Ion Grigorescu is a central figure in the Romanian neo-avant-garde. Born in 1945 in Bucharest, where he still lives and works, his childhood was marked by the successive traumas of World War II, the Holocaust and the rise of communism in Romania. In his performances, films, photos and works on paper, he thematises his tense relationship with the communist regime of his country.

M HKA has acquired a coherent ensemble of the artist's work. This selection turns the focus on a characteristic aspect of Grigorescu's oeuvre: his continuing fascination with the 'Eastern' part of Romania's cultural and political heritage, the great unknown or the identity which the country is constantly in the process of 'developing', and in which ambition is seen as 'truly' Western.