Pie Fight Study 2 

Adrian Ghenie created ‘Pie Fight Study 2’, which continues his exploration of history through the lens of personal and collective trauma. Born in Romania under a communist regime, Ghenie grapples with the weight of history and the fallibility of memory. His ‘Pie Fight’ series, evokes the slapstick comedy of early cinema, but it's also a metaphor for the defacement of history and the distortion of truth. The pie-smeared faces obscure identity, hinting at the way ideologies can mask individual humanity. Ghenie has said that he is interested in how history is not a series of facts, but “more of a feeling.” In this piece, the visceral nature of the paint creates a sense of unease. The dark palette and the obscured figure evoke a sense of disorientation. ‘Pie Fight Study 2’ confronts us with the messy, often violent, process of interpreting the past, inviting us to consider how we make sense of a world marked by conflict and contradiction.