Maria
Stanciu*
Almost Equal To
July 2026
My graduation work is a collection of minimalistic gestures on various polymers, composites and alloys, with an emphasis on materials that contradict natural rhythms through engineering, such as memory foam or galvanized steel, as well as materials developed into parodies of their more valuable, intricate counterparts; plexiglass, MDF.
Using a predefined text format and the context of the exhibition itself, I am interested in parallelism and translations performed in real time, as objects get paired up with their adjacent specification and start to mirror each other to the point of both redundancy and revelation.
This project, alongside my thesis, explores the claim that we navigate everyday life mostly surrounded by symbols or stand-ins for a distant, more genuine material reality. Relying on various degrees of abstraction, from language, image and drawing to computation or industrial manufacture, we actively participate in (re)producing a world with little awareness of what gets filtered, distorted or even completely overwritten.
1)
close-up, MDF frame backing with
agglomeration of steel D-rings for hanging (50 x 70cm)
close-up, MDF frame backing with
agglomeration of steel D-rings for hanging (50 x 70cm)
2)
close-up, specification for steel typeset
to reveal the geological origin of iron ore,
if one regards the label upside down
close-up, specification for steel typeset
to reveal the geological origin of iron ore,
if one regards the label upside down
3)
close-up, gabion lined with steel mesh
and filled with EPS packing peanuts (20 x 20 x 100 cm)
4)
close-up, acrylic frame laser-engraved
with fingerprints, next to adjacent specification
typeset to mimic the displacement
of the engravings (50 x 70 cm)
close-up, gabion lined with steel mesh
and filled with EPS packing peanuts (20 x 20 x 100 cm)
4)
close-up, acrylic frame laser-engraved
with fingerprints, next to adjacent specification
typeset to mimic the displacement
of the engravings (50 x 70 cm)
Limbo
Apr - Jun 2025
project team: Gabriel Lester, Darya Akhrameika, Miruna-Maria Stanciu, Jaap Wiedenhof, Dino van Deijnzen, Jochem van den Wijngaard, Vlad Chabai
Assisting on a competiton entry of PolyLester Studio, commissioned by Rosenheim Technical University of Applied Sciences, with modelmaking and technical drawings for a public square proposal.
The model features lasercut MDF tiles, spray-painted terracotta and follows the grid of the original design, elevating elements that turn into seating, tables or parasols.
A grid of trees also starts out as dense in the bottom left corner, but shifts, disrupted by the movment of the tiles.
Assisting on a competiton entry of PolyLester Studio, commissioned by Rosenheim Technical University of Applied Sciences, with modelmaking and technical drawings for a public square proposal.
The model features lasercut MDF tiles, spray-painted terracotta and follows the grid of the original design, elevating elements that turn into seating, tables or parasols.
A grid of trees also starts out as dense in the bottom left corner, but shifts, disrupted by the movment of the tiles.
1)
work in progress: attaching trees
to the baseplate of the model
work in progress: attaching trees
to the baseplate of the model
2)
top view: grid disruption,
drawings by Darya Akhrameika
3)
spinoffs on the main design, which could extend
the square’s functionality by wrapping around the facade
4)
details of completed model
details of completed model
Deconstructing
Afrikahuis
Sept - Dec 2024
Alien to the surrounding 19th century Amsterdam buildings, Joop van Stigt’s 1968 Afrikahuis both stands out and hides in plain sight.
This project compiles various tools designed to help navigate its concealed geometry. The ultimate goal is increasing the building’s visibility in the neighborhood.
First, I study the ground floor, the concrete skeleton that upholds the wooden church. For a precise approach, I remove its walls and ceiling to expose it to the public.
Then, I catalogue its constituent elements and their relationship. The focus becomes that of a lexicon of the building and how to decipher it.
Lastly, I abstract the volumes, applying structuralist dichotomies such as inside-outside, positive-negative, and ultimately, visible-invisible.
