The Partisan, the Dissident, and the “Postsocialist Contemporary”

“This arc tracks with one of the most familiar narratives for art from former socialist Eastern Europe: the story of the heroic dissident-figure who defied the restrictions of socialist realism and the “dehumanization” of collectivization under the party apparatus. The by-line for the review of Lupas’s exhibition in the NRC (a widely read Dutch daily newspaper) encapsulates this story: ‘The Romanian avant-garde artist Ana Lupas (1940) has spent her life subversively paying tribute to human dignity in a country ravaged by communist repression.’ Opening with a sardonic contextual note on the ‘evils’ of socialist Romania, the review then continues: ‘On the other side of the Elbe, you were put in jail if you spoke your mind; famine reigned and factories spewed poisonous black fumes into the air without a care in the world. People who got sick from it—oh, that was the price of socialist progress.’ The geographic line of the river produces a useful spatial binary upon which to build up a very old Cold War split. There is this side and that side; but which side is this? Lupas’s this maps that, right? On that side is jail, famine, pollution, and sickness. On this side—or is it that side?—well…”

“The Partisan, the Dissident, and the ‘Postsocialist Contemporary’”⁠⁠(opens in a new tab)⁠ is a review of Ana Lupas: On This Side of the River Elbe, the first major retrospective exhibition of Romanian artist Ana Lupas in the Netherlands. The exhibition was organized by the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, and it was on view from 9 May through 15 September 2024.