Writer, musician, illustrator, copywriter - Mircea Moroianu seems to live several lives at once, all orbiting around the same magnetic field: curiosity. Raised on Indiana Jones VHS tapes and notebooks filled with technical sketches, he eventually turned the precision of engineering into the precision of emotion. Today, he divides his time between novels and verses, between the riffs of his band Claiming Apollo and the fine lines of his drawings, between campaign concepts and fictional characters.

In Mircea’s universe, art is an act of friendship - a message sealed in a bottle and sent adrift, waiting to be found on another shore. Whether it’s a reader moved by a passage in one of his books, a visitor smiling at a drawing, or a concertgoer singing along to his lyrics, each reaction completes his creative message.

Discover Mircea in this interview: the man who turns curiosity into creation and everyday moments into art.

1. WHAT WOULD MAKE YOUR SOUL SING? WHAT MAKES YOU HAPPY?

To watch people’s reaction when they see one of my drawings at an exhibition, without them knowing I’m there. To notice someone reading one of my books, while I sit at another table, quietly enjoying their reactions. Or to experience one of my band’s concerts through the eyes of the audience, to feed on the reactions they have to our music.

Because, in the end, that’s what art is: an invitation to friendship, to connect.

I, the sender of the idea, encode it, place it in a bottle and throw it into the ocean. My message becomes complete only when someone on the other shore finds the bottle, opens the note, and enriches my ideas with their own emotions. Be it a drawing, a text, or a song.

That’s what truly makes me happy: seeing the emotions of those who interact with my art, watching the reactions that complete my message.

2. A CHILDHOOD STORY THAT ANNOUNCED THE CREATIVE PERSON YOU ARE TODAY

As a child, whenever someone asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, my answer was always the same: “an engineer, like my dad.”

And one day, in my early school years, my father took 20 minutes out of his afternoon to explain to me how the internal combustion engine of our car worked.

Something about that image, the cylinders and pistons moving, turning a metallic crankshaft, triggered a tectonic shift inside me. From that afternoon on, I began designing ships, tanks, and jet planes, all drawn in detail, with engines, mechanisms, and gears that made them work.

Four years later, I had dozens of notebooks filled with carefully drawn mechanisms I had invented. Seeing them, my parents suggested that I pursue studies at the Polytechnic University. And I did. Now I am an engineer, just like my father.

But what neither I nor they realized back then was that I wasn’t truly passionate about engineering. I was passionate about creativity itself: drawing, precision, imagination.

Now, 20 years after graduating from the Polytechnic, I’m still drawing, but instead of technical mechanisms, I dissect the mechanisms of society and the inner workings of the human soul.

And today, while spending time with my daughter Ana and my son Andrei, drawing together, I wonder: when they’re asked what they want to do when they grow up, what will their answer be?

3. BEST CONTEXT EVER FOR INSPIRATION WAS

Uzina Coffee in Piața Amzei. I’m lucky to live nearby and to be able to go there every day with my laptop, sheets of paper, and markers, making the most of my creative time.

4. THE PROJECT YOU LOVED MOST

“Together, we are stronger.”

This was a project initiated by curator Anca Negescu, where the two jewelers from Contemporia created a collection of jewelry based on my drawings.

It was a challenge to redraw some of my well-known works so that they could be transformed into jewelry.

The result was a necklace with a levitating kissing couple at the wearer’s neck, a series of earrings with each partner on a different ear, and a ring with a drawing that the ring finger passes through.

5. THE PROJECT OTHERS LOVED MOST

The project unanimously loved by my friends and community was the design I created for the Tohani wine bottles.

This Romanian wine brand is well known for supporting contemporary local art, and a few years ago they invited me to integrate one of my drawings into the label of a special wine series.

But the project didn’t stop there. I also created a series of drawings dedicated to Tohani wine, which we posted together on social media for brand awareness.

It was unanimously loved.

6. THE BEST THING ABOUT LOCAL CREATIVITY IS

When it comes to communication, I believe that a healthy campaign is one that’s tailored to the specifics of the country where it takes place.

That’s why I think the best thing about local creativity is that it’s made by us, for us. It’s deeply rooted in Romanian culture and it also has the power to educate the public.

When it comes to art, things are a bit more nuanced. I believe the mission of a Romanian artist, at least mine, is to borrow Western storytelling techniques and use them to frame Romanian stories.

Whether in music, film, theater, or visual art.

Who wouldn’t love to have an Indiana Jones speaking Romanian, created here, with the story unfolding on the Bucegi Sphinx?

