MINERIADA

MINERIADA addresses the division of a society that led Romania into a decade of isolation. The starting point are ten Polaroids taken by my father depicting the devastation in Bucharest of June 1990. The work examines the sites of the events and the unspoken trauma of physical violence when instigated regime-loyal miners from the Jiu Valley brutally bludgeoned the pro-European opposition. 'Mineriada' is a sarcastic term that combines the Romanian word ‘miner’ with the suffix ’-iada’ like in ‘olimpiada’ (Olympics), quasi, the Miner’s Olympics. Based on research into justice discourses, MINERIADA raises awareness for recursive events in a world that is again increasingly polarized. Following MOBILE CHURCHES and LAST CHRISTMAS (OF CEAUSESCU), MINERIADA is the last part of Laub' trilogy. The monograph was realized with the support of the Visual Arts Research Stipend of the Senate Department for Culture and Europe, Berlin, and the Publication Grant of the Stiftung Kulturwerk, Bonn.