Mircea Cantor was born in 1977 in Oradea, Romania, and currently lives and works between Paris and Cluj, Romania. Cantor makes films and sculptural installations that often elaborate on uncertainty. His work centers around themes of cultural history, memory, and displacement. The artist’s upbringing in a communist country during its transition to liberal democracy often serves as a starting point for much of his artwork focusing on social differences and borders between nations. 

As an observer of diverse realities and cultures, Cantor’s work exudes a poetic and evocative quality that blends formal and aesthetic research with strong political meanings expressed through simple but universal values. He is heralded for his metaphorical videos that are fraught with palpable tension.

Cantor’s practice examines competing ideologies, war, displacement, the self and the other, and multivalence, drawing on his acute awareness of the multitude of meanings that words and objects can hold. His thought-provoking practice defies easy categorization, mixing materials and language in playful yet poignant ways to create works that challenge and compel audiences well beyond the exhibition. 

In addition to his solo exhibition at rennie museum in 2014, Mircea Cantor’s work has been the subject of solo and group exhibitions at institutions around the world, including Tate Modern, London; Centre Pompidou, Paris; Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Israel; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; and Museo Tamayo, Mexico City. In 2011, he was awarded the prestigious Prix Marcel Duchamp. He won the 2017 Aspen Leadership Prize in Bucharest Romania and has participated in Biennales in Venice, Berlin, Sao Paulo and Sydney. He was named an Officer in Ordre des Artes et des Lettres in 2019.