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Censored Self-Portrait

Censored Self-Portrait
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    • Censored Self-Portrait
    • Autoportret cenzurat
  • 1978
  • collage of photographs on canvas
  • 20,5 x 31 cm
In a way that is extremely subtle, Geta Brătescu uses this collage to interweave her criticism of the political system with a critical analysis of the photographic medium, the manipulative possibilities of which she visibly orchestrates in her composition. Censorship of the gaze and of language are symbolized by strips stuck over her eyes and mouth; this same censorship is simultaneously denied, however, in that the strips bear images of what lies beneath—namely her mouth and her eyes. In this “Censored Self-Portrait,” Brătescu quite literally topples the obsolete concept of photography as a medium that is “true to reality.” S.E.