Cultural heritage or brand images and stories?

"The Romanian artist Mircea Cantor has been living and working in France since 1999, while developing numerous collaborations with his native country. The piece Tasca che punge was part of his first solo exhibition at the Italian gallery Magazzino d'Arte Moderna in December 2007. He alludes to the situation of Romanian immigrants in Italy. The installation consists of a pair of Armani trousers, the symbol of luxury and success, strung up like underwear hanging out to dry. The pockets of the pants are lined with nettles and soil, a reference to the uprootedness and lack of money of Romanian immigrants. This work can also be seen as a self-portrait of the artist at the age of thirty. It testifies to his desire to incarnate his uprootedness and uprootedness in a plastic language". A careful reading of this explanatory note reveals two voices: that of the curator recalling the poverty of the unfortunate "Romanian emigrants" and that of the artist wishing to express "the wandering and uprootedness" through his means. The Armani trousers hanging in a corner of the Pompidou Center, their pockets "trimmed with nettles and earth", become Cantor's trousers from which grow words of wisdom of infinite value. [...]

"The Romanian artist Mircea Cantor has lived and worked in France since 1999 while carrying out numerous collaborative projects with his country of origin. The piece Tasca che punge was produced as part of the artist's first solo exhibition at the Italian gallery Magazzino d'Arte Moderna, in December 2007. It alludes to the situation of Romanian immigrants in Italy. The installation consists of a pair of Armani trousers, a symbol of luxury and success, hanging on a line like washing put out to dry. The trouser pockets are decorated with nettles and dirt, referring to both the displacement and the lack of money of Romanian immigrants. The work can also be seen as a self-portrait of the artist at the age of thirty. It shows his desire to portray traveling and displacement in art". If we read this notice carefully we can distinguish two voices: one of the curator reminding us of the poverty of the unfortunate "Romanian immigrants" and the other one of the artist intending to express "traveling and displacement in art". What is described by the curator as pockets of the Armani trousers "decorated with nettles and dirt", becomes Cantor trousers pushing up witty words. [...]