Millions of Ruins
Part of the group show Millions of Ruins with Adrian Ganea and Flaviu Rogojan at Galeria Quadro in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, 2021.
'Following times of unease and crysis, the promised return to normalcy is a look back through rose-colored glasses to a recent past. For the generations of young artists today, the 1990s and 2000s are made up of nostalgic optimisms and broken promises; the ruins of those years still haunt our contemporary society.
Growing up on simulated historical narratives in video games, the fantasy timelines and digital landscapes form a collective memory filled with hyper-romanticized and misquoted pasts. Other places, like The Internet Archive’s library, house millions of websites, software, books, images, and more; these collections of digitized assets are our current digital histories, today’s ruins to explore.
The exhibition is a throwback to the era that internet companies competed for turbo speeds, the economy went through turbo inflation and then emerged in turbo capitalism, we imported fast cars in turbo gum and turbo diesel, all these moments - lost in time, like tears in rain.
Thea Lazăr’s evergreen ivies are threads that hold the cracked walls of a derelict castle together. Plants that cover ruins deteriorate but also protect the remains. A childhood memory of a Rapunzel computer game becomes a historical reference and a frame.'