1)
selected page from booklet;
floorplan, sections and elevations
of Afrikahuis’ groundfloor
selected page from booklet;
floorplan, sections and elevations
of Afrikahuis’ groundfloor
2)
booklet on top of metal mesh stand,
designed in the abstracted shape
of a column
booklet on top of metal mesh stand,
designed in the abstracted shape
of a column
3)
selcted pages from booklet;
fieldnotes in English, Dutch & Spanish
on the back of site photos
selcted pages from booklet;
fieldnotes in English, Dutch & Spanish
on the back of site photos
4)
3D printed negatives and positives
of benches, columns or beams
shown on site on for the group exhibiton
Afrikahuis: Speculative Projects
3D printed negatives and positives
of benches, columns or beams
shown on site on for the group exhibiton
Afrikahuis: Speculative Projects
5)
2D shapes generated by the elements
of the groundfloor beams, columns, benches,
collaged in various compositions
2D shapes generated by the elements
of the groundfloor beams, columns, benches,
collaged in various compositions
Crate Set
project team: Miruna-Maria Stanciu,
Naglis Kranauskas
Oct - Dec 2023
Crate Crate chair spin-off, adapted as temporary low furniture for the Rietveld Canteen.
Featured in the book Rietvelds academiegebouw: A living monument for artistic education (2024).
Built out of disassembled pallets and accompanied by instructions, silkscreened on a tag for each piece, so that students can use our tips to replicate the set with found materials.
1)
furniture set:
armchair, bench & coffee table
furniture set:
armchair, bench & coffee table
2)
manual with building instructions,
materials required & time estimations
materials required & time estimations
3)
close-up of coffee table
4)
close-up of chair with
imperfections of refurbished wood
close-up of chair with
imperfections of refurbished wood
5)
furniture set featured in the book
Rietvelds academiegebouw:
A living monument
for artistic education
furniture set featured in the book
Rietvelds academiegebouw:
A living monument
for artistic education
The Curtain
photography & collage
Jan - Feb 2023
Site specific installation of a seven metre see-through fabric, hanging from my bedroom window for passerby to step on.
Visual outcome of my engagement with the book At Home: An Anthropology of Domestic Space, particularly Irene Cieraad’s chapter Dutch Windows: Female Virtue and Female Vice.
A week long experiment in decontextualizing the curtain, to blur the boundary between public and private.
By exagerating its proportions, the curtain shifts away from being a precise border, a line without a volume, as it touches the ground and claims space.
1)
the curtain hanging on site,
viewed from the top of the roof
Window symbolism in European art is rooted in Christianity.
A seventeenth-century panegyric on the Virgin Mary illustrates the Immaculate Conception of the Holy Virgin by the symbolism of the divine, male light shining through the clear, female windowpane without breaking it.
(...)
The hymen as the historically vital physical borderline of the woman coincides with the windowpane as the vital societal borderline between public and private space.
Cieraad, Irene, Dutch Windows: Female Virtue and Female Vice in At Home: An Anthropology of Domestic Space (1999)
2)
Bouttats, Gaspar,
EMBLEMA SEXTUM, MANENT ILLAESA (1681)
Bouttats, Gaspar,
EMBLEMA SEXTUM, MANENT ILLAESA (1681)
3)
collage of curtain documentation as a closed path,
collapsing its origin, the window, into public space
collage of curtain documentation as a closed path,
collapsing its origin, the window, into public space
4)
curtain hung from the window and
flowing towards the parking lot,
still from a short clip showcasing the length of the piece
5)
curtain hung from the window and
stretched on top of the roof,
still from a short clip showcasing the length of the piece
Unmentionables
sewn garments
Jan - Mar 2025
Amsterdam’s Begijnhof is known as the only surviving Catholic enclave during the Protestant reform of the 1500s.
The process of monumentalizing its courtyard involved spatial compromises, to accommodate both the circulation of tourists and some degree of privacy for the inhabitants.
