Sorina Tomulețiu (TOM) is a self-taught visual artist living and working in Sibiu. She holds a master’s degree in Cultural Studies from UNIBUC (2012), which underpins much of her artistic work, drawing on universal cultural theories from philosophy, anthropology and philology. Her art projects often have a documentary character and a critical and activist dimension. Among the main subjects she addresses are ecology, social justice, the plight of war refugees, the history of her family from Bessarabia, and gender equality. Currently, Sorina is working on a project to recover the memory of Bessarabian refugees, based on the family archive of her grandmother, who fled Cetatea Albă in 1940 during the Soviet invasion.
My artwork, Belina Island, illustrates a scene from the investigative documentary of the same name, produced by Passport Productions in 2019. The documentary exposes the corruption of the Dragnea era surrounding the island. In the scene I illustrated, a local man recounts how a well-known Romanian singer was found at night on the side of the road, after fleeing one of the parties hosted by politicians on the island, where something serious and abusive had occurred. The woman was visibly terrified. We will never know the exact details of this event; the violence is implicit, yet it reflects a common phenomenon in which artists invited to private events may be exposed to unforeseen risks.
I myself have faced sexual, verbal, and emotional violence — on the street and even in a state-run cultural institution where I worked at the age of 23. Since then, I have often felt unsafe and have done everything possible to secure my professional and personal independence. I want to tell all women who are going through, or have gone through, such experiences that they are not alone and that they are not to blame for what has happened to them. They should always seek help and never lose confidence in their own strength.
