START POINT PRIZE – Prize for emerging artists

The Hyper is the second cycle by Andrei Mateescu in which he deals with architecture and its pathological representations. While in his previous cycle he worked with the bizarre aesthetics of housing estates, a typical phenomenon of Eastern Europe before 1989, his latest work focuses on hypermarkets which have become architectural symbols of “wild” capitalism. These buildings, standardized and lacking any architectural quality, do not usually respect the dimensions and character of the towns where they are built. In his manipulated photographs, Andrei Mateescu, somewhat in accordance with their names, hypertrophies their rectangular and block-like forms and creates bizarre neoplasms. After all, the aggressive and uncontrolled process through which these heterogeneous elements have invaded the urban organisms of Eastern European towns resembles cancerous growth in many respects. (Marcel Fišer)

Born in 1988 in Bucharest. 2012, MFA The Bucharest National University of Arts, Photo Video department. In 2009 he works in the Ro-Archive project, initiated by Iosif Kiraly. In 2010 he focuses his attention towards the romanian urban space.