The exhibition “Hard Surfaces, Slanted Thoughts”, curated by Mălina Ionescu, offers a comprehensive overview of Liliana Basarab’s artistic practice over the past 16 years, bringing together recent works presented for the first time alongside earlier series that are key to understanding her approach. The People of… project enters into a dialogue with works such as On the Side of Artemis, which serves as a guiding key for the entire exhibition: a critical re-reading of female symbols and mythologies, and a feminist recontextualization of historical, artistic, and cultural frameworks that helped shape dominant visual canons.

Conceived as a manifesto against conformity, the exhibition takes the form of an installation in which works complement and generate each other, engaging in a continuous dialogue between everyday observation—captured in snapshots with social and political undertones—and a deeply personal, almost archaeological exploration of archetypal references. Oscillating between an interest in cultural heritage and an openness to chance, accident, and unpredictability, Basarab’s practice emerges as both a project of resistance and the construction and reclamation of an artistic identity that precedes and transcends feminism as a label.

Liliana Basarab lives and works in Bucharest. Her practice, deeply rooted in the current social context, spans diverse media, including ceramics, textiles, drawing, performance, video, and participatory workshops. Recurring themes in her work address gender, identity, and social norms, often approached with irony and subtle humor as tools to question traditional symbols and cultural narratives. Over time, she has been actively involved in collective initiatives and artistic organizations, from Asociația Vector in early 2000s Iași to the Sofia Nădejde Awards Collective (2018–2022), and is currently part of the Atelierele Malmaison community.

The exhibition is on view at MNAC until February 1, 2026, in the Auditorium on the museum’s 4th floor.