To mark the Romanian presidency of the Council of the European Union, Hangar is presenting three artists who have Europe and Romania in common. In their various different ways, they each follow their own different paths in their exploration of the complexity of our contemporary society. Exhibition staged with the support of the Permanent Representation of Romania to the European Union.

Born in 1977 in Oradea (Romania). ‘Lives and works on earth’ (sic) – between Paris (France) and Cluj-Napoca (Romania). Visual artist Mircea Cantor is a leading figure in the new geography of contemporary art, a nomad and self-styled ‘earth artist’ who seeks to shine a light on the malfunctions of the human being through the lens of our contemporary society. He subtly pokes fun at our traditions, criticising how the world looks, politics, the phenomenon of globalisation, and History, and remains focused on human aspirations, observing the intimate details of our behaviours and our faults. In the tradition of Marcel Duchamp, Mircea makes use of ready-made objects or iconography to expose the ambiguity of our daily life in the postmodern era. The media that the artist chooses are very diverse: video, animation, sculpture, drawings, paintings and installations, and the visual effects of Mircea Cantor’s works are often ambiguous, leaving the interpretation up to the viewer’s discretion. At Hangar, Mircea illustrates his subject through the motif of the rope, which he associates with his birth country, Romania.

Biography/ After studying art in Oradea from 1992 to 1996, Mircea Cantor studied at the Art and Design University of Cluj-Napoca from 1997 to 1999. He then took a postgraduate degree at the Nantes School of Fine Art from 1999 to 2000 and worked on a DNAP from 2001 to 2003. In 2001, Mircea Cantor took part in the Romanian pavilion at the Venice Biennale, and in 2004, he won the Paul-Ricard foundation prize, followed, in 2011, by the Marcel Duchamp prize. His works are held by the greatest museums in the world, including Moma (New York), the Walker Art Center (Minneapolis), the Philadelphia Museum of Art (Pennsylvania), the Centre Pompidou (Paris), and the Museo Nacional in Madrid.

Born in 1987 in Bucharest, Romania. ‘Lives and works somewhere in the European Union’ (sic) – in Ghent, Belgium. Daniel Djamo is fascinated by the origins and stories of individuals and groups, as well as themes such as national identity. Blending film with performance and video art, he also creates photographic installations which evoke the past and underline ‘the instant’. His works are profoundly social and political. He challenges the notion of social diversity and the fear of foreigners. Hangar is showing some of his works, notably exploring the role of Romania, his country of origin, within the European Union, as well as the question of cultural identity, in particular Romania’s, and how it is perceived abroad.

Biography/ Daniel Djamo holds a degree in photographic art and video from the National University of Bucharest, and completed a doctorate in visual arts from 2013 to 2018. He has been awarded multiple prizes, including the ESSL Award CEE, the Henkel Art.Award, the Young Artist Prize CEE, the Startpoint Prize Romania, the grand prize of the National University of Art in Bucharest and the Special Award for Documentary Film.

Born in 1959 in Calarasi (Romania). Lives and works in Bucharest (Romania). Florica Prevenda is one of the most innovative artists in the field of contemporary Romanian art. Her artistic and intellectual quests strive to interpret and critique the world of images. The result is a series of experimental and mixed projects. Every stage of her life has had an obsessive, introspective influence on her artistic creativity, as if that were the extension of her soul. At Hangar, she is showing works from her series Facebook Obsession, where the face of the individual, signifying his identity or personality, is sometimes deconstructed by the network, and Anonymous or how people immerse their faces into a virtual reality: their phone.

Biography/ She graduated in 1984 from the George Enescu University of Art in Iasi, going on to teach to National University of Art Bucharest from 1993 to 1997. Her most important series are Shadow of the Present, Net People, Faces without a Face, Time Regained, Serenity, Facebook Obsession, Ephemeral/Condensation and Anonymous.