ANNOUNCING JCBA'S SALZBERG RESIDENT for 2023
MARIA SURDUCAN is not your traditional book artist. She is an illustrator and comic book author
in Cluj-Napoca, Romania. Images, she says, are an imprecise way of translating reality and this, in
a way, makes them more accurate than words. She is particularly drawn to comics as a storytelling
tool, and has published several graphic albums in French, Romanian, and Hungarian. Her favorite subjects
are Eastern European myths and folk tales and is fascinated by finding ways to reshape them for new
generations. Maria is a recipient of the 2020 Alfabéta Award from the Hungarian Comics Association,
the 2021 Vladimir Colin SF–Fantasy Award, and the 2021 Comic Art Europe grant and residency.
As a graphic designer, her list of clients includes Untold, Milka, Sprite, Vodafone, Almette, Studioset,
FUEN, Jazz in the Park, Cognac European Literature Festival, and the Goethe Institute. Maria has illustrated
several picture books and board games and regularly creates editorial illustrations. Her work was selected for
Illustrators 65: The Society of Illustrators Annual Exhibition.
For her Salzberg Residency, Maria Surducan aims to shine a light on the therapeutic power of fairy tales
in the current ecological, political, and economic context. Her project, titled Timemongers: Visions of Tomorrow,
explores these concepts through a narrative artists' book incorporating fantastic elements specific to Eastern
European mythology, blending illustration and sequential art with various printing and binding techniques, as
well as different formats (flipbook, tunnel book, foldable maps, tarot deck). The Eastern European storytelling
tradition is full of "basme": reality-altering incantations, shaped as fairy tales. One of the recurring motifs
is time-manipulation, designed to course-correct the world in unexpected ways, while offering psychological healing
to the listener. In the shadow of the pandemic, and on the brink of economic and ecological collapse, Maria's project
narrates the journey of an unnamed main character who must use all means available to find a way out –– be it personal
or universal. The story offers no magical solution to changing the past, but wishes to offer reconciliation with an
unpredictable future.
THE CALL FOR APPLICATIONS FOR THE NEXT SALZBERG RESIDENCY WILL BE ANNOUNCED IN SUMMER 2023!
Helen Salzberg with Arthur Jaffe, circa 2014