Realitatea

Andrea Diefenbach’s images from the rural regions of the Republic of Moldova are a journey through time to a place that has been in an identity crisis since its independence 30 years ago. This visual survey is already her second project about the country torn between the EU and Russia, stagnation and progress, corruption and the rule of law. Her calm, at times whimsical observations demonstrate great empathy for Moldova and its people’s way of living. In their tranquility, the images adapt to the tempo of Moldovan everyday life, which oscillates between upheaval and stagnation. "Realitatea" not only gathers photographic vignettes from a country in limbo, but also contextualizes them through facsimiles of Moldovan newspapers and analytical texts with the political events of the last decade, during which the country was in the hands of oligarchs.

The title "Realitea" - the reality - refers on the one hand to the political situation in Moldova during the past decade until the election of Maia Sandu, and on the other hand to the actual everyday life outside the capital, where people devote themselves to survival regardless of the countless elections and scenarios. But the title also plays with the so-called authenticity of the medium, which of course doesn't exist. Thus, these are images taken from a Western, definitely romanticizing point of view of the photographer, to which also the journal-like names of the images refer to.