Among the areas zoned off are two patches of grass, said to have been used as bleaching fields; spots where laundry would be washed and laid flat to dry and get lightened by the sun.
Regarded as a proto-feminist movement, the tradition of the beguinage decentered childbearing from women’s lives, granted protection from arranged marriages and sexual violence, collectively owned property and demanded remunerated work to gain financial independence from men.
Yet, beguines were involved in practices of caretaking and maintenance of spaces, bodies, and objects, without being mothers or wives. Cleaning, cooking, mending, teaching, nursing...the medieval society depended on them to reproduce, whether they judged or approved of their choices.
In pursuit of reactivating the bleaching fields as site of labor, my project turns towards undergarments, the only items washed regularly in the Middle Ages. Enduring the most wear and tear, absorbing odours, being patched constantly, they mirror the resilience of generations of women that inhabited the Begijnhof.
1)
1:100 speculative model of The Begijnhof,
isolating the bleaching fields, omitting the buildings
and turning surrounding streets back into canals
2)
current-day site plan of Begijnhof,
alongside images courtesy of City Archives Amsterdam
3)
experiments around lightening cotton
using both gentle and chemical bleaching agents
4)
grass stained undergarments (from left to right)
full length chemise with drawstring neckline,
empire waist shift with adjustable bust,
skirted bra with “breast cups” and side lacing
5)
lookbook of 3 garments & close-ups of their details;
rouching, closures, finishings
A Daily
Commuter
Mar - Jun 2024
Website compiling personal fieldnotes and speculations on the politics of commuting, distributed via more than 100 QR codes I’ve stuck on NS property in the span of a month.
Themes also include reproductive labour and the Amsterdam housing crisis, paired with humorous visuals questioning how the space of the train could tend towards them.
I wrote it anonymously, as an open letter to people I used to share my daily train ride with.
1)
QR codes leading to the mobile website of
A Daily Commuter, overlayed on top of
a photographed train schedule
message exchanges between me and my partner
as one of the first prompts for the project
3)
drawings exaggerating the concept
of a “domestic train”
of a “domestic train”
4)
fragments from the text & visuals featured
on the website, screenshoted
full text here (optimized for mobile): https://adailycommuter.cargo.site/
fragments from the text & visuals featured
on the website, screenshoted
full text here (optimized for mobile): https://adailycommuter.cargo.site/
Mysterious
Universe
project team: Gabriel Lester, Darya Akhrameika, Miruna-Maria Stanciu
Jun - Aug 2025
Assisting on the exhibiton design for Mysterious Universe, a group show of Gabriel Lester and Eugène Brands at museum van Bommel van Dam, Venlo.
The works are showcased across two rooms, one pitch dark and one well lit. Between them, a perforated series of parallel walls serves as a tunneled transiton.
Over the span of a couple of months, I was requested to develop the final manufacturing files for this particular section of the show, guided by initial technical drawings of the design. I worked on splitting the walls, fitting them on more than 100 MDF plates and testing various styles of linework for the CNC cutouts.
The works are showcased across two rooms, one pitch dark and one well lit. Between them, a perforated series of parallel walls serves as a tunneled transiton.
Over the span of a couple of months, I was requested to develop the final manufacturing files for this particular section of the show, guided by initial technical drawings of the design. I worked on splitting the walls, fitting them on more than 100 MDF plates and testing various styles of linework for the CNC cutouts.
1)
work in progress:
sample of CNC cut
2)
puzzling sections of walls as economically
as possible on the maximum size of the MDF plates
puzzling sections of walls as economically
as possible on the maximum size of the MDF plates
3)
exhibiton build-up,
museum van Bommel van Dam
4)
wall example from original design,
drawing and models by Darya Akhrameika
5)
detail of wall on the evening
of the official exhibiton opening
detail of wall on the evening
of the official exhibiton opening