Silvia Traistaru – The Last Communists Convention
Silvia Traistaru (1979) lives and works in Bucharest, as a visual artist and independent art restorer. Her art extends to photography and video, but a very special part of her practice remains drawing and painting. An important theme of her approach is the portrait capturing the reality in the post communist Romania. Cultural, political social and economic pretexts are the central subjects of her works, revealing gaps in the system to which she belongs. Her work questions the role that social memory plays in everyday life. She uses a visual approach that focuses on individual identity through both personal and collective history and thus her works enables the viewer to analyze the role of social memory in Romania’s everyday life.
In 2010, the painting „My Mom at a Funeral” was selected as finalist and winner of a special prize for the 4th International Arte Laguna Prize, Venice Arsenale (curated by Igor Zanti); in 2010 she has participated at Nord Art, Germany (curated by Wolfgang Gramm); in 2009 The Artist’s Magazine has selected one of her works as finalist for its 26th Annual Art Competition; in 2009, she participated at the Experimental course of contemporary art and exhibition “Mobilehome”, Portugal (curated by Nuno Faria).
“The Last Communists’ Convention is an ample project, including 24 trypthics representing portraits of the communists leaders: Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Vladimir Lenin, Joseph Stalin, Leon Trotsky, Ho Chi Minh, Josip Broz Tito, Mao Zedong, Nikita Khrushchev, Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej, Deng Xiaoping, W?adys?aw Gomu?ka, Leonid Brezhnev, Salvador Allende, Enver Hoxha, Todor Zhivkov, Kim Ilsung, J?nos K?d?r, Erich Honecker, Nicolae Ceau?escu, Alexander Dub?ek, Fidel Castro, Che Guevara, Hugo Ch?vez. Presentation of the installation in the exhibition will be done gradually, by the birthyear of the subject’s character. The title of this project refers to an imaginary meeting of all communist leaders, regardless of the era in which they lived. This project has been partially exhibited in 2005 in Mainz, Germany and totally exhibited in 2010 at Nord Art, also in Germany.”
MARX 40?80 cm, 2008, acrylic on canvas
LENIN 40?80 cm, 2008, acrylic on canvas
STALIN 40?80 cm, 2008, acrylic on canvas
TROTSKY 40?80 cm, 2008, acrylic on canvas
more artworks to see at the exhibition below
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Corruption is a common burden of most post-socialist countries. Their nations got morally destroyed by communism. Slovakia is one of the most corrupted countries in the world. I know, because that’s where I am from and where I live.