Quietly subversive, Ciprian Muresan’s allegorical artwork reflects on post-Soviet life and questions artistic production. While best known for short, darkly humorous videos, Muresan works across various media to communicate a sardonic worldview shaped by coming of age during Romania’s revolution and the political disarray that followed. His “Pioneers” (2010) series refers to the scandalous revelation that homeless children were living in sewage passageways, which came to symbolize Romania’s failed transition to capitalism. To Muresan, these sketches of children sniffing glue constitute “the perfect image,” revealing the myths and hypocrisies of capitalism and communism alike. Meanwhile, Leap Into the Void, after three seconds (2004) adds a dark twist to Yves Klein’s 1960 photograph of a man suspended in mid-air having leapt from a window. Sprawled on the pavement three seconds later, his sense of freedom and transcendence has vanished.
Quietly subversive, Ciprian Muresan’s allegorical artwork reflects on post-Soviet life and questions artistic production. While best known for short, darkly humorous videos, Muresan works across various media to communicate a sardonic worldview shaped by coming of age during Romania’s revolution and the political disarray that followed. His “Pioneers” (2010) series refers to the scandalous revelation that homeless children were living in sewage passageways, which came to symbolize Romania’s failed transition to capitalism. To Muresan, these sketches of children sniffing glue constitute “the perfect image,” revealing the myths and hypocrisies of capitalism and communism alike. Meanwhile, Leap Into the Void, after three seconds (2004) adds a dark twist to Yves Klein’s 1960 photograph of a man suspended in mid-air having leapt from a window. Sprawled on the pavement three seconds later, his sense of freedom and transcendence has vanished.
