MNAC / The National Museum of Contem-porary Art, Bucharest proudly presents Mircea Cantor: Q.E.D., the first solo exhibition in Romania of one of the most important young artists to emerge on the international art scene over the last decade. Q.E.D. is the larg-est survey of Mircea Cantor’s prac-tice to date, comprising 30 titles: photographs, videos, drawings and sculptures, from his 1999 The Origin of the World (After Courbet), a work that motivated Cantor’s expatriation to France, to the recent Sic Transit Gloria Mundi (2012), and to the works especially created for this exhibi-tion: Business Class Worried and the new photo series Sic Transit..., where the Romanian actress Monica Bîrlădeanu re-enacts the burning of “vanity”.

Working with symbols in a symbolic building is the challenge on which this exhibition is triggered. Exhibi-tion areas that retain elements of the original decoration, and testify of the traumatic past of the build-ing where the Museum is located, will host large-scale, catalytic works by Cantor: a gigantic wall drawing in dynamite wire, whose ignition will be performed at the opening, or a life-size wooden sculpture representing a traditional house with a scaffold roof from the Maramures county in Northern Romania.

The latter work, Threshold Resigned, oscillates poetically between the lo-cal and the universal, in tandem with interventions such as the DNA Kiss, overlooked by the ceiling work Ciel variable. Cantor orchestrates a com-plex discussion of displacement, fragility, certainty and anxiety, critically echoing the history of the building — the House of People, for whose construction in the 1980s count-less anonymous craftsmen, artisans and artists were employed to shape the monument of absolute Power.

Sic Transit Gloria Mundi folds into one a Vanitas-like image and a reflec-tion on economic disparity. The film is installed in dialogue with Holy Flow-ers (black-and-white photographs of Israeli machine guns, kaleidoscopi-cally mirrored), and Fishing Fly (an airplane fashioned from recycled oil barrels, fitted with a golden hook). Cantor’s acclaimed Deeparture and Wind Orchestra share the preoccupation with how violence can be metaphorically im-plied and politically instituted with the anxiety and sublimation of vio-lence.

The installation of the exhibition is geared to provoke (self-)reflection. Quod Erat Demonstrandum: Cantor’s auto-ironic title counterbalances the artist’s ambition to create unique, universal pieces, to operate artisti-cally within the domain of irrefutable statements. Works such as Unpredict-able Future, All the Directions or Ciel variable reproduce this irresolu-tion between a transitive approach and the uncertainties of interpretation that arise when artistic statements meet their viewers.

Mircea Cantor: Q.E.D. will be on dis-play for one year. Special events and a rotating program of video works are scheduled for early September. Eyes Starring to My Absence can be seen at the entrance of the building only on Mondays and Tuesdays, when the museum is closed to the public.

Mircea CantorMircea Cantor was born in Romania in 1977. He lives and works “on earth.”

His major solo exhibitions include Mircea Cantor, Centre Pompidou (2012); Sic Transit Gloria Mundi, MACRO Museo di Arte Contemporanea, Rome, (2012); More Cheeks Than Slaps, Le Crédac, France, (2011); Wise as a Serpent and Innocent as a Dove, Städtisches Museum Abteiberg, Monchengladbach, Germany, (2010); Mircea Cantor solo, Kunsthaus Zürich (2009); The Need for Uncertain-ty, Modern Art Oxford and Arnolfini, Bristol and Camden Arts Centre, Lon-don (2008-2009); Ciel Variable, Fonds Régional d´Art Contemporain Champagne Ardennes – FRAC, France (2007); The Title Is the Last Thing, Philadelphia Museum of Art, USA (2006).

And group shows: TRACK, S.M.A.K. Gent, Belgium (2012); Our Magic Hour – Yoko-hama Triennale, Japan (2011); Barock, Museo MADRE, Napoli (2009); 28th Bienal de São Paulo, Brazil (2008); Airs de Paris, Centre Pompidou, Paris (2007); Brave New Worlds, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis (2007) and 4th Berlin Biennale (2006).

In 2011 he was awarded with Prix Marcel Duchamp, Paris and in 2004 with Prix Fondation d’entreprise Ricard, Paris.

