Radio România Internațional

Tag: museum

  • The National Bank Museum reopens

    The National Bank Museum reopens

    The Museum of the National Bank of Romania has reopened starting the end of last year. Guests can discover the new galleries of the museum, whereas temporary exhibitions observe modern presentation concepts, according to European standards. Apart from the exhibits themselves, guests will also have the opportunity of admiring the beautiful neoclassical building in the old part of Bucharest.



    Speaking about the building and the National Bank of Romania is Ruxandra Onofrei, an expert with the National Bank Museum: “The National Bank was founded in 1880. It was an element of modernity for the Romanian state at the time, as it was the 16th central bank established at global level. During its first years, the National Bank operated in a different building. In 1882, it purchased the building of the former Șerban Vodă inn from the Romanian state, on the ruins of which it started raising the current building. In 1884, the National Bank invited two well-established French architects, Cassien Berard and Albert Galleron, who suggested a mix of the neoclassical style with French-inspired eclectic elements of 19th–century and early 20th-century architecture. Our museum was set up in one of the most important halls in the building, which we call “the Marble Hall. It is currently hosting the temporary exhibition devoted to King Michael I. It used to be called “the Counter Hall in 1890, since in its early days, the National Bank also had public relations operations. Under every arch of this hall there used to be a desk, behind which a bank clerk would work. A long table was laid out in the middle of the hall, where clients could find the standard forms. The acoustics of the hall is special, allowing for the absorption of echo and thus preventing people from hearing what others are talking about close-by. Every clerk had his own safe box where he stored cash and valuables at the end of the day. Our temporary exhibition contains twelve such safe boxes. Guests can also admire various items such as coins, bills or other objects of special value and interest in our museum collection.



    Ruxandra Onofrei also talked about the permanent exhibition of the museum: “The permanent exhibition also includes, alongside the spectacular halls in the Old Palace of the National Bank which venues our museum, the history of currency circulation in Romania. The collection is made up of coins displayed chronologically, starting with some from the 5th century BC, minted at Histria Fortress, and going through all other historical periods until 186, when the Romanian monetary system was introduced. Another section of the museums permanent numismatic exhibition is the history of the Romanian Leu, the domestic currency, from 1867 until today. Also on display is a selection of the most relevant coins that have circulated on Romania’s territory.



    One of the temporary exhibitions of the National Bank Museum, entitled “100 years since the birth of King Michael (1921-2017) is displayed at the center of the Marble Hall. Ruxandra Onofrei tells us more about it: “This exhibition was put together in collaboration with the Royal House of Romania, the National Archives, the Dimitrie Gusti Village Museum and the Ferdinand I Military Museum. The exhibition dedicated to King Michael I, marking 100 years since his birth, was opened on October 25, 2021 and can be visited until May 31, 2022. Its purpose is to take visitors through the life of Romanias last monarch. His life overlaps, in fact, with many important moments in our national history, which we have included in this exhibition. There are also less conventional objects on display, such as King Michael’s birthday certificate, which has been exhibited for the first time, a number of photos of the monarch and some of his school tests. The last section of the exhibition is represented by the 500 lei gold coin, occasioned by the anniversary of 100 years since the birth of King Michael I and a proof replica of the commemorative medal “Ardealul Nostru, that has been issued in the early 1945 and is better known to the public as “Cocoșel. By putting this coin into circulation in 1945, the government was trying to protect peoples’ savings and play down the effects of inflation which everyone was anticipating once the war was over. (VP & EE)


  • The National Museum of Romanian Literature, revamped for the 21st century

    The National Museum of Romanian Literature, revamped for the 21st century

    The
    National Museum of Romanian Literature in 2021 has been the recipient of the
    European Prize. As part of the on-line awarding ceremony for the European
    Museum Academy Awards, the DASA Award went to two of the most relevant and
    significant projects the Museum has carried in the last seven years: the main
    exhibition in the Nicolae Cretulescu Street and the Anton Pann Memorial House exhibition.
    We recall Anton Pann was a Romanian poet of the early 19th century.
    Pann was also a composer of religious music, a folklore collector, a man of letters
    and a regular contributor to various publications of his time. Here is the judging
    panel’s motivation for the award: The permanent exhibition is impressive thanks
    to its low-key yet minutely organized layout, rounding off the historical
    building which is home to the exhibition. In its educational programs, the National
    Museum of Romanian Literature has been audacious and utterly uncompromising,
    acting as a vehicle for today’s social problems. At the core of its activity
    lies interactive literature.


    Indeed, in the organization of the museum’s main
    exhibition, the curators and the museographers have first and foremost pursued
    the interaction with the public, according to the literary genres (poetry on
    the ground floor, prose, essays, literary history and criticism on the upper
    floor, while the loft is home to playwrighting). The
    museum has a heritage comprising more than 300,000 manuscripts, patrimony items and
    old books which include incunabula that are more than 500 years old. Among such
    items, there are manuscripts of works by Marcel Proust, Thomas Mann, Paul
    Valéry, Giovanni Papini, Giuseppe Ungaretti and Mihai Eminescu. The National
    Museum of Romanian Literature in recent years has been increasingly present on
    the literary scene in Bucharest. Specifically, the museum has staged a wide
    range of events, from academic symposia to jazz and poetry marathons. Accordingly,
    the Museum’s team has developed public reading sessions, conferences, theme
    exhibitions, creative workshops, events attended by a target audience.     Also,
    the museum has staged internationally-recognized events, such as the Bucharest
    International Poetry Festival.


