A work by Romanian artist Dan Acostioaei entitled Seas Under Deserts was acquired for Moderna galerija's Arteast 2000+ collection. Employing a multi-layered narrative that superposes personal memories and geopolitical analysis, the video installation Mări sub pustiuri (Seas under Deserts) proposes an articulation of an affective knowledge in relation to the socialist legacy. The starting point for the work consists of documents, images and material traces left by artist’s father during his dispatch as a construction engineer in Syria from 1975 to 1978 and in Iraq from 1981 to 1983. At the same time this artwork explores the socialist trade with countries from the Middle East during the time of Ceaușescu’s regime analyzed as an alternative to current East-West relations. The images both implicitly evoke and stand in contrast to the migration of labor to the West after 1989 and the recent wave of Syrian refugees seeking asylum in Europe.

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In 2000, Moderna galerija founded the Arteast 2000+ Collection, the first ever museum collection conceived and assembled with a view to giving prominence to East European postwar avant-gardes. Over the past twenty years the collection has become renowned for providing a comprehensive overview of art in the Central and East European region, providing insight into the similarities and differences between the cultural and sociopolitical contexts of the various formerly socialist countries, and broaching issues related to the broader international art system and the forces behind it.