The Romanian artist Serban Savu is part of a group of artists from Cluj who were schooled in the traditions of Social Realism while growing up during the end of the Communist regime. The title of his painting The Edge of Empire (2008) references Romania’s geographic location on the outskirts of great civilizations, including the Romans, the Ottomans, and the former Soviet Union. Savu’s depiction of ordinary working people is straightforward with faces that have been blurred from recognition. The image suggests a nostalgia for a time of stable employment in exchange for state repression, upended by the introduction of Western economic projects following the fall of Communism. Like Adrian Ghenie, who was also part of the group in Cluj, Savu’s subjects seem forced into a new atmosphere in which the psychological need to reject the reality of their situation is manifested.