© Adrian Cojocaru
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Having lived his formative years in Italy, Adrian Cojocaru had a peculiar time trying to readjust to Romanian cities. The architecture he remembered from his childhood was now amalgamated with elements of disorganized urban development such as tumultuous improvisations on the buildings abusively made by their residents, piles of electrical cables lying on the ground, potholes, roads constantly in a pending state of construction, aggressive advertising on every corner of the street, erased or bended street signs. The artist became fascinated with representing the obstacles he constantly encountered throughout the cities he spent his most time in, Iași and Bucharest. The Riding Through the City series represents imaginary scenes generated by his urban wanderings. By employing walking as an artistic practice and studying the works of Henri Lefebvre and Roland Barthes the artist found a key to reading the cities - a conceptual triad composed of architecture, public space and the life of the city. The process of artistic research of the urban experience assumes in this case the logic of post-production of personal photos through digital manipulation, cutting, juxtaposition, chromatic alterations painted into rendered canvases.
The observations of the artist on contemporary society are not portrayed in a sullen atmosphere. Rather than dwelling on unfortunate elements of the local aesthetic, he takes a witty approach by including textual elements in his native language that are usually word plays and by portraying outlandish situations. …like an undiscovered illness is a work of social commentary, signaling chaotic urbanization and the impact it has on the city’s inhabitants. The painting is inspired by a real life situation when the artist became the main attraction of the neighborhood for wearing socks and sandals in the middle of October, after undergoing toe surgery. The citizens are so accustomed to their faulty surroundings they are completely anesthetized when it comes to advocating for change, yet a fashion choice by one of their peers suddenly becomes a sensational story. (Maria Mănăilă)
View the works here