BUCURESTI

After the end of dark era of the Second World War and the liberation of nazi domination and tyranny, the world finally emerged into some calmer sea, though not equally calm for all nations. Division of Europe into Western and Eastern Bloc, resulted in a formation of the Iron Curtain and the nations that literally lost their national identities and become over the night "instant nations". With an influence of elite and global politics, these nations became a bargaining chip in the game of great powers of East and West. The fall of Berlin Wall and the weakening of the Eastern Bloc countries resulted in the intentional awakening of the identity repressed by force, under the shelter of democracy, which led to annihilation of the system of beliefs of many generations that paid a huge price for this experiment. The flags that were a pride of those lost generations are testimonies of the time that had been wasted, of their defeat and of their utopia in which they believed. As always, a simple man remained disfigured and manipulated, along with generations of young people, lost in searching for identity that was transformed dramatically only to be abused one more time. In the work of Ivan Grubanov, once again we ran into dead collective identities that lost their lives in the name of illusory progress which serves exclusively as a smokescreen in the process of killing themselves. Looking at the works of this great artist you will probably feel the sadness that your manipulated parents felt for giving a part of themselves into identities to which the future was taken away. The message of these fragile captives along with the transfer of the artist's emotions, will strongly move your consciousness. Predrag Popara