Mircea Cantor

Oradea , Romania
1977

Mircea Cantor was born in 1977 in Romania. He is best known for his evocative, metaphorical videos and mixed-media installations, Cantor makes work reflective of a broad worldview that is at once optimistic and trenchantly critical. In his works, he examines competing ideologies, war, displacement, the self and the other, and multivalence. Keenly aware of the multitude of meanings that a word or an object can contain, he deliberately mixes materials and uses language playfully, producing poignant, challenging works that defy categorization.

We know who we are, so why not go deeper? Let’s stand for something other than our nationality. [. . .] [My] objects speak of the great openness in which we can live today, beyond national categories.
– Mircea Cantor

Cantor won the Marcel Duchamp Prize in 2011.

Photo: Gabriela Vanga.