About

Our vision is to normalize the role of the artist as a critical researcher within cultural, scientific, and technological environments. We support a working process that is practice-led, iterative, documented and reusable, aiming to dismantle the silos that prevent cross-disciplinary sensemaking. By empowering art to become a catalyst for systemic questioning, we challenge the cultural superficiality and institutional pacification that often keep artistic expression in a passive societal role.

The Marginal mission is to support and sustain inquisitive communities by providing the tools, spaces, networks, and methodologies necessary for critical, interdisciplinary research at the intersection of art, science, and technology, prioritizing long-term engagement, methodological rigor, and public knowledge sharing over short-term production or visibility.

We do this through a threefold approach:

Provide a stable infrastructure for transdisciplinary research that prioritizes process and knowledge over artistic product
Build an intergenerational ecosystem to support professional and intellectual growth for young practitioners
Archive and open-source our approach and methodologies through our Archive, so the know-how we generate becomes a public and reusable resource

Marginal was founded from a simple conviction: art can play an active role in understanding and shaping contemporary society. It can achieve this by creating a space for long-term cultural research and production, beyond isolated projects, short-term visibility, or reactive production. Culture requires durable and open structures for inquiry, collaboration, and public exchange.

Over the years, our work has evolved across formats, disciplines, and partnerships, yet the reasons for continuing have become clearer rather than weaker. This manifesto brings together the principles that guide our decisions, our relationships, and our long-term direction. It is both a reminder of why we began and a commitment to how we intend to move forward.

1. Culture requires infrastructure, not only events

We refuse the transience of the event-driven cultural model. We do not produce spectacles; we create the conditions in which artists, researchers, and publics can return, develop, fail constructively, and continue from an informed position. If nothing remains after the moment of presentation, too little has been built.

2. Access must be material, not symbolic

Opportunity is not just an invitation. It includes time, stipends, tools, space, attention, context, and trust. Marginal works to reduce barriers that are often presented as standards. Access also requires commitment: participation, responsibility, presence, and shared contribution are the building blocks of a social ecology. We strive to widen access without lowering ambition.

3. We stand with those who are early, overlooked, or outside the room

The future rarely emerges only through established channels. Young practitioners, peripheral voices, hybrid thinkers, difficult positions, and practices that do not fit existing categories are not secondary interests for us; they are where renewal often begins. Our long-term sustainability depends on people.

4. Knowledge is something to be shared, not hoarded in silence

Research that remains closed, opaque, or self-referential has limited value. Our responsibility is to translate, publish, broadcast, archive, and circulate what we learn. We do not confuse exclusivity with depth.

5. Rigor is our only defense against superficiality

Rigor and openness belong together. Methodology matters. Evidence matters. Accountability matters. Generosity matters as well. We reject the false division between seriousness and accessibility. Work can be precise, demanding, and publicly meaningful at the same time.

6. Technology should be used critically, never devotionally

We do not celebrate tools, trends, or platforms for their own sake. We engage technology as a cultural force that shapes behaviour, labour, imagination, and power. Technology is one of the conditions within which contemporary culture operates, an integral part of the more-than-human ecosystem we are embedded in. At times it is to be adopted, at times questioned, and at times refused.

7. We choose community over spotlight

The spotlight can lead to visibility; however, communities sustain practice. We cultivate long-term relations across generations, disciplines, and levels of experience. Mentorship, reciprocity, disagreement, continuity, and returning matter more than temporary proximity. Our community is sustained through exchange rather than hierarchy.

8. We value independence, not isolation

Autonomy protects integrity. Collaboration expands possibility. We will work with many partners, but not dissolve ourselves into external agendas. We contribute methodology, context, and substance, not decorative labour. We are research partners, not service providers. We occupy institutional spaces critically, refusing to be reduced to creative communicators for others' agendas. Our research questions will always be our own.

9. Friction is strategic

We do not seek harmony between art and science. Meaningful change often emerges in the overlooked cracks: between disciplines, between generations, between institutionalization and independence, between technology and its consequences. Failed experiments, disagreement, and methodological limits are valuable forms of evidence. We will always document, interpret, and learn from these moments.

10. Marginal will always remain unfinished by design

Marginal was never intended to become static, ceremonial, or self-satisfied. Its role is to remain responsive, to revise its methods, to outgrow habits, and to stay useful under changing conditions. Continuity does not require sameness. The moment we become comfortable for, or understood by the systems we challenge, we have failed.

As long as knowledge remains concentrated, culture is instrumentalised, technology is framed as neutral, and many capable people are asked to wait their turn, there is work for Marginal to do. When those conditions change, we will change with them. Until then, we continue to build.

