Eugen Raportoru (b. 1961, Bucharest) is one of the most active Romanian visual artists of his generation, specializing in painting at the National University of Arts Bucharest. Raportoru is the only Romanian artist of Roma origin who exhibited at the Royal Academy of Arts in London, in the Vatican under the auspices of UNESCO, at the Ethnic Museum in Oslo and Stockholm through the Roma Party. And in 2022, he is the first Romanian artist of Roma origin to exhibit in La Biennale di Venetia, under the commission of European Institute for Roma Arts and Culture (ERIAC).

He debuted at the age of 14 at the Griviţa Cinema in Bucharest and since then has occupied the walls of the Brâncuşi Hall of the Romanian Parliament and through numerous exhibitions in various art galleries under the auspices of the UAP, such as the Simeza Gallery, The National Museum of the Romanian Peasant and several other museums of art from all over Romania, after graduating from the Bucharest University of Art. In 2020, the Romanian Museum of Contemporary Art (MNAC) acquired his installation work entitled "Răpirea din Sarai". Member of the Union of Romanian Artists since 2010, he received the award for the best painter in the 2021 UAP National Gala.



Raportoru frequently exhibits in other cities and cultural centers in Romania (Sibiu, Sinaia, Bistrita), and his works can be found in private collections around the world. In 2022 he becomes the first artist of Roma origin to present the Roma Pavilion at the Venice Biennale in a personal exhibition, in an exhibition commissioned by ERIAC (the 4th presence of Roma in the history of LaBiennale).

He is a member of the Union of Artists from Romania since 2010.

At MoBU 2023, Eugen Raportoru proposes a series of works in oil on canvas with the favorite themes of the last two years: the community of Roma women from the traditional perspective that the artist has known since childhood and the "bridge" or "bridge" - an element that finds in his compositions with the theme of Venice, one of the favorites of the master Baba, whom Rapotoru knew personally and admired since he was a teenager. In the context of participating in Mo.Bu, Raportoru proposes the theme of the bridge as a connection between worlds and communities separated by ethnic and class considerations. In addition to the works on the chassis, Raportoru also brings the "wagon", an installation object exhibited in 2022 at ICR London and recently, at the Târgu-Jiu Art Museum, a reference to the strong ethnic imprint emphasized in the painting. Born in a mixed family (Romanian father, Roma mother), Eugen went through complex nuanced stages at the identity level in a post-communist society. One of his major themes is achieving a balance between the two worlds he "inhabits". The exhibition program will also include an interactive plan with public participation in the creative process that Eugen is preparing in the form of a live-performance on site.

Photo credits: Cristi Farcaș