The Romanian Cultural Institute in Beijing announces the official opening of the exhibition “Heritage” – An Ethnographic Exhibition on the Făgăraș Costume, organized on the occasion of celebrating the Universal Day of the Romanian Blouse, on June 24, 2025. The vernissage will take place on Tuesday evening, starting at 18:30, at the headquarters of ICR Beijing in the Galaxy SOHO complex. The exhibition will remain open to the public for two months, Monday to Friday, between 09:00 and 17:00. The event is dedicated to promoting the Romanian ie – the traditional blouse included in UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity – and aims to valorize the national heritage.
The curator of the exhibition, artist Raluca Jurcovan, in collaboration with popular artisan Mariana Neacșu, coordinator of the Șezătoare Vatra Satului community, have prepared an exhibition gathering a remarkable collection of 17 traditional Romanian blouses, hand-stitched on loom-woven cotton fabric and embroidered with silk, metallic thread, and cotton, inspired by models over a century old. The pieces are accompanied by traditional garments and traditional crafts.
In addition to this exhibition of Romanian blouses, the public will be able to visit a photographic documentary exhibition depicting the Făgăraș costume and the traditions of the village of Drăguș – a landmark place for Romanian sociological research, studied by Dimitrie Gusti in 1929. The photographs come from the collections of the “Dimitrie Gusti” Village Museum in Drăguș, as well as from Raluca Jurcovan’s personal archive.
At the opening vernissage, the ethnographic documentary “Țara Făgărașului Tărâmul Cerurilor Deschise – Înfățișare minunată – Portul Făgărașan” (2022, directed by Constantin Păun and Raluca Jurcovan) will be screened. The film is about the evolution of the traditional costume from Țara Oltului and the various influences of time upon it, conveying the message of preserving national identity. The fundamental elements of spiritual and material culture—traditional garments—offer direct references to the lifestyle, thinking, and activity of our ancestors, but also their creative power, faith, and ways of expressing it. Our ancestors were not concerned only with the making of garments and the diversification of execution techniques or materials but also with their unique symbolism. Through the motifs placed with needle and thread on fabric or spoken into the weaves of traditional looms, they arranged profound symbols in traditional coverings, through which the wearer donned the entire universe. The general features of the Făgăraș costume betray the life and character of people who make their living between mountain crests and the water of the Olt. Everything is made to endure. Traditional costume is still preserved unchanged in various areas of Țara Făgărașului.
Raluca Jurcovan – an artist and researcher of traditional Romanian art, film director, and author of numerous documentaries. A graduate of a film university, she turned her passion for traditional crafts into a true cultural treasury, focusing on glass icon painting and traditional embroidery. As the heir of a family tradition deeply anchored in Romanian ethnographic heritage, she continues the craft of her great-grandmother, Rafira Jurcovan, a famed weaver from Drăguș, whose techniques were documented by Dimitrie Gusti and his research team in 1929. Her artistic and research activity is materialized through a series of exhibitions and events organized in collaboration with the National Museum of the Romanian Peasant and the Făgăraș Land Museum “Valer Literat”. In her creations, she reinterprets old patterns, preserving compositional and chromatic elements specific to each ethnographic area. She has participated in numerous national and international exhibitions, displaying her work at the Bucharest National Theatre, Iași “Moldova” National Museum Complex, Museikon – Alba Iulia, as well as in international events such as “Here Coming Thyself”, organized online by Museikon during the pandemic. Her contribution has been recognized in iconography, earning her fifth place in the National Competition “Orthodox Icon – Light of Faith”, organized by the Romanian Patriarchate in partnership with the Dimitrie Gusti Village Museum. Alongside her artistic activity, Raluca Jurcovan participates in gatherings of the Șezătoare Vatra Satului community, where she promotes embroidering and weaving traditions. Her works have been presented in landmark exhibitions such as “IA Aievea” held at the ASTRA Museum in Sibiu and toured in Japan, or “Original and Revival” at the Ethnographic Museum of Transylvania.
Mariana Neacșu – Folk Master, Keeper of Weaving and Traditional Embroidery, Mariana Neacșu is the coordinator of the Șezătoare Vatra Satului community and organizes gatherings and demonstrative exhibitions such as “Vatra Satului – The Rebirth of Heritage” (2023) or “The Gathering of Union” (2023). Mariana Neacșu is an accomplished artisan in the field of traditional weaving and embroidery, with over a decade of experience in revitalizing this ancestral craft. Founder of the Șezătoare Vatra Satului community and the Drag de Cusut workshop, she promotes traditional crafts by creating small cloths, altițe, towels, and other representative pieces of Romanian folk costume. She has organized and participated in numerous prestigious national and international exhibitions, including at Făgăraș Fortress and the Romanian Peasant Museum, as well as in educational and cultural spaces, thus contributing to the conservation and transmission of Romanian textile heritage. Through these efforts, she plays an essential role in keeping traditions alive and consolidating cultural identity for future generations.
The exhibition “Heritage” is a tribute to Romanian tradition and a gesture of reaffirmation of cultural identity values in an international context. Țara Făgărașului is presented as a living cultural space, where beauty, resilience, and continuity coexist in a dialogue between past and present.
Entry is free upon registration. Please scan the QR code on your invitation.
Dress code for the vernissage is “Romanian ie (blouse)”.
We look forward to welcoming you!