We aim to remain open and accessible. We welcome inquiries that seek to engage with specific Research Nodes, access full or unpublished datasets, or propose new areas of inquiry.

Whether you are seeking to adapt our protocols for your own institutional context or wish to contribute to the expanding archive of disobedient knowledge, we’re listening.

For formal inquiries regarding collaborations, archive access, or strategic partnerships: [change@marginal.ro]

We’re also social! Follow real-time research cycles, upcoming open calls, and field notes as they emerge on:

Sabina Suru Creative Hive Mind sabina@marginal.ro Transdisciplinary artist and researcher, investigating the mutations of identity, exographic memory, and the friction between analogue and digital. Providing the artistic direction, Sabina keeps art accountable to research, and experiments messy, sharp, and alive.

Andrei Tudose Ideas and Chaos Administrator andrei@marginal.ro Hacks bureaucracy into cultural infrastructure, using his background in marketing research, sociology, and visual studies to build and manage the frameworks of Marginal’s projects.

Lorena Cocora Infrastructure Witch and Tech Fairy lorena@marginal.ro Works across technology, and natural and digital ecosystems, proving that infrastructure can be radical too. Being a creative technical director, she ensures everything is lean and resilient across our programs.

Alexandra Costea Creative Signal Operator ale@marginal.ro Communication strategist and visual researcher navigating design, photography, and contemporary art. She turns institutional language into something sharper, clearer, and harder to ignore.

Ada Anghel Collective Body Mover ada@marginal.ro Contemporary dancer and choreographer, she researches the body as sensor, archive, and tool of resistance. Leading the performative direction, she uses movement to test how bodies learn, adapt, and create new meaning together.

Vitaly Yankovy Pixel whisperer Multidisciplinary artist, designer, researcher, and experimental musician working with video, animation, 3D, sculpture, and sound. As our visual systems artist, he shapes the visual language across mediums and formats.

Oana Pop Professional Network Pirate Public relations strategist connecting Marginal with partners, sponsors, institutions, and audiences. She turns conversations into collaborations, opens doors before anyone knows they exist, and makes sure our ideas travel further than we do.

Partnerships at Marginal are defined by institutional permeability. We do not seek to merely collaborate on projects; we aim to build long-term associations with cultural nodes, research institutes, and laboratories to facilitate the flow of knowledge. Our partners provide the specialized environments - from artistic experimental labs to biological institutes - where our research ecologies can take root.

Our work is made possible through the allocation of resources from public and private funding bodies. We treat this support as an investment in applied cultural research and the long-term sustainability of the transdisciplinary sector in Romania and Europe.

Marginal functions as a meeting place for a community of researchers and practitioners.
Maintaining this research environment requires a consistent metabolism of resources. Supporting us is an act of collective stewardship - it ensures that the tools, the archive, and the residency programs remain accessible to promote artistic work, prepare the next generation of artists and cultural agents, and expand audiences.

Financial Support

For individuals: There are two simple ways:

>> You can donate any amount you see fit. Just send us an email to let us know you want to help and we will quickly guide you through this simple process.

>>You can redirect 3.5% of your yearly income tax (for Romanian residents), via the D230 statement. The fast way is by filling in this 2-minute for using the redirectionează.ro platform

For companies:

>>> Marginal is enrolled in the registry of entities for which tax deductions are granted, with no. 4198175 / 03.11.2022, therefore grants offered to us have a tax exemption benefit of up to 20%.

>>> You can transfer the amount directly to our account based on a sponsorship contract (download draft in Romanian or bilingual) and deduct the amount from your company’s quarterly tax by submitting the D107 statement (download locally and open with Acrobat Reader).

>>> Alternatively, after your company’s quarterly statement, you can submit the D177 statement (download locally and open with Acrobat Reader) and we will later receive the funds from the National Agency of Fiscal Administration.

Donate Time

Marginal’s infrastructure is powered by the work and expertise of its community. We are always looking for partners and volunteers. For a day, for a project, or forever. Drop us a line and let’s get to know each other: [change@marginal.ro]

Transparency is a fundamental methodological requirement. Our annual reports function as transparency audits, documenting our research outputs, financial distribution, and the evolution of our organizational protocols. These records ensure our accountability to our partners, funders, and the wider public.

2026 Activity Report

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2025 Activity Report

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2024 Activity Report

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The visual identity of Marginal is designed to reflect our commitment to rigorous inquiry. This manual serves as a guide, ensuring that when our identity is used, it reflects the structural integrity and authorial respect inherent in our methodology.

By downloading and employing these assets, you commit to citing the research context of any project associated with the work of our community, honoring the contributors and the specific research nodes they represent.

Download Marginal Identity Bundle

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