The artists’ publication, which provides the exhibition with its title, and acts as the show's philosophical backbone, contains drawings, photography, and a crescendo series of essays authored by Bratu. The essays gradually zoom in on the nature of a perceived contemporary moral predicament, which could be summarized as: ‘we all know we need to act now, but we seem to systematically fail in doing anything at all’.
Bratu’s main question remains a presumably simple one, for the artist in the end just asks ‘why?’.This seemingly uncomplicated question however could not be effectively reached without a very carefully constructed journey though a variety of authors, concepts, and images, which serve to elucidate the reasons societies, governments, and individuals alike, seem incapable of deciding on a course of action, which would embrace and defend what Bratu proposes to be a course of ‘a basic human decency’.
The Dissidents Travel Guide stays true to its name: Bratu mimics travel guide logic, by briefly showcasing real life situations in an almost impartial way. At the same time the artist proposes the nature and core of dissidency to be reached through experience by close proximity, i.e. through a conscious documentary approach to a given context, which could perhaps serve as a catalyst to permanently altering perception and consecutively, action.