Artistic and literary works are the starting point for the work of Ciprian Muresan (*1977, Dej, Romania), who appropriates them for a reflective project that intersects with the recent history of Romania and other Eastern European countries and, more generally, ponders the realities of the contemporary world. For his first solo exhibition in Switzerland, Ciprian Muresan presents two new pieces: an installation, “Recycled Playground”, from which the exhibition takes its title and its tone, and a companion video creation. A selection of other significant works is also presented. Juggling humour and critique, the artist highlights the structures and processes of all forms of power.

His works (videos, drawings and installations) reuse and hijack iconic modern and contemporary works of art, which are contextualized and sometimes assessed with an ironic, disenchanted eye (Klein or Kippenberger, for example). With frequent reference to literature, in particular Kafka and Ionesco, Muresan analyses power structures and conditioning by ideologies – whether political, religious or economic. In works that are often darkly humorous, he evokes the realities of present-day Romania: the ambivalent relationship with recent history, political and ideological changes (especially the end of communism), Eastern Europe’s fascination with the cultures of the West and the loss of traditions and local products.

If the situation of the Eastern European countries is a starting point, it is one that is part of a broader reflection on a contemporary world characterized by the demise of utopias and dominated by entertainment – a globalized, consensual culture of consumption. In Muresan’s remake of “Un Chien Andalou” the actors are replaced by Shrek and Fiona; contamination by Western mass culture in this film which profoundly subverts modernity, but also a reference to popular Romanian culture, notably puppet theatre.

The reference to forms of entertainment conveys the artist’s singular way of seeing and allows a critical discourse – whose use of popular forms makes it all the more effective – to be expressed less directly. The puppets that feature in several films speak of social protest and torture. “Recycled Playground”, the new work for the exhibition, reuses the form of the little train, but the wagons it pulls are Romanian trash cans; humour and play are vehicles for ideas.

At the centre of this recycled playground is the figure of the child: a little sponge conditioned by ambient ideologies who is the symptom of societies and at the heart of the construction of identity and of the standardization of thought.

Whether they address questions that are directly political or historical, or travel by more poetic, humorous or evocative paths, the works of Ciprian Muresan offer a reflection on the different realities of the contemporary world.

Born in Dej in 1977, Ciprian Muresan lives and works in Cluj-Napoca (Romania). His work has been shown recently at the Vienna Secession, the NBK in Berlin, the Wyspa Institute of Art in Gdansk, the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, the Renaissance Society in Chicago, the Centro Cultural Montehermoso in Vitoria, the Witte de With in Rotterdam and the New Museum in New York. Ciprian Muresan also exhibited in the Romanian Pavilion at the 53rd Venice Biennale and took part in the 17th Biennale of Sydney. He is represented by Plan B in Cluj and Berlin, by Andreiana Mihail Gallery in Bucharest, by Nicodim Gallery in Los Angeles, David Nolan Gallery in New York and by Wilkinson Gallery in London.

As part of the mediation programme of the Centre, an ARTY NIGHT will take place on April 19 at 7pm. Discussing the topics of contemporary art and cinema in Romania, this round-table will feature Andrei Ujica (filmmaker) and Ciprian Muresan, and will be animated by Jean Perret, Head of the cinema department/cinéma du réel, HEAD – Geneva.

This exhibition has been organised in collaboration with FRAC Champagne-Ardenne (France) and the Contemporary Art Gallery of Vancouver (Canada).

Curated by Katya García-Antón