The New Year’s traditions have some of the finest winter attractions, diverse, colourful and rich in symbols and meanings. These customs bring to the present, glimpses of pre-Christian rituals and underline the predominant agrarian lifestyle from the past, rich in symbols and meanings.

Being fascinated by the idea of masculinity and the representation of men’s power, the project explores the bears’ tradition and it’s influence on people’s beliefs. They evoke death but bestow fertile life. They live in the modern era, but they summon old traditions, accompanied by their Gypsy trainer and a youth beating a tambourine-type instrument, the animals crawl through the crowd. Reaching the centre, they perform a dance until eventually, the bears fall dead on the ground. After their hearts are taken by the trainer, they return to life, theoretically, a more gentle one. Even today, more bears exist in Romania's Carpathian Mountains than any other place in Europe and this ancient rite suggests the power of man to tame nature.

The traditions and the customs are an integrated part of the Romanian national conscience, as they express the ancestral wisdom of the people and are the core of their spiritual legacy.