Mircea Cantor

b. 1977, Romania

Under the guise of an ordinary street demonstration, The Landscape is Changing inverts one of the essential characteristics of this type of protest. Whereas normally the multiplication of individual enthusiasm creates an autonomous and powerful collective energy, the demonstrators in The Landscape is Changing seem to release an individual energy which escapes and surpasses them. Crossing this urban theatre, where the weight of the architecture symbolises a political omnipresence, the cortège simply opposes its inoffensive mirrors to the seats of power they pass by, thus reinforcing their indifference to the immediate context. The variety of shooting angles and the perfect organisation of the march strengthens the unity of the cortège, which rapidly takes the shape of a moving ‘thought’. In a traditional demonstration, the agitation and cries of the crowd allow a group release of personal feelings. On the contrary, Mircea Cantor’s calm and silent cortège concentrates itself on the singular vision of the artist. Thus, the collective question mark is gradually transformed into a personal question mark.

— Amiel Grumberg (from catalogue essay for Quicksand, DeAppel, Amsterdam)

(Text: imagine limerick catalogue, 2004)