in her book made in a special edition for this event. The 13 characters presented in the book are the result of several months of hard work, using the special technique of linocut, very difficult to transpose. The event combined the exhibition with a book launch, presented to the public through augmented reality and video mapping. The exhibition was staged using frame-by-frame animation made by Reniform, with a sound design signed by Novac's Brazda and transposed by Les Atel
