{"id":607,"date":"2013-05-22T06:49:27","date_gmt":"2013-05-22T06:49:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/artapolitica.ro\/?p=607"},"modified":"2016-09-26T13:02:37","modified_gmt":"2016-09-26T13:02:37","slug":"am-facut-gem-in-barcelona-din-capsunile-culese-de-nostri","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artapolitica.ro\/gazetapolitica\/en\/2013\/05\/22\/am-facut-gem-in-barcelona-din-capsunile-culese-de-nostri\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cI made jam in Barcelona from the strawberries picked by our \u2018c\u0103p\u015funari\u2019\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cI made jam in Barcelona from the strawberries picked by our \u2018c\u0103p\u015funari\u2019\u201d[1]<\/b><\/a><\/b><\/p>\n

Interview with Matei Bejenaru<\/i><\/p>\n

The representations of labor and the image of the worker \u2013 ignored in post-socialist art \u2013 constitute the main research topics chosen by visual artist Matei Bejenaru. In his photographs, installations and performance projects, the artist analyzes the transformations of the contexts of labor in Romania and abroad. Construction sites, factories and strawberry fields are just some of the spaces which define work and power relations within the social art put forward by Matei Bejenaru. In the interview conducted by Mihaela Michailov, Bejenaru emphasizes the work relations between the workers with whom he created his artistic projects, the straightforward discussions he has with the workers involved, the role of social art and the way this art can enable important transformations: \u201cIf social art ends up being consumed and put on a pedestal by the art system, it\u2019s not enough. I\u2019m not na\u00efve, I don\u2019t believe art can change the world. But if it manages to stir some discussions on certain delicate issues, then it\u2019s an important step forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Matei Bejenaru, making art with workers represents a form of social involvement from the part of the artist, who then becomes a participant observer, a subject of the documented work: \u201cI made smokers for pork and used them with the people in the neighborhoods in the 90s, I made over-sized clothes in a Romanian textile mill, considering the profit rate of a Western company operating in Romania at the time, I made jam in Barcelona from the strawberries picked by our \u2018c\u0103p\u015funari\u2019, I made a public choreography performance with more than 200 Romanians in London\u2026\u201d.<\/p>\n

Interview conducted by Mihaela Michailov<\/em><\/p>\n

\"M3:<\/a>

M3: Labor, Memory, Movement. Group of Romanian workers on a construction site in Italy, Nettuno, 2008.<\/p><\/div>\n


<\/p>\n
\n
\n

[1]<\/a> \u201cC\u0103p\u015funari\u201d \u2013 colloquial term derived from the Romanian for \u201cstrawberry\u201d (\u201cc\u0103p\u015fun\u0103\u201d) used to name Romanian migrant workers in Spain doing seasonal agricultural labor (mostly strawberry picking).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cI made jam in Barcelona from the strawberries picked by our \u2018c\u0103p\u015funari\u2019\u201d[1] Interview with Matei Bejenaru The representations of labor and the image of the worker \u2013 ignored in post-socialist art \u2013 constitute the main research topics chosen by visual artist Matei Bejenaru. In his photographs, installations and performance projects, the artist analyzes the transformations of the contexts of labor in Romania and abroad. Construction sites, factories and strawberry fields are just some of the spaces which define work and power relations within the social art put forward by Matei Bejenaru. In the interview conducted by Mihaela Michailov, Bejenaru emphasizes…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[95],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/artapolitica.ro\/gazetapolitica\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/607"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/artapolitica.ro\/gazetapolitica\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/artapolitica.ro\/gazetapolitica\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artapolitica.ro\/gazetapolitica\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artapolitica.ro\/gazetapolitica\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=607"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/artapolitica.ro\/gazetapolitica\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/607\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3462,"href":"https:\/\/artapolitica.ro\/gazetapolitica\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/607\/revisions\/3462"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/artapolitica.ro\/gazetapolitica\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=607"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artapolitica.ro\/gazetapolitica\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=607"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artapolitica.ro\/gazetapolitica\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=607"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}