Who wouldn’t love to have a local Metallica singing in Romanian, tackling issues specific to our country, but with the sound of a world-class band?

So when it comes to art, the ideal recipe for Romanian creativity is to use Western methods to tell Romanian stories. We’re not fully there yet, but we’ve made great progress in that direction in recent years.

7. BEST STATEMENT OF LOCAL HUMOR

“Laser, frate!”

8. ADVICE FOR INTERNATIONAL HEADHUNTERS, RELATED TO LOCAL CREATIVES

Pay in dignity!

After almost 50 years of communism and 35 years of transition, the greatest hunger of the Romanian creative middle class is not for money, but for dignity.

A creative employee, even in top management, will always choose the employer who makes them feel valued, respected, and understood.

9. BEST PLACE IN THE CAPITAL

Uzina Coffee. Local artists & creative community and great specialty coffee.

10. BEST PLACE IN YOUR COUNTRY

Piața Amzei, Romania’s creative neighborhood.

11. MOST DISTURBING CLICHÉ ABOUT YOUR COUNTRY, IN THE MEDIA OUTLETS OF THE WORLD IS

The most disturbing cliché about my country is that “Romanian girls are very beautiful.”The only thing is,  it’s not a cliché. From my perspective, Romanian women are the most beautiful on the planet.

12. YOUR COUNTRY SHOULD BE KNOWN FOR

Mircea Cărtărescu, Dan Perjovschi, Simona Halep.

13. YOUR VIEWS ON SPIRITUALITY

Three thoughts on the subject, in no particular order and not necessarily connected:

- Faith is something deeply personal. It is so delicate and fragile that someone who truly experiences it could hardly ever speak about it. That’s why I don’t really understand the loud activists trying to convince us that divinity doesn’t exist, nor those trying to prove that it does.

- A fulfilled life means, among many other things, taking care of three essential dimensions: medicine for a healthy body, therapy for a clear mind, and faith to find your place and personal meaning in the universe.

- God means zero kitsch.

14. YOUR VIEWS ON MONEY

Money may not bring happiness, but it creates the conditions for happiness to develop.

Personally, I see money as a form of freedom. And my advice to those about to get rich is this: go for it with confidence, but never let your identity be defined by your wealth.

15. AN INSPIRATION SOURCE YOU RECOMMEND FOR A YOUNG CREATIVE (A BOOK, A DESTINATION, A MOVIE, FOLLOWING SOMEONE RELEVANT ON SOCIAL MEDIA)

Drawing: Dan Perjovschi

Writing: Mircea Cărtărescu

Music: Phoenix

Advertising: Thank You for Smoking (the movie)

16. A LOCAL BASED FEMALE TALENT THAT DESERVES TO BE PROMOTED AT INTERNATIONAL LEVEL, AS EXPONENT OF LOCAL CREATIVE SPIRIT

Adriana Moroianu.

I thought about it ten times before giving this answer, but my wife is the person I admire the most.

Adriana is soon to publish one of the most beautiful and insightful novels I’ve ever read. It’s called ”The Science of Getting over You” and will be released in November in bookstores. If her first novel was an achievement for Romania, this one, in my opinion, is truly international level.

Adriana is also about to release a song called “Semn”. I warmly invite you to listen to it on streaming platforms.

Awards:

Art

3rd Place – Guerrilla & 5 To Go Design Contest (2024)

Writing

1st Place – Romanian Comedy Contest - Super OK (2016)

3rd Place – Romanian Comedy Contest - Rockstar (2016)

4th Place – Best Romanian Book of 2014, Readers’ Top - Frumoasele dezechilibre

2nd Place – Max Blecher Debut Contest - Frumoasele dezechilibre (2013)

Music

“Best Music” Award – 48 Hour Film Project – song Lullaby (2013)

Bio:

Mircea Moroianu, the story in exactly 100 words:

Drumul Taberei, VHS tapes with Indiana Jones, the first chords on my grandpa’s guitar, Moisil High School & many friends, Politehnica in German, the first real band - Oliver, the advertising job - copywriter, the first and second album with Oliver, then a break, then the irreversible love for the written word, the first novel - Descâlcitorul, the first poetry book - Frumoasele Dezechilibre, the first drawings, art exhibitions and festivals, then playwriting and screenwriting, my band Claiming Apollo, the second copywriter job - Undelucram.ro and, all along, my wife Adriana and two children more beautiful than I ever dreamed.