Urban steps

Permanent event at the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Bucureşci, Romania

29 March 2025

Molotow, Urban steps, exhibition view. Courtesy of National Museum of Contemporary Art

The Urban steps project, made in partnership with Molotow – the most innovative brand in providing high-quality tools for Urban and Street Art –, brings together the most important 20 names of Romanian street art, in a 500 square meters mural that can be discovered, step by step, along MNAC Bucharest’s staircases.

Urban steps highlights 20 years of urban art in Romania. Labeled as a Guerrilla Art movement, the Graffiti phenomenon gained momentum at the beginning of ‘98, in conjunction with local rap music. Meanwhile, the Romanian graffiti scene developed and became consolidated through various contests, urban festivals, legal (or not) street murals, as well as through exhibitions and dedicated projects.

Urban steps is the first complex graffiti project curated and hosted by an art museum in Romania. Check it out while climbing the MNAC Bucharest inner staircase.

National Museum of Contemporary Art

MNAC Bucharest was founded in 2001 and first functioned in the headquarters of the former Kalinderu Foundation, under the name of Kalinderu Medialab. The museum was born from the merger of the Contemporary Art Department of the National Museum of Art of Romania (MNAR) and the National Bureau for Art Documentation and Exhibition (ONDEA), whose head, Mihai Oroveanu, became the first director of the new museum. The art historian, photographer, curator and art collector played an essential role in its establishment.

Museum profile

Location

Bucureşci, Romania

Molotow, Urban steps, exhibition view. Courtesy of National Museum of Contemporary Art
Molotow, Urban steps, exhibition view. Courtesy of National Museum of Contemporary Art
Molotow, Urban steps, exhibition view. Courtesy of National Museum of Contemporary Art

Molotow, Urban steps, exhibition view. Courtesy of National Museum of Contemporary Art
Molotow, Urban steps, exhibition view. Courtesy of National Museum of Contemporary Art
Molotow, Urban steps, exhibition view. Courtesy of National Museum of Contemporary Art