    In 2021, the Museum was home to the 11th
    edition of the Bucharest International Poetry Festival. As part of the event, public
    poetry reading sessions were being offered to the audiences by Romania authors.
    Joining them, through podcasts and video recordings were poets from England, Argentina,
    Canada, Colombia, Ecuador, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Mexico, Peru,
    Republic of Moldova, Spain and the United States of America. Editor and writer
    Ioan Cristescu has been the Director of the National Museum of Romanian Literature
    since 2014. He told us that, among other things, his intention was to turn the
    museum into a living space. Ioan Cristescu:


    There is one thing literary history has taught us, namely a writer’s
    presence in society should be a highly significant one. Writers are prominent members
    of a community, yet they are no longer perceived like that by society, unfortunately.
    And it is not about writers and the readers’ response to their work, it’s about
    artists, broadly speaking, today artists are almost totally unknown even though
    their work enjoys European, maybe world recognition. Unfortunately, we are no longer interested in getting acquainted
    with the contemporary values. So it is for that particular reason that we sought
    to open the museum for all generations and towards all forms of artistic
    expression, with a view to creating a place, an environment where artists can manifest
    themselves. And the fact that we succeeded to mount a creative museum, that only
    enhanced our institution’s museum identity. The National Museum of
    Romanian Literature is a museum where you can do a
    lot more than merely looking at the exhibits, it is a living space. We have sought to
    find our own identity through opening the museum to everybody and we did that because
    people wanted a place like this, a place where they could express themselves.
    It is a place where you’re sure to always find something new, where each and every
    guest can put to good use their talent and erudition, qualities that seem to be
    missing in our society, more and more. What we have been meaning to achieve and,
    at that, I hope we have succeeded, is to contribute, through our activities, to
    the lay public’s getting closer to writing, to reading, we want to encourage
    reading, we want to contribute to the education of those who visit us.


    The
    National Museum of Romanian Literature also sought to maintain the connection
    with the public during the pandemic, so they created a platform, Cultura in
    direct, Live Culture, in English. The Director of the National Museum of
    Romanian Literature, Ioan Cristescu:


    We built this video platform, Live Culture, by means of which we dovetailed
    the site of the museum and our activities. Our intention was to go online,
    gradually, but also to move to television transmission. As you can see, most of
    the debates in our society are not debates focusing on the problems we think are
    important, or on cultural issues. We have been witnessing, oftentimes,
    political debates, but we, the people of the National Museum of Romanian Literature,
    are not interested in politics. What we’re interested in are debates of ideas,
    the literary and interdisciplinary debates, as the writer and their literature
    are also the outcome of what is going on in contemporary society, that is why
    we have been trying to make the connection, to find connections between literature
    and other disciplines.


    (Translation by Eugen Nasta)



  • The Romanian traditional apparel and its history

    The Romanian traditional apparel and its history


    Piety overwhelms visitors as they enter the Namaiesti Monastery’s
    Ethnographic Museum. Namaiesti is a village in Arges county, located in central-southern
    Romania. And piety prevails there not because we’re speaking about a monastic museum but mainly because hundreds of days of work are behind each and every
    item on display. We get into the atmosphere of the fairy-tales, we’re being welcomed
    by wedding pageantries, and welcoming us are hundreds of dummies clad in traditional
    apparel from head to toe. Nun Lucia Nedelea is the Reverend Mother of Namaiesti
    monastery. She told us how the museum came into being.

    Reverend Mother Lucia Nedelea:


    The idea kind of crossed my mind, to get a small
    museum started, it’s just that I didn’t have that much to fill it with. And then
    I went to my mom’s, since I was aware I hailed from family with quite a tradition
    behind it, and where the traditional costume held pride of place, I told mother
    what I wanted to do and then mom told me she would give me all her costumes
    that were left in the house, save for one, which she wanted to be dressed in,
    at her own funeral ceremony. I told her that’s what tradition was all about, it
    was the Romanian people’s identity card, that people had to be promoted, admired
    and carried forward. I told her that, first and foremost, for me, that costume
    had an artistic value, then it had a sentimental value, I went as far as telling
    her it even had a spiritual value. For me it was like an icon. I think I told
    mom many other things back then, so much so that she gave it to me, and then I
    asked her, when she and her elderly ladies gathered in their little church, I wanted
    her to ask them who would like to donate and I told her that those who donated,
    their names would be written in the monastery’s founders ledger and they would
    be mentioned during the sacred liturgy. And mom talked her grannies into doing
    that.


    The groom, the bride, their sisters, their brothers, the parents,
    the grandparents, the godparents, the priest and the deacons, all dressed up,
    are gathered in the room re-enacting the first wedding.

    Reverend Mother Lucia Nedelea:


    For the first wedding we’ve got the following (traditional
    costumes) 130, 150, 150, 130, 160, 150, 160 years old. And have headdresses, marame, in
    Romanian, a thin gauze countryside women cover their head with, when they have their
    traditional costume on, they’re even 200 and 150 years old. I have a couple of such
    headdresses manufactured here by several nuns, it’s a bunch of artists that we
    had here, they were masters of the needle who took the fame of all that abroad.
    You will also see in the church the holy shroud, an embroidery in gold and silver
    thread commissioned by Queen Marie and manufactured by the nuns here, in the monastery.
    Her Majesty ordered it, bought it and then donated it to the monastery, so that
    the nuns can also handicraft similar masterpieces


    And then when she found out she also had the priestess’s old apron,
    she staged a second weeding, that of the priest’s son, another impressive show
    of traditional costumes, with lavish embroidery, worked in sleave, everything
    of an indescribable beauty. Once donated, all those garment items were very
    well preserved, so that their initial brightness could be restored.

    Reverend Mother Lucia Nedelea:

    For one given item, we intervened 5, 6 times or so;
    we did the washing using rainwater, with home-made soap, it didn’t come out as
    we wanted to, right from the first try, then we tried that for the second and
    the third time around, until we got them the way we wanted to and brought them
    to the stage you’re now seeing they’re in.


    Also with her mother’s help, nun Lucia Nedelea put the peasant sandals on the dummies’ feet and then she began to write the illustrated verse
    story of the dummies’ weddings.


    As soon as we’ve staged the first wedding, mother
    reminisced about her childhood, when she had written a couple of lines and she
    sang me a little song, when I got home, telling me why didn’t I try to compose
    a few lines for the weddings that we’d done, a poem, no matter how short it was.
    And that’s how the idea crossed my mind and I began with the first wedding,
    then I staged the second one and after I’ve finished writing the poems, the verse
    presentation of the museum, I mean, I tried to write a first poem for Saint Basil.
    And I wrote a book in verse, that of the lives of the saints, and with God’s
    help and if am still healthy, I shall begin the second volume.


    We recall that the Romanian peasant embroidered blouse was awarded the gold medal at the World Exhibition held in Paris in 1909 and occasioned by the inauguration
    of the Eiffel Tower. And, since the peasant embroidered blouse was also among
    the exhibits, the nun continued to introduce to us the one-of-a-kind exhibits in
    the museum.

