MENGELE'S COLLECTION - 1997

MENGELE'S COLLECTION  - INSTALATION - VENICE BIENALE,  1997

MENGELE'S COLLECTION is a ready-made installation created in three versions, exhibited at the Art Gallery in Sfântu Gheorghe (Romania, 1994), at 134 Gallery in Český Krumlov (Czech Republic, 1994), and at the Venice Biennale (1997).

The work combines hundreds of dental casts placed on cardboard pedestals with 100 photographs of human mouths. Although the title alludes to a notorious doctor from history, the installation is not directly related to him, but rather evokes those dreadful moments of humanity we believed to be buried in the past, yet which tragically continue to repeat, revealing the cruelty of which human beings are capable.

This early work experiments with the manipulative force an artist can exert through the ready-made technique and through the exaggeration of visual details that, when oversized, become grotesque. It connects to my ongoing interest in the expressiveness of the human face.

In the video version, the soundtrack was composed by multiplying my own voice, creating an intense and unsettling atmosphere.