Visual artist, photographer, writer, Valérie Mréjen lives and works in Paris. Mréjen multiplies the means of expression to better explore the language’s possibilities. Her videos are often inspired by memories, everyday events, cruel and farcical details of existence, platitudes, misunderstandings.

For more information on Valérie Mréjen’s biography and work, access:
• the website of Anne-Sarah Benichou Art Gallery, that represents the artist – www.annesarahbenichou.com,
and
• the artist’s website – www.valeriemrejen.com.

“Nowadays, there are two image worlds coexisting and confronting each other. The TV image, in extinction, which forms (or deforms?) the thought of those, mostly rural or periurban people, who choose populism as an appeasing solution to the problems of the contemporary world. Then the multimedia image unveils, showcasing the global exchanges, forming the urban elites and nourishing the frenetic thought, without any profound meaning sometimes.
Confronted with these two “formats”, Valérie Mréjen gives us another possibility of considering the image. In a singular and profound way, she doesn’t offer an idealistic vision of situations, such as the relationship with the Other or the relationship between a man and the woman that he is obsessed with.
Just like on an 80s video player, she presses the rewind button, she pauses, then she repushes “play” and watches the lives of couples running by in «flux tendu». In Valérie Mréjen’s work, as in the broken world of today, the cynical man manipulates women into becoming resilient. In fact, she reminds us of the fragility of human beings and of what we profoundly mean for each other” – Benoît Bavouset, director of the Cluj-Napoca French Institute

The exhibition is part of the the “PERON 6: Stația pentru Avangardă Artistică/Station for Artistic Avantgarde” program, implemented with the support of the Cluj-Napoca Mayor’s Office and City Hall.

Partners: Cluj-Napoca French Institute, Anne-Sarah Benichou Art Gallery – Paris, Intact Cultural Foundation, Centrul de Interes
Sponsors: Osteria del Buon Vino, Match Point, Distral
Media partners: Modernism.ro, Clujul Cultural