    Reverend Mother Lucia Nedelea:

    This is the traditional embroidered blouse that won
    the gold medal back then, And here, I have created a little corner for my women
    predecessors. And here is the Reverend
    Mother who got me admitted to the monastery, 46 years ago. She is clad in a
    gown of genuine mohair, woven here, at the monastery, and which is more than a
    hundred years old. And what we have here, is a historical personality, that of nun
    Mina Hociota, who activated here during the inter-war period. She was an utterly special person; she literally broke the pattern of
    the ordinary woman. She was charismatic, she was brave, strong, intelligent and
    selfless. During World War One, she was on the frontline, in the trenches, she
    took out the wounded, she had them sent to hospital, to the infirmary, or she medicated
    them on the spot. Her medical knowledge was thorough, and later on the
    physicians in the area used to call on her because of such knowledge. For all
    her merits, she was awarded the Commemorative Cross of the 1916-1918 War, which
    was a Romanian commemorative medal instated by King Ferdinand on June 8, 1918,
    and awarded to all those who participated in World War One, she was raised to
    the rank of knight, she was a second-lieutenant and even had a short stint as commanding
    officer. For all that, she was awarded quite a few medals, distinctions and patents,
    of which the most important was the Star of Romania, which is the oldest national
    order that has so far been awarded to three women personalities alone.


    The museum in Namaiesti, Arges county, also displays the villagers’
    daily attire and women’s traditional costumes, according to rank and status,
    with the young women wearing lively-coloured headwear while the married ones
    wore flowered headdresses against a black background. As for Reverend Mother Lucia Nedelea,
    she is glad to spin the yarn of each and every costume, in verse. And when she
    does that, the world of the museum is brought back to life, again and again.

    (Translation by Eugen Nasta)

  • Rural museums in virtual format

    Rural museums in virtual format

    Muzeedelasat.ro is a free online
    platform available in Romanian and English and which can be accessed from 1st
    December. The team of the project has four members: Cosmin Murărașu, project manager
    and 3D scanning technician, Ionuț Teoderașcu, visual editor and photographer, Nicoleta
    Felea, copywriter, PR and writer, and Silvia-Alexandra Nistor, translator. Ionuţ
    Toderaşcu tells us more about this platform:




    Muzeedelasat
    is a new platform launching on 1st December dedicated to museums in
    the rural area. We’ll begin with the eight counties in the Moldavia region and
    we’re planning to cover the whole country and provide a map of all museums in
    the rural area. The platform contains virtual trips and documentary material we
    gathered on site. The project began in fact in September this year, when we
    went to each museum to scan the interior of the building. The virtual tour is
    like a video game, you can explore every room, zoom in on a certain exhibit, examine
    it in detail, which in fact makes you want to visit it in person and walk the
    streets of the village. We are passionate about Romania’s rural areas and we
    believe they deserve to be known better.




    Each museum was scanned, photographed
    and documented before a virtual 3D tour is created using high-tech equipment
    integrated into Google Street View, Google Maps and Google Earth, containing a
    series of photographs, short descriptions and short presentation videos. Ionut Toderaşcu
    says the first stage of the project is dedicated to the museums in the Moldavia
    region, in eastern Romania:




    28 museums are included in this
    first stage, from each village in Moldavia. To give you a few examples, one
    such place is the Vatra cu Dor traditional household in Galaţi county, a place which is also perfect for young people. It’s not
    just a museum, but a place where an interactive relationship is being built
    between the hosts and the young people who come there and want to know what
    village life was like in the past. In Vrancea, we have included museums like the
    Ion Roata memorial house, where we meet Sevastiţia, an old lady who takes care
    of the house, including repainting it from time to time. Everywhere we went we
    discovered people who love what they do and as a visitor, it’s special kind of
    feeling, one you don’t normally get when you go to a museum in a city. You end
    up talking to the people, they tell you about their life, and the history of
    the museum. Our list also includes bigger museums, such as the Alexandru Ioan
    Cuza museum in Ruginoasa in Iaşi county, which is a very imposing building,
    almost like a castle. In Neamţ county, for example, we included Popa House,
    where visitors can explore village life as it once was and see the traditional
    masks and art objects created by Mr Popa.




    We asked Ionuţ Toderaşcu to name one
    particular museum that he liked:




    I probably enjoyed best our visit
    to the George Enescu memorial house in Botoşani,
    but that’s also because the weather was beautiful when we went there. The museum
    is a bit out of the way, in the middle of nature, and there was such a special vibe
    around that place. The Alice and Dumitru Rosetti Tescanu museum in Bacău is very
    involved in the cultural life and hosts various events every year, being very
    welcoming hosts.




    As for
    the exhibits that most intrigued him, Ionuţ Toderaşcu said:




    I think it was also in Tescani, the objects that belonged to George
    Enescu. Knowing who Enescu was and being in those rooms, seeing the violin he played
    on, it’s a special feeling. By what we do, by these virtual tours, we want in
    fact to make people want to explore those places in person.




    The four members of the team involved
    in the project to promote Romania’s rural museums enjoyed every minute of their
    travels around the country to document these places, as Ionuţ Toderaşcu
    remembers:




    It was like a marathon going to all
    these museums. We explored all 28 of them in 20 days, scanning and taking
    photographs for the virtual tours, travelling over 5,500 km. There was a lot of
    work involved, and after gathering the information we spent another few weeks
    processing it. We wanted to launch on 1st December because of the significance
    of this holiday for Romania [as national day] and also because it gave us time
    to be ready with the whole content.




    Besides memorial houses that
    belonged to well-known figures from Romania, the platform also invites us to
    get to know places like the Miron Costin Dowry Chest Ethnographic Collection in
    Neamț county, the El Greco Ethnographic Museum in Suceava county, the Bucovina Salt
    Museum in Bacău county, and many, many others. (CM)

  • Romania’s National History Museum

    Romania’s National History Museum

    Museums are cultural spaces,
    public or private, where visitors admire objects or relive times that were
    long forgotten. A museum is a time machine of sorts, an escape from the hubbub
    of the daily world, from routine and from everybody’s daily chores. Also, a
    museum is a place quite similar to the pilgrimage sites where people try to find answers to the questions, old and new, they ask themselves.


