An exhibition of photographs showing Moldova’s depopulated villages and the local authorities’ disinterest in saving what’s left was mounted at the National Museum of Arts of Moldova. The Museum’s director Tudor Zbârnea said the exhibition “Between Sky and Earth”, signed by visual artist Aurel Cepoi, treats a topical subject – the earlier safe shelter of people abandoned after launching the search for a better life. The exhibition centers on the value of tradition, history, forgotten collective memory that is minimalized as a result of modernization, IPN reports.
“On the European Heritage Days of this year, we focus on the sustainability of heritage. The exhibition has an artistic expression full of honesty, a composition of objects that formed part of the life of particular people. It goes to an abandoned shelter that makes you think about those who earlier owned this and what the relations between them were,” stated Tudor Zbârnea.
Artist Aurel Cepoi said the project was launched during the pandemic when the public space was closed to many. Together with his wife, he travelled through Moldova’s abandoned villages and entered deserted homes with the consent of the local public authorities. He discovered a new world that is not seen and discussed in the public sphere. In those homes, he took his pictures to immortalize those things that are not needed. “It is a story about useless luggage without a handle. I wanted to present our irony, those who abandon the icon that was once sacred in the family. I tried to transmit the ambiance of those abandoned homes with abandoned objects that took the place of persons. It is a project about the reflection on the existence of Moldovans who are in pursuit of tangible goods,” he stated.
Aurel Cepoi was born on July 25, 1968 in Ochiul Alb village of Drochia district. He graduated from the Chisinau Polytechnic Institute in 1992 and the New York Institute of Photography in 2016. Photography is his passion. In February 2016, he mounted a charity exhibition centering on Middle Asia and donated the proceeds to the Tony Hawks Center for the rehabilitation of children with disabilities. In 2021, he launched his first author album entitled “The Last and the Lost. The transition of Iranian nomads into disappearance”, staging an exhibition with a similar name at the National Museum of Arts of Moldova.
The exhibition “Between Sky and Earth” can be visited until October 9.
