The Maps Museum announces the opening of Adi Bulboacă’s contemporary photography exhibition Arctic. Crossing the Line, curated by Ioana Marinescu. The exhibition presents for the first time a series of photographs taken between 2020 and 2024, documenting Bulboacă’s journeys in the Arctic region of Northern Canada and his participation as a runner in the 6633 Ultra Arctic marathon in 2023 and 2024.

The exhibition will be open from 11th April to 19th May 2024, with visiting hours from Wednesday to Sunday, 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM.

Ticket price: 10 lei.

The exhibition project “Arctic. Crossing the Line” captures various aspects of Arctic life, moments from the race, as well as the beauty of the landscape, experienced by Adi Bulboacă as a photographer, runner, and passionate observer. Bulboacă’s first presence at the 6633 Arctic Ultra in 2020 was as a photographer, documenting the race in which Vlad Pop participated. The experience in Northern Canada as an observer and exposure to the extreme conditions of the marathon were just the first arguments that later prompted him to transform from an observer to a participant, from a photographer to a runner.

In February 2023, he took the start with the other marathoners. At that time, he managed to cover 325 out of the 620 kilometers of the race in four and a half days. Although he did not cross the finish line, he considered himself a winner because he had reached the starting line: the rigor and discipline of the runner were now also the tools of the photographer.

The beginning of 2024 found him once again at the starting line of the ultramarathon. He was about to start from km. 0 of the Dempster Highway, with the goal of reaching the point marking the passage over Arctic Circle and the end of the race. He had all the chances to successfully pass through the stages of the race. However, Adi Bulboacă decided to end the race suddenly and unexpectedly, due to a unique optical phenomenon known as Sundog. This phenomenon occurs when sunlight is refracted by ice crystals suspended in the atmosphere. Although he was at an advantage to continue the marathon successfully, Adi Bulboacă found himself facing an unexpected choice: to continue running or to stop and enjoy the moment, which he decided to capture through photography. The answer to this dilemma was simple and straightforward: “Photography won today, and running will always remain in my heart.”

Photographs featuring the Sundog, Arctic landscapes, portraits of locals, or scenes from the marathons can be seen in the temporary exhibition open at the Maps Museum.

Adi Bulboacă was born in the summer of 1988, and 16 years later he began to take photographs. After another 16 years, he discovered his passion for running. Before entering running races in Arctic areas or mountain trails, Adi’s photographic projects seemed like ultramarathons: over 1000 theater performances photographed, a month spent on over 100 trains in Romania (17,000 km in one month), 2 weeks with his father traveling by train through the Balkan countries, or 27 hours of non-stop photography in the New York subway.

Ioana Marinescu (b. 1988) is a curator at the Maps Museum and a Ph.D. in art history, with a thesis on the biography of artist couples. She is interested in the image of maps in contemporary art and how this is reflected in artistic creation.

Media partners: Radio Romania Cultural, Historia, Acc Media Channel,  Promenada Culturală, AICI A STAT, i-Tour.ro, daciccool.ro.