Grecotel Pallas Athena Boutique Hotel, Athens

The exhibition Scent of a Woman marked a pivotal moment in BEBA’s artistic trajectory, bringing her intricate engraving practice into a refined international setting where art, diplomacy, and hospitality merged into a single cultural experience. Hosted by the Grecotel Pallas Athena Art Boutique Hotel—one of Athens’ most recognized art-driven luxury destinations—the exhibition was conceived as an encounter with the feminine in its most elusive, atmospheric form: not as portraiture, not as narrative, but as presence, movement, and essence.

From the moment visitors entered the hotel’s bright reception area, they stepped into a curated environment that seamlessly blended contemporary design with fine art. BEBA’s large-format engravings, meticulously drawn by hand with thousands of micro-lines, appeared almost suspended in air. At first glance they resembled fashion silhouettes or dancers caught in mid-motion, but a closer look revealed a deeper psychological dimension. These figures, stripped of facial features and grounded instead in gesture, rhythm, and texture, invited viewers to experience femininity not as identity but as energy—flowing, evolving, and impossible to confine.

The centrepiece of the exhibition, the acclaimed work Scent of a Woman, dominated its dedicated gallery wall with quiet authority. Rendered in BEBA’s characteristic interplay of controlled engraving and expressive red accents, the composition seemed to breathe: a rising figure partially enveloped in a cascading dress woven from countless hair-like strokes. The effect was hypnotic—both ornamental and conceptual—evoking the dual nature of scent itself: structured yet invisible, disciplined yet endlessly diffused. Beneath the artwork, the Embassy of Romania displayed elegantly printed invitations and bilingual catalogues, reinforcing the show’s role as a cultural bridge between Romania and Greece.

Throughout the hotel, individual salon-like spaces were transformed into intimate micro-galleries. In one corner, The Soul of Ballerina stretched vertically like a totem of movement, its monochrome lines echoing the cadence of breathing dancers. In another, two red figure engravings faced each other across the room, their silhouettes interacting with the geometry of the hotel’s interior design. The interplay between BEBA’s delicate engravings and the architectural features of the boutique hotel created a dialogue between fluidity and structure, between gesture and frame.

What made this exhibition particularly remarkable was the atmosphere of engagement it generated. Diplomats, artists, cultural attachés, Greek and Romanian guests, and hotel patrons from around the world gathered in an opening that felt both formal and warmly personal. The crowd slowly circulated across the space, pausing in front of the works with curiosity and contemplation. Conversations unfolded in multiple languages—Greek, Romanian, English—mirroring the exhibition’s own multilingual identity. Many attendees lingered long after speeches concluded, drawn into the hypnotic detail of BEBA’s linework.

As an engraving exhibition, Scent of a Woman challenged assumptions about the medium’s limitations. Instead of traditional gravure or etching, BEBA employed a contemporary approach: dip pen and brush, layered micro-lines, optical vibrations, and highly controlled hand movement. Her technique revealed the duality of strength and fragility inherent in femininity. Every stroke was intentional; every contour served as both boundary and portal. Visitors who viewed the works up close discovered subtle variations, hidden textures, and near-invisible shifts of ink density—a level of manual precision that aligned her practice more with high craftsmanship than conventional illustration.

The exhibition also aligned with the Grecotel Pallas Athena vision of transforming hospitality spaces into living galleries. In this context, BEBA’s engravings acquired new resonance. They interacted with ambient light, reflective surfaces, and moments of movement as guests passed by. The hotel’s cosmopolitan clientele—travelers, artists, entrepreneurs, diplomats—became an evolving audience, encountering the artworks throughout the day, sometimes unexpectedly, as part of their stay. This fluid form of exhibition reinforced one of the show’s central themes: the intangible, circulating, and atmospheric quality of the feminine “scent.”

Meanwhile, the collaboration with the Embassy of Romania emphasized the exhibition’s diplomatic dimension. It served as a cultural ambassadorial gesture, showcasing Romanian contemporary art within an international environment that values cross-cultural dialogue. Embassy officials highlighted BEBA’s distinctive contribution to modern engraving and her role in reshaping the visual vocabulary of femininity within Eastern European art. Photographs from the event, captured by Radu Buraga, documented moments of exchange, reflection, and discovery—reinforcing the idea that art can serve as a meeting ground between nations, aesthetics, and personal experiences.

In Scent of a Woman, BEBA offered not a narrative about women, but a sensory exploration of femininity as vibration, rhythm, and ephemeral presence. The exhibition unfolded like a slow inhalation and exhalation—inviting viewers to tune into the subtle emotional registers embedded in each line. Elegant, precise, and quietly magnetic, the works resonated with universal themes while remaining unmistakably rooted in the artist’s own visual language.

For many attendees, the exhibition provided their first encounter with this uniquely encoded world. For BEBA, it represented a culminating moment: an affirmation of her international presence, a celebration of her technique, and a profound recognition of her capacity to transform silence, gesture, and line into a living artistic signature.