Aquila non capit muscas

Haunting territorium fight between eagle and a drone.

In this film by Romanian-born, Paris-based artist Mircea Cantor, the flight of a golden eagle is carefully recorded and deconstructed in a sequence where every detail is captured. Shot with high-definition slow-motion cameras and alternating between close-ups and aerial views, we witness the confrontation of an eagle - king of the skies - with a drone, icon of contemporary technology. The video evokes ideas on territory, surveillance, and intrusion. As the title suggests ‘the eagle doesn’t catch flies.’

Mircea Cantor
(°1977, Oradea, Roemenië)

Mircea Cantor is a Romanian-born contemporary visual artist, working and living on Earth. Throughout his practice which resonates through strong poetic imagery and spirituality, a diversity of topics emerge including a.o. the existence of the individual within grand political and historical narratives, the relation between human, nature and technology, and reflections on continuity, renewal and interruption. A myriad of motives such knots and ropes but also fingerprints, florals, flags, airplanes, and angels, are recurrent, resulting in a closely knit and rhizomatic oeuvre.

Mircea Cantor was awarded the Fondation d’entreprise Ricard Prize in 2004 and the Marcel Duchamp Prize in 2011. In 2019 he received the title Officier des Arts et des Lettres, in France, and the National Order of Merit in rank of Knight in Romania. His works are exhibited in solo and group exhibitions worldwide, and featured in prestigious collections including the Musée national d’art moderne / Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; the Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid; the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; the Rennie Collection, Vancouver; and the Castello di Rivoli, Turin.

Mircea Cantor is represented by DVIR Gallery and Magazzino.

A comprehensive monograph on his work was published in 2019 by Editions Dilecta, Paris.