Infinite Blue: exhibition revisits life in Ceausescu’s Romania

Stefan Constantinescu, Kindergarten

Filmmaker and conceptual artist Stefan Constantinescu unveils his first solo UK exhibition, An Infinite Blue, at Galerie8.

The exhibition is being supported by the Romanian Cultural Institute in London. Constantinescu grew up in Romania during the height of communism and the regime’s impact has formed a recurrent theme and tension throughout his work.

Using a variety of media – including film, artist books and paintings – he continually plays with genre and expectation. Fictional films are presented as documentaries, artist books are used to challenge education and monuments are deconstructed over their role in collective memory.

An Infinite Blue is no exception. Taking the title from Angela Similea’s song – a familiar soundtrack to 1980s Romania – Constantinescu returns to his roots as a classically trained painter but subverts this, in an exploration of art within a totalitarian state.

Through a series of oil paintings, drawings and tracings, Constantinescu revisits his experience as a commissioned Socialist Realism painter under the dictatorship of Nicolae Ceausescu. Socialist Realism was the dominant style of painting throughout the communist era and was well known for its use as a propaganda tool.

On the tracing overlays, Constantinescu scripts in corrections made by an imaginary supervisor, to ensure that the final work appropriately reflects socialist values. By re-imagining the dialogue in this way, the artist deconstructs both the process of painting and its role within the regime.

An Infinite Blue is also accompanied by Constantinescu’s past works; the film, Troleibuzul 92 (2009) and the pop-up book, The Golden Age for Children (2008). These pieces similarly explore presentations of the past through different media, placing this current exhibition within the context of Constantinescu’s other work.

An Infinite Blue
9th September – 16 October
Galerie 8
195-205 Richmond Road E8 3NJ