Grigorescu

Ion Grigorescu

The 29-part photo series, Electoral Meeting, March 6, 1975 is a relevant example for Ion Grigorescu’s approaches, both to the outer world and to his artistic mission. The photos were clandestinely taken, during a masquerade electoral meeting organized by the Communist Party and strictly supervised by the infiltrated members of the secret police. In spite of being taken under pressure, the photos are not mere illustrations of an episode from the history of Romanian oppression, but rather selective observations of the inner mechanisms
of evil. The subjects (the confused, alienated and docile masses) as well as the instruments (the individuals enforcing control, depicted in a manner
shifting from realist photography to demoniacal representation in orthodox
iconography) are all part of an absurd unfolding (the organized gathering, the
directed spontaneity, the pointless demonstration and the ending), in a desolate circularity of mechanical development of actions that lead nowhere
and have no consistent meaning other than filling the roles set by an outer
structure, the discreet but tormenting evil.