Conceived as a string of cinematic-like scenes that gravitate around the topic of labour, and how the historical imprints affected the social and political environments of the Eastern European societies after the fall of the wall, the exhibition Songs for a Better Future introduces the first comprehensive display of Matei Bejenaru’s artistic practice in Slovenia. Trained as engineer at the end of the 1980s in Romania, Bejenaru decided in the early 1990s to follow art studies, becoming a distinct voice of his generation formed under the new spectre of capitalism.
Featuring works from recent period until the mid-1990s, the exhibition follows the artist longstanding engagement with people and places, highlighting both his situationist and poetical approach in drawing a multi-layered picture of the onset of post-communism and of the tangible failures and divergent changes occurring in the life of Easterners. His installations, long-term photographic projects and film essays create an intimate way of looking at the conditions of today’s world. Retaining the overwhelming feelings of hope, uncertainty and regret felt by the individuals as a result of the unequal and distressing social mechanisms emerging in the everyday life, Bejenaru’s works address quintessential themes of Eastern European societies: the unemployment of workers following the collapse of former industry sectors and the forced career reconversion, the illegal immigration and economic mobility.
In the first room, the large-format photographic tableaux part of the series Between Two Words (2009–ongoing) document technical museums, scientific labs, public spaces, and factories in Romania, offering an evocative and bold commentary on the declining of scientific research after the fall of communism. The inherent tension of images derives from their extreme realism and the elaborate camera angle which sometimes converts the relics of the past into peculiar objects belonging to a far-away future.
In the second room, in the filmic essay From Afar (2009), Matei Bejenaru ruminates a masterful portrait of loneliness, which reflects on the social phenomenon of labour mobility that affects women of all ages, coming in general from rural communities or small cities once boosting the industry area. The film tells the stories of Romanian women caring for elderly people abroad, evoking their feelings of alienation and unsettlement.
Important for Bejenaru’s artistic approach is the relationship established with his subjects. A careful look of his photographs points beyond the usual framework of documentary images, the ethical dimension of his social-artistic practice defining the parameters of representation. The selection of works from the series M3: Work, Memory, Movement (2008–ongoing) in the third room elicits piercing reflections on the social crisis triggered by the radical shifts experienced by post-communist societies.
The final room of the exhibition offers an emotional and lucid journey along a body of works that expands the boundaries of art and merges personal encounters with collective experiences translated into conceptual explorations which take the form of public actions (Alexandru cel Bun, 1994), artistic situations (Looking for Caslav, 2002), film essays (Maersk Dubai, 2007), alternative maps (Travel Guide, 2005–2007), oversized garments (Enlarged Clothing, 2005), and choral pieces (Songs for Better Future, 2010). Here, the narratives constructed by Bejenaru alludes to the intricate terrain of history and memory, to the fragile status of human geographies in a still-expanding global system and not least the fading of people’s prospects for a better future.
Curated by Alina Şerban.