    In a museum, we got used to coming
    across portly figureheads, great army commanders, great political leaders,
    cultural personalities. In a museum, we expect to witness heroic, exceptional
    moments as well. But the museums are also repositories of people’s daily lives,
    of the allegedly most insignificant objects people surround themselves with. As
    for such a universe of the ordinary, it is no less important than that of the unique
    or special objects, Ordinary objects become special, just because the passing
    of time makes them special. The museums are specialized sites, yet even the big
    museums, relevant for the memory of a community, can be repositories of
    personal or familiar objects collections. A telling example of that is Romania’s National History Museum.




    Romania’s National History
    Museum was established in 1970. The museum is a continuation of a Romanian
    tradition of history and archaeology museums that emerged in the second half of
    the 19th century. At Romania’s National History Museum, the most
    important treasures were brought. First, there were the treasures made of
    precious metal. They were stored in a place where safety and visibility could
    be provided. Home to the museums is one of Bucharest’s most representative
    buildings. Located in the city centre, the Post Office Palace does attract
    visitors due to its visibility.


    However, the National
    History Museum’s policy also targets the private collections, which should be
    added to the already existing heritage.


    Corina Chiriac is one of Romania’s
    most popular entertaining music vocalists. She has recently donated personal
    collection items to the National History Museum. Born in 1949, Corina is the
    daughter of two musicians. Her father was a composer and an academic with the
    National University of Music in Bucharest, while her mother was a pianist and
    also a professor there. When the donation act was signed the Director of the
    museum, Ernest Oberlander-Târnoveanu, was keen on stating that history was
    equally made by ordinary people and their objects, and by the great
    personalities.


    History is, after
    all, our life, it is everybody’s life. Our life, day by day, goes by, and turns
    into history. Not everybody is aware of that, that’s for sure, but I am
    convinced that through all that she does, Mrs Corina Chiriac does have this
    feeling, that she belongs to history. And I can acknowledge that myself, since,
    among other things, I was a listener of the songs she has performed for a
    couple for decades. In the landscape of Romanian entertaining music of the 70s,
    the 80s and the 90s, Mrs Corina Chiriac stands out as an unconventional character,
    quite all right.


    The donation made by Corina
    Chiriac is also important because of the donor-artist’s notoriety, who can set an
    example for other heritage owners.

    Ernest Oberlander Tarnoveanu:


    Mrs Corina
    Chiriac belongs to a generation that managed to do a lot of things in very
    difficult and complicated times. And, apart from the talent, the charisma, the
    hard work she put in, Mrs Corina Chiriac also has a personality trait we should
    all appreciate: she is also an aware citizen. What has happened today stands
    proof of her ladyship’s responsibility towards her family, towards those who
    preceded her, but also towards her won work. And I think there is no better
    place for these documents to be displayed, kept and put to good use, items she
    has donated to the National Museum, than this institution. This is their home, and
    I would be very happy if more fellow citizens followed the Mrs Corina Chiriac’s
    example. We herewith have the proof that we’re dealing with a great artist,
    with a free individual, with someone who is responsible for the heritage she
    received and who believes that such an institution as the National Museum is
    the best place for the objects to be kept and displayed.


    Corina Chiriac made a clean breast
    out of it: her museum-related childhood memories and the desire to share
    part of the personal treasure with other people prompted her to opt for the
    donation.

    Corina Chiriac:


    For a whole
    year I prepared for that, thinking of what I should do with all these objects that
    are so very important for me. And I realized that, after a life of journeys,
    with my parents or on my own, through the museums of the world, their place was
    not at home in a folder, but somewhere in a museum. I knocked at the door of
    the museum asking them whether they wanted an act of donation dated 1915, with
    an embossed stamp and with king Ferdinand’s portrait? I told them I was also in
    the possession of the baccalaureate diploma of my Armenian grandmother from
    Adapazari, in Turkey, dated 1901. And, little by little, in the sweltering heat
    of last summer, a team of the museum called in at my place and we started selecting
    the stuff. I am very happy that especially the documents of my parents, those
    of my grandparents and even mine from now on can also be viewed by someone
    else, without having to invite them at my place.


    Romania’s National History
    Museum is also a museum of the daily history with a national scope, and beyond.
    As for Corina Chiriac, she significantly contributed to the heritage of the museum.

    (Translation by Eugen Nasta)

  • Escape into a museum

    Escape into a museum

    Feel
    like playing a little bit? What would it be like if, as we’re playing, we can
    also find out various and diverse cultural pieces of information we can then
    memorize without even realizing we’re actually doing that? Challenging enough
    for you? That’s how the museum quest organizers thought it out: as a challenge.
    Museum Quest is a cultural project.

    The initiator of the project,
    Catalina Stanciu:

    Museum Quest took off in 2020 as a cultural project in its
    own right, financed by the Ministry of
    Culture. For six years now we have an Escape Room in Bucharest and we really
    like that sort of activities by means of which we’re having fun intelligently
    as we’re doing everything as team work. And we’ve given it a lot of thought as
    to what we could come up with on the Bucharest market, so that people can have
    fun in a cultural environment as well. We started up partnerships with museums
    as we wanted to develop treasure hunters in the museums across Bucharest. In
    effect, we’re also speaking about a team game where two to six individuals will
    have to visit museums and have a cultural race, where their discover traces and
    accomplish missions.


    Catalina
    Stanciu also spoke about the partner museums were and what happened during the
    race:


    As we speak, we have partnerships with the Antipa Museum, the Village
    Museum, The History and the Military Museum. Teams can register on our website,
    at www.museumquest.ro.
    There can book the hours when they want to come and make their cultural
    journey, at the date and time they’ve booked for themselves, they turn up at
    the museum they have chosen, one of our representatives, a game master,
    welcomes them, they are being briefed a little bit about what exactly treasure
    hunting means and what the purpose is for their prospective cultural race, and
    the very moment they take the start for the game, they all receive
    lock-fastened carrying cases, while the available time stands at 90 minutes,
    for the Village Museum, and at 60 minutes, for the other museums, when they can
    discover all the marks we thought out for them, and when they need to accomplish
    all the missions and finish the race..


