Maria Bodrug

Mixed Media Artist

Maria Bodrug (Moldova, 1997) grew up in a country rich in cultural stories and traditions. From an early age, she explored a variety of art forms in order to express herself both as an artist and as a human being. Today, her artistic practice includes photography, video collages, design, painting, poetry, and performance.

Maria’s passion for photography began as a hobby but gradually evolved into a deeper artistic pursuit. In search of her own visual language and artistic voice, she moved to the Netherlands in 2021 to study at the Willem de Kooning Academy in Rotterdam, where she developed a critical and reflective approach to photography.

Contact bodrugmaria@gmail.com
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Work

PERSONAL PROJECTS

COMISSIONS
Last Shot
Pietà of Sorrow
One World

BACKSTAGE PHOTOGRAPHY
Fugue

Een Verborgen Talent
Moldovan Fashion Week 2025

ROJECT
03/
THE PROOF PROJECT
2022

This project traces the bureaucratic journey Maria endured to obtain a Dutch residence permit through her relationship, revealing how deeply state regulation can seep into the private sphere. As a Moldovan citizen restricted to three-month stays within the European Union, she and her former partner applied for a Dutch Residence Permit for Partners—an application that demanded a remarkable catalogue of proofs, declarations, and compliance. Through this work, Maria exposes the absurdity of having to legitimize intimacy to a governmental system, and the extent to which official frameworks can shape, pressure, or even distort personal relationships.

The installation unfolds in three stages. Visitors are first met with rows of documents suspended on a thread—official forms, requirements, and evidence that, together, once constructed the image of a “perfect couple” for the Dutch authorities. As the performance progresses, Maria removes the documents one by one and feeds them into a paper shredder. At that moment, a projection begins: a layered stream of text messages and letters exchanged with her ex-partner, revealing the emotional, often fragile reality of a long-distance relationship.

By placing bureaucratic artifacts and intimate communication side by side—and ultimately letting one erase the other—Maria highlights the friction between institutional expectations and lived experience. The work confronts the gap between the polished relationship presented to the state and the much more complex, vulnerable truth beneath it.