The Guest Room, a space integrated in the exhibition, will host each month a work by an artist or an acquaintance Cantor shares affinities with: Rudolf Bone (April), Geta Brătescu (May), Gabriela Vanga (June), Ion Grigorescu (July), Corneliu Brudașcu and Andrei Șerban (August), Victor Man (Septem-ber), Oanea Vasile and Ioan Opriș (October), Ciprian Mureșan and Old Clown Wanted by Matei Vişniec, directed by Geo Balint, with Eliza Noemi Judeu, Nina Ionescu and Adelaida Perjoiu (November), Adrian Gagiu (December), Victoria Ber-becaru (January), Miklós Onucsán (Febru-ary), Pavel & Tudor (March).

Mircea Cantor, Threshold Resigned, 2012pine wood, 7m x 5m x 7m (L x W x H)Photo credit: © 2012 Mircea Cantor

Mircea Cantor, Deeparture, 20052 minutes, 45 seconds, in loop, 16 mm trans-ferred on DVD.Courtesy Mircea Cantor and Yvon Lambert, Paris

Mircea Cantor, Sic Transit Gloria Mundi, 2013C-print, 61,8 x 100 cm; series of 7 photo-graphs© Mircea Cantor 2013

EXHIBITION IN THE CARE OF: Raluca Velisar and Mihai Pop.

Architecture: Attila Kim.Production: Mihai Pop, Suzana Dan.Press contact: Gabriela Popp(gabrielapopp@gmail.com)

WITH THE SUPPORT OF:

SPONSORS:

MEDIA PARTNERS:

Works in the exhibition (April - September 2013):

Unpredictable Future, 2004; Deepar-ture, 2005; Ciel Variable, 2007 – 2013; Threshold Resigned, 2012; DNA Kiss, 2008; Diamond Corn, 2005, All the Directions, 2000; Wind Orchestra, 2012; Vertical Attempt, 2009; Double Heads Matches, 2002-2003; The Origin of The World (After Courbet), 1999; I Sell My Spare Time, 2009; Europe Sup-ported by Africa and Asia, 2009; More Cheeks Than Slaps, 2011; Holy Flowers, 2010; Fishing Fly, 2011; Eyes Staring to My Absence, 2008; SIC TRANSIT GLO-RIA MUNDI, 2012 – 2013; Business Class Worried, 2013; I decided not to save the world, 2011; Rainbow, 2010; With a Free Smile, 2007; Hymn For a Big Day, 2012.

Works in the exhibition (September 2013 - April 2014):

Unpredictable Future, 2004; The leash of the dog that was longer than his life, 2009; Ciel Variable, 2007 – 2013; Threshold Resigned, 2012; DNA Kiss, 2008; Diamond Corn, 2005, All the Directions, 2000; Wind Orches-tra, 2012; Vertical Attempt, 2009; Zooooooom, 2006; The Origin of The World (After Courbet), 1999; I Sell My Spare Time, 2009; Europe Supported by Africa and Asia, 2009; More Cheeks Than Slaps, 2011; Easy, 2008; Fishing Fly, 2011; Eyes Staring to My Absence, 2008; SIC TRANSIT GLORIA MUNDI, 2012 – 2013; Tracking Happiness, 2009; Busi-ness Class Worried, 2013; I decided not to save the world, 2011; Rainbow, 2010; With a Free Smile, 2007; Color Silent, 2010 - 2013.

MNAC / National Museum of Contemporary Art

Special thanks:Shifra & Yotam (Dvir Gallery, Tel Aviv), Mircea Pinte, PLAN B, Gabriela Vanga, Monica Bîrlădeanu, Cosmin Gogu Studio, Claudiu Crasnojan.

Țuca Zbârcea & the Associates

Emilian Radu and his family

Guvernul RomânieiMinisterul Culturii si Patrimoniului Național

Palace of the Parliament, wing E4Izvor 2-4 St 050563 Bucharest, RomaniaEntrance through Calea 13 Septembrie Open: Wednesday - Sunday, 10.00 - 18.00www.mnac.ro

mircea cantor q.e.d.

10 APRIL 2013 - 13 APRIL 2014

Mircea Cantor, THE MILKY WAY, 2013, china ink on bamboo paper, 15 x 21 cm. © Mircea Cantor

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