    We
    asked Cătălina Stanciu to give us examples of marks, but she refrained from
    doing that altogether. However, she tempted us with the description of the very
    process of playing.


    Catalina Stanciu:

    They will have to interact a lot with the cultural elements in a
    museum and, resorting to the team spirit and to the logical thinking, but also
    using their intuition and the wish to discover things, they’re being tasked
    with solving a couple of mini-puzzles and mysteries, each member of the team
    has a lock-fastened carrying case, their job is to open the locks, one by one,
    so that they can discover new mysteries, The game is highly interactive, it
    relies heavily on team work and, in effect, it is a mix between the escape room
    and the classical treasure hunting. With the Antipa, History and the Military
    museums there can be at least two participants, while with the Village Museum
    there can be at least four. A team is made of no more than six people and the fun
    is guaranteed. So far, there hasn’t been single participant who was not
    literally fascinated with that new modality of discovering the museums.


    We
    were very happy to find out no previous knowledge was needed before taking the
    plunge into the discovery of the museums.


    Catalina Stanciu:

    We use the museum premises and the collections in museums to bring in
    fresh batches of visitors, so that, through a game, they can discover cultural
    a scientific information, also having fun as they’re doing that. They do not
    necessarily have to know the history of Romania before they enter the museum,
    but they’re sure to discover and definitely store info in their long-term
    memory, without perceiving such info as sheer museum-related info, they will do
    that as they take part in the game and accomplish certain mission we have thought
    out, so that they can also get their information as if they have visited the
    musem.


    Cătălina
    Stanciu assured us the activity was perfectly suitable for families with
    children aged 7, but also for team building, anniversary parties, since the
    game was very versatile and could be appreciated by people of all age brackets.
    It’s a game offer we can’t refuse!

    (Translation by Eugen Nasta)



  • The Village Museum Days

    The Village Museum Days

    The week of May 10, a sanctuary of quiet, nature, tradition and culture, the “Dimitrie Gusti National Village Museum in Bucharest, hosted events, exhibitions and fairs to mark the Village Museum Days, 85 years since the institution was established.



    The museum was opened on 10 May 1936, in the presence of King Carol II, and since then it has been one of the citys major tourist attractions. The motivation for setting up an outdoor museum was the importance of the village, of rural traditions and craftsmanship in Romanian culture.



    On the banks of Herăstrău lake in Bucharest, many genuine households and installations, the oldest one built in the 17th century, have been reassembled here, after having been brought to the city by train, cart or boat—an extraordinary effort that gave birth to the museum. We talked to the museum manager Paulina Popoiu, Ph.D., about the anniversary:



    Paulina Popoiu: “We organised these “museum days activities, and devoted about one week in May to the Village Museum, precisely in order to mark this anniversary and to celebrate its founders. Obviously, because of the pandemic the celebration is a little smaller in scale than the events we organised on the 80th anniversary, but this is natural given the circumstances. Even so, I should say there was plenty to see and do, and there were a lot of surprises. For the first time, we introduced the official title of “honorary ambassador of the Village Museum, to reward those who, one way or another, have contributed either to the development of the museum, or to promoting it in the country or abroad. I hope we will continue to give this title until the museums 100th anniversary.



    Mrs. Paulina Popoiu gave us a few details about the beginnings of the museum and about the exhibitions focusing on that period:



    Paulina Popoiu: “Perhaps what I should begin with is that all these events were held under the motto “The Museum and the Royal House. Why? Because the founding and existence of the Village Museum is closely connected to the Royal House, which at the time of the establishment of the museum provided both financial and moral support to the research conducted by Dimitrie Gusti and the Bucharest sociology school in the over 600 villages of Romania, and the “Prince Carol Foundations contributed significantly to the birth of the museum. So we think of the museum as a royal establishment, and it was only natural to remind the people that we also celebrate 100 years since the birth of King Michael, who was a great friend of the museum in his later years and whom we would meet in the morning on the alleys here. There was an exhibition opened on 10 of May, a symbolic day because it is the day of the Romanian Royal House and because it follows the celebration of Romanias independence and Europe Day on 9 May. This series of events are beautifully connected, and the Village Museum is an important character in this story. This exhibition called “The Museum and the Royal House presents the life of King Michael and the life of the museum. We worked with the National Archives and the Royal House and we included archive photos and several items that belonged to King Michael. To recreate the atmosphere of 1936, we brought here vintage cars, really outstanding and well worth seeing cars. Also, for 7 days we had ladies and gentlemen wearing period costumes borrowed from the National Theatre in Bucharest, in an attempt to recreate the urban atmosphere in which the Village Museum was set up. I think it is very interesting that this museum of the village and of traditional civilisation is located at the heart of the capital city, Bucharest. In a way, the Village Museum is the beating heart of this great city, because it showcases identity values, the values created over the centuries by Romanian peasants, and the houses here are a present for us from generations and generations of peasants.



    At the end of our dialogue, the manager of the “Dimitrie Gusti Village Museum, Paulina Popoiu, was proud to tell us about the interest shown by tourists for this special place in Bucharest:



    Paulina Popoiu: “It is worth noting that before the pandemic the museum had 910,000 visitors a year, many of them foreigners. There even was a year when we had more than half a million of foreign tourists coming here. So I would call the Village Museum the ambassador of Romania worldwide, and I hope after this difficult period is over we will pick up where we left off. (tr. A.M. Popescu)

  • QSL 5/2021: Museum für Geschichte der Großwardeiner Juden

    QSL 5/2021: Museum für Geschichte der Großwardeiner Juden

    Im Museum für die Geschichte der Juden erfahren Sie das tragische Schicksal von Éva Heyman, einem 13-jährigen Mädchen, das ähnlich wie Anne Frank im Gro‎ßwardeiner Ghetto ein kurzes Tagebuch schrieb, bevor es in das Konzentrationslager Auschwitz deportiert und zum Holocaust-Opfer wurde.



    Die Geschichte von Éva Heyman oder Tereza Mózes — einer Holocaust-Überlebenden — haben die Atmosphäre des Museums stark geprägt. Im Museum sind auch ihre Biografien, Tagebücher und andere persönliche Gegenstände ausgestellt.

