PRUT
Matei Bejenaru
Begun in 2011, a few years after Romania joined the European Union, the PRUT project is a documentary photographic archive that currently contains around 1,500 negatives. The process of mapping the territory of the Prut River Basin, now the easternmost natural frontier of the new European political construct, has served as a means for the artist’s engagement with an almost invisible rural world, one of the poorest in Romania and Europe.
After almost seven years of travelling around the territory, interacting with people and communities, the images contained in this publication uncover multiple facets, both good and bad, of the dynamic of change to which the Prut region has been subject. It was important for the artist to understand the context and the problems the rural world is facing, as it is well known that around forty-five percent of Romania’s population lives in the villages. For this reason, the social practice of art and the ethics of representation are the defining elements of this photographic project. However, these photo-tableaux do not explicitly illustrate any anthropological or sociological theory or concept. Captured on film and developed in the artist’s own laboratory, they reflect, in an artistic context, the challenges and transformations confronted by a Romania that is less visible.
ISBN 978-973-0-27993-1
Publisher: Asociatia Pepluspatru
Price: 20.00 €
