Mureşan, Ciprian: Untitled (2009)

Romania, after the change of regime, is characterized by both old-fashioned modernism based on the position of the Orthodox Church and an uncritical acceptance of Western values. The resurgent Western interest in the countries behind the Iron Curtain in the 1990s, so to speak, required the raising of themes that justified the otherness of the East, but Ciprian Mureşan deliberately avoids the use of symbols that would lead to the exoticization of contemporary Romanian art. Ciprian Muresan is more interested in the subtle connections between communism and post-communism, and is more concerned with the individual’s relationship to historical forms than concise, enigmatic political metaphors. Not only is the position of the fallen – but not clearly lying – statue of Lenin contradictory, but the title does not accurately capture the content. The small human figures lying about, modelled on his own friends, seem weightless under the large sculptural body – history – yet at the same time they seem to be trying to free themselves. For today’s weak, little figures without charisma, the failed, contradictory, but great experiments of modernism are serious, present examples that still cause conflict in cultural consciousness.

Emese Kürti