What Work Is

Artists

Șerban Savu, Atelier Brenda

Press release

National Participation - Romania

The exhibition in the Romanian Pavilion, What Work Is, intricately weaves the complex iconography of work and leisure, drawing inspiration from historical realism, its ideology, and propaganda art of the Eastern Bloc. Instead of challenging or deconstructing these discourses, Savu rearranges the themes of revolutionary spirit and cohesion among workers. His aim is to capture and portray moments of pause and inactivity as reflections of broader societal changes or crises

Invited to respond to Savu’s project, the Brussels-based graphic design studio Atelier Brenda (Sophie Keij and Nana Esi) offers a site-specific intervention on the façade and in the lobby of the Romanian Pavilion. Their large-scale design messaging will be a study in non-ideological propaganda, like the advertising for a social factory: a production facility for a new kind of subjectivity. 

Commissioner: Ioana Ciocan
Curator: Ciprian Mureșan