  • Caragiale-Museum in Ploiești: Dramatiker verbrachte seine Jugend in der späteren Erdölstadt

    Caragiale-Museum in Ploiești: Dramatiker verbrachte seine Jugend in der späteren Erdölstadt

    Ion Luca Caragiale ist der Autor mehrerer berühmter Theaterstücke, darunter Ein verlorener Brief“, Eine stürmische Nacht“, D’ale carnavalului“ (Karneval“), Texte, die die rumänische Gesellschaft zu Beginn des 20. Jahrhunderts beschreiben, die ihre Zeit überdauerten und heute noch gültig sind. Wir betreten ein altes Haus, das hinter Wohnblöcken mit einer für die kommunistische Zeit typischen Architektur versteckt liegt, und sprechen mit der Kuratorin Monica Bostan über die Geschichte dieses Ortes:



    Das Museum wurde am 30. Januar 1962 eröffnet, dank der Fürsorge und den Bemühungen des Professors Nicolae Simache. Das Museum wurde als Hommage an unseren gro‎ßen Dramatiker von den Einwohnern der Stadt Ploiești 110 Jahre nach seiner Geburt eröffnet. Caragiale wurde am 30. Januar 1852 in Haimanale im Kreis Dâmbovița geboren, einem Dorf, das heute seinen Namen trägt. Im Alter von 6 Jahren zog er mit seiner Familie nach Ploiești. Nahezu seine gesamte Schulzeit, die besten Jahre seines Lebens, verbrachte er hier, in unserer Stadt.“



    Über die Jugend des gro‎ßen Schriftstellers erzählt uns Monica Bostan folgendes:



    In der zweiten Klasse fand der denkwürdige Besuch des Herrschers Alexandru Ioan Cuza in Ploiești statt, und er besuchte die Klasse, in der Caragiale Schüler war und Vasile Drăgoșescu unterrichtete. Später hielt er diesen Besuch in seiner Schrift »Nach 50 Jahren« fest. Darin nannte er seinen Lehrer seinen geistigen Vater und sagte, dass er die rumänische Sprache dank dieses Lehrers beherrscht. In der Schrift finden wir auch Erinnerungen an Zaharia Antinestu, seinen Französischlehrer, der ihm als Vorbild für eine der Hauptfiguren im Theaterstück »Der verlorene Brief« gedient haben soll. Im Jahr 1864 wurde das Gymnasium »Die Heiligen Petrus und Paulus« in Ploiești gegründet und er selbst wurde in das zweite Studienjahr eingeschrieben. Er absolvierte das Gymnasium 1867 als fünfter von acht Schülern. Wir haben auch das Klassenbuch des letzten Jahres der Sekundarstufe, des Schuljahres 1866–1867. Darin wird mit Rot die schulische Leistung Caragiales hervorgehoben, der, wie gesagt, als fünfter von acht Schülern abschloss. Er war nicht unter den Besten, hatte keine sehr guten Noten in Rumänisch, wie wir es erwartet hätten, aber sehr gute Noten in Französisch, Mathematik und Geschichte. Französisch wird er später an einem privaten Gymnasium in Bukarest unterrichten. Nach dem Abschluss des Gymnasiums in Ploiești studierte er für ein weiteres Jahr auf ein Gymnasium in Bukarest und zwei Jahre Pantomime und die Kunst der Deklamation am Konservatorium für Dramatische Kunst in Bukarest, in der Klasse seines Onkels väterlicherseits, Costache Caragiali.“



    Ion Luca Caragiale entstammte einer Schauspielerfamilie. Seine Onkel hatten die ersten Theatergruppen geleitet und gelten als die Gründer des modernen rumänischen Theaters. Sogar der Nationaldichter Mihai Eminescu war Mitglied der Theatergruppen seiner Onkel. Ihre Freundschaft reicht bis in diese Zeit zurück. Caragiale selbst arbeitete als Souffleur, Theaterkopist, Korrektor, Lehrer, Schulinspektor und Gastwirt.



    Die Kuratorin Monica Bostan führt uns weiterhin auf einem kurzen Rundgang durch das Museum und stellt uns einige Exponate vor:



    Im zweiten Raum wird das Universum der Häuser, in denen Caragiale lebte, rekonstruiert. Bekannterma‎ßen besa‎ß der Schriftsteller nie ein eigenes Haus. Er lebte zeit seines Lebens in Miete, wovon die Novelle »Caut casă« (deutsch: »Suche ein Haus«) zeugt. An der Wand hängt ein Kristallspiegel mit Palisanderrahmen, der dem Schriftsteller gehörte, genauso wie der runde einbeinige Couchtisch, auch die anderen Möbel — der Tisch, die Stühle, das Sofa, der Teppich an der Wand — gehörten dem Schriftsteller sowie die beiden Original-Gemälde, die Steingutschale und der Bierkrug mit Deckel. Bilder von Eminescu und Caragiale als Jugendliche begrü‎ßen uns im Flur, ein weniger bekanntes Bild von Caragiale stammt aus der Zeit, als er 20 Jahre alt war und die Kurse am Konservatorium für dramatische Kunst besuchte. Die Büste des Schriftstellers hat der bekannte Bildhauer Ion Jalea angefertigt, wir sehen Karikaturen, Skizzen von Kostümen, eine Porträtgalerie von Schauspielern, die Caragiales Figuren Leben einhauchten, das Porträt seiner Tochter, Ecaterina Caragiale, im reifen Alter und darüber das Gemälde des Hauses, in dem er in Bukarest lebte. Das Haus existiert heute noch, in der Maria-Rosetti-Stra‎ße. Gegenüber befindet sich eine Statue des Schriftstellers.“



    1908 zog Caragiale nach Berlin, wo er bis zu seinem Tod im Jahr 1912 lebte. Ihm zu Ehren wurde am Hohenzollerndamm 201 in Berlin-Wilmersdorf eine Gedenktafel errichtet. In Berlin-Pankow erinnert eine Stele an den gro‎ßen rumänischen Schriftsteller.



    Audiobeitrag hören:



  • The domestic universe of poet George Bacovia

    The domestic universe of poet George Bacovia

    On one of Bucharests interwar outskirts, to this day a rather modest neighbourhood of Romanias capital city, lies the small, seemingly insignificant, yet welcoming home of early 20th Century poet George Bacovia.



    Labelled by literary critics a symbolist poet, only to be included in a movement, Bacovia still charms his readers with his simple, sad poems that reflect and grant beauty to despondency. In fact, the sadness in his poetry was a reflection of his fragile and depressive nature.



    Bacovias survival depended mostly on his wife, Agatha, whom we also owe the existence of the small “George and Agatha Bacovia Memorial House. Curator Lelia Spirescu with the National Museum of Romanian Literature in Bucharest told us more about this house and its location on the outskirts of the capital city.



    Lelia Spirescu: “This was a ‘democratic area or neighbourhood, as the poet liked to call it. It was part of the underprivileged, proletarian world, rather than a wealthy suburb. Obviously, it matched his soul perfectly. Well, George Bacovia confessed at some point that most of his memories, both as a child and as a grownup, were tied to the town of Bacău. But it was in this house that he came to live together with and due to his wife, Agatha Grigorescu. She took a loan from the Teachers Association and managed to have this house built in record time, about one month. And she also oversaw the construction works. As I was saying, this place seemed tailored to his soul. George Bacovia was an introvert, a man who kept to himself, prone to sickness, fragile in both physical and psychological terms. He suffered from depression as well. Agatha on the other hand was an optimist, a fighter, all her life. Its true, she had no choice but to be one. She was his pillar of strength, both during his lifetime and after he died. She wanted his literary legacy to last forever, so she donated the house to the state, and it became a museum as early as in 1958, one year after the poet died.



    Although he spent most of his life in Bucharest, George Bacovia was deeply marked by his hometown of Bacău, in the east of the country.



    Lelia Spirescu: “Poet George Bacovia was born in Bacău on September 17, 1881, into a merchant family with a lot of children. Gheorghe Andone Vasiliu, known under his penname of George Bacovia, had 10 siblings. His first contact with Bucharest was in fact in 1903, when he came here to attend Law School, but he quit after the first 3 years. In 1907 he joined the Law School in Iaşi, where he graduated in 1911. He would move back and forth between Bucharest, Bacău and Iași. His wife was born in Mizil, Prahova County, in the south, on March 8, 1895 and her childhood was by no means easy. She lost her mother just days after she was born, and her father died when she was 15. She had 2 sisters, and she was raised by her family. She met the poet George Bacovia in 1916. She graduated from the School of Literature and Philosophy and she taught Romanian language and literature. She would also work as a substitute French teacher. She was a poet, too. She made her debut in 1923 with a poetry volume entitled “Twilight harmonies.



    Agatha provided George with the material and psychological support that he needed so much, and designed the house in Bucharest as a shelter for him and as a home that would reflect her personality as well, as Lelia Spirescu told us:



    Lelia Spirescu: “This house is quite modest, quiet, combining energies that were defining both for Agatha, and for George. The light and brightness of the house makes us think of her optimism, whereas the modesty and the dark tones of the furniture represent George Bacovia. These energies are present in the house to this day. You can feel both of them here when you visit the place.



    With only 3 rooms and a few small utilities rooms, the George and Agatha Bacovia Memorial House is filled with the couples personal items: furniture, books, radio sets, paintings, the violin that the poet used to play.



    Lelia Spirescu: “He loved drawing and music to the same extent. It was actually for drawing that he won his first prize ever, in 1899. That year was a landmark for him in 2 respects, because in 1899 he made his debut with the “Literatorul magazine run by poet Alexandru Macedonski, and also he won a top national place in a still nature drawing competition. He was also keen on music, which was actually his first love. He found music in his middle school years, when he played in the school orchestra and even got to conduct this orchestra with such talent that his music teacher advised him to go to the Music Conservatory. He didnt, he eventually chose poetry, but he remained loyal to music as well. His favourite instrument was the violin, and I think no other instrument could have resonated better with his emotions.



    After Bacovias death, the building and items in it were declared a “public utility collection managed by the poets wife and son, and in 1966, when the house was donated to the government, it was turned into a memorial museum. (tr. A.M. Popescu)

  • The Museum at the Mall

    The Museum at the Mall

    After having displayed, last year, collections from the Museum of the Romanian Railways, the Perfume Museum and the Astronomy Institute of the Romanian Academy, the Pop Up Museum is now preparing the Sun Plaza project, aimed at bringing museums closer to the public, through a series on unconventional exhibitions.


    The first exhibition this year has been a photo exhibition, dedicated to how shopping used to be done in the past, starting from stories of craftsmen who initiated trade in the capital Bucharest to the way products were promoted before the advertising industry was created. The exhibition was set up in partnership with the Bucharest Museum. The institution s manager, Adrian Majuru, tells us more about it : ” It is the Sun Plaza Mall that came up with this idea. We answered an invitation to set up an exhibition there, we proposed the concept and the theme and here we are. The exhibition is dedicated to the history of shopping in the past 300 years in Bucharest and this historical space. We tried to emphasise what has preserved from the old shopping habits, what we have lost for good and what is close to being lost in the future, that is the interaction with the seller. In the past, when a customer entered the fabric store, a woman for instance, she picked a colour, a certain fabric texture and had a conversation with the seller, who usually made recommendations depending on what kind of cloths she wanted to make out of the fabrics bought. Then, after 1990, the interaction with the seller was eliminated, shoppers having the opportunity to pick the products by themselves. This practice was taken to another level after 2000s, when universal stores, called Malls gained ground. These malls, have existed, under a different name, since the 19th century in the Western world. Bucharest also had a franchise store, La Fayette, the former Victoria Store, starting 1948.”



    Online shopping is the present and future of commerce, the way of picking the products also depending on how long delivery takes. Adrian Majuru tells us more about the Bucharest Museum, now present at the Mall :“It is a look to the past, from the 18th century to the end 1980s, with store interiors, buyers and sellers and many store profiles, from bookshops, furniture stores and grocery stores. These are things that can no longer be found today in a commercial centre, because the universal store has it all. “



    The Pop Up Museum tells a lot about shopping habits in Bucharest. Adrian Majuru : “Image and text are essential in an exhibition because they cannot be separated. Exhibitions have also been present in unconventional venues lately. We have been present in malls and we plan to display exhibits at the Otopeni Airport, in a secure departure zone. We will continue collaboration with Art Safari, with informal spaces for bigger projects. We also want to stage exhibitions in schools, on education-related themes.“



    The Pop Up Museum will host another three museums this year. Access to the exhibitions staged between February and July 2021 are free of charge. Between May 10 and 23rd the Pop Up Museum unconventional exhibitions continue with the story of the telecommunication equipment Romanians have been using for over 100 years. Visitors can rediscover phones and radios from the time of our grandparents and also telecommunication equipment used during WW2, a contribution of the Telecommunication Museum.



    Another exhibition will take us to the world of Romanian aviation — planes, flight simulators, anti-air artillery. The copies of some planes made by pioneers of the Romanian aviation, objects and documents that belonged to engineer Aurel Vlaicu, uniforms, radio-location technique and many other items, usually exhibited at the Museum of Aviation, can now be seen as part of the exhibition at the Mall.


  • Kulturgeschichte: Museum der rumänischen Rockmusik gegründet

    Kulturgeschichte: Museum der rumänischen Rockmusik gegründet

    Mit einem Rhythmus und einem Stil, der sich von dem des Westens unterschied, entstand der rumänische Rock’n’Roll in den späten 1960er Jahren, sowohl als Kunst als auch als fast politisches Manifest. Das lag daran, dass die rumänischen Musiker, die sich diesen Stil zu eigen machten, die Instrumente, die Musik und die Mode neu erschaffen mussten, weil der Zugang zum westlichen Phänomen begrenzt war. Darüber hinaus hatten die Musik und die zusammenhängenden Entwicklungen und Beschäftigungen zur damaligen Zeit auch politische Konnotationen.



    Damit die damalige Zeit nicht in Vergessenheit gerät, wurde ein rumänisches Rockmuseum eingerichtet, dessen Kurator, der Historiker Cosmin Năsui, ein absoluter Fan, uns begeistert davon erzählte:



    Um mit der Planung dieses Rockmuseums beginnen zu können, beauftragten wir zunächst unseren Kollegen, den Musikwissenschaftler Doru Ionescu, mit der Dokumentation. Er moderiert im rumänischen Fernsehen Rock-Sendungen und arbeitet auch als Publizist auf diesem Gebiet. Seine Musiker-Lexika sind über die Landesgrenzen hinaus bekannt geworden. Die Idee der Öffnung eines solchen Museums stammte also von Doru Ionescu. Er begann dieses Projekt, indem er dieses musikalische Phänomen dokumentierte. Anfangs ging es um zwei Bukarester Clubs — dem Club A und dem Studentenkulturhaus »Grigore Preoteasa« — beides Bukarester Clubs, die von musikbegeisterten Jugendlichen geliebt werden. Er schrieb darüber und veröffentlichte die entstandenen Bücher. Damit zeigte er uns, dass es sich wirklich lohnt, die ältere rumänische Rockmusik zu dokumentieren und in einem Museum zusammenzubringen.“



    Wir wollen nun gemeinsam mit unserem Gastgeber Cosmin Năsui das Rock-Museum erkunden:



    Wir haben an diesem Projekt aus dem Interesse heraus gearbeitet, die Erfahrung in der Rockmusik in Rumänien zu dokumentieren. Die Rockmusik entstand Ende der 1960er Jahre in unserem Land und erfuhr verschiedene Entwicklungen im Laufe der 1970er und 1980er Jahre, bis zur Zeit nach 1989. Es gibt eine ganze Debatte über die Erfindung einer bestimmten Rockgitarre in Rumänen. Denn Rock bedeutet E-Gitarre, Folk bedeutet akustische Gitarre. Doch im Kommunismus hätte keine E-Gitarre in Rumänien gebaut werden können. Auch konnten solche Instrumente nicht importiert werden, also wurden sie nachgebaut. Um sie bauen zu können, stützten sich die Techniker auf Bilder, auf elektrische Baupläne von Instrumenten, die Rumänien über verschiedene Zeitschriften erreichten. Wir haben immer noch Zugang zu den Quellen, und so wuchs das Projekt, das auf Doru Ionescus Initiative hin begann. Wir intensivierten die Dokumentation und Forschung in allen Bereichen und griffen auf Instrumente zurück, die in Museumskatalogen gefunden wurden. Wir haben es mit einem flüchtigen Phänomen zu tun, das dem Audiobereich, manchmal auch dem Audio-Video-Bereich zuzuteilen ist. Fabelhafte Titel, legendäre Bands, berühmte Künstler — das alles hinterlie‎ß uns die Rockmusik der 60er, 70er, 80er Jahre. Hinzu kommt das materielle Erbe: Musikinstrumente und Outfits, Briefe, Schriftverkehr. Alles, was diese gro‎ßartigen Musiker aufbewahrt haben. Wir fanden auch Notiz- und Schmierblätter, Entwürfe von Musikstücken, die das Innenleben dieser Schöpfungsmechanismen zum Vorschein brachten. Unsere Suche lie‎ß uns sogar auf die Kulturinfrastruktur während des Kommunismus sto‎ßen. Wir erkundeten die Rockclubs, von denen viele in Studentenkulturhäusern untergebracht waren, und entdeckten viele spannende Studentenbewegungen. Das ist eigentlich die Besonderheit der rumänischen Rockmusik — sie hatte ihren Ursprung in einer Studenten- und Jugendbewegung.“



    Doch wie entstand das Archiv? Der Historiker Cosmin Năsui wei‎ß es:



    Bevor es eine physische Form des Museums gibt, waren wir daran interessiert, ein Archiv zu haben, um Inventare zusammenstellen zu können. Dafür mussten wir uns aus privaten Sammlungen Objekte ausleihen. Diese haben wir gescannt und fotografiert. Wir wollen sie nämlich zunächst auf eine Online-Plattform hochladen. Manche Musikinstrumente, die wir fanden, sind noch in gutem Zustand — sogar noch für den Einsatz auf der Bühne tauglich, nicht nur im Studio. Auf andere Musikinstrumente können wir leider nicht mehr zurückgreifen, weil ein gro‎ßer Teil der rumänischen Musiker in verschiedene westliche Länder ausgewandert ist und Instrumente mitgenommen hat, die wir nie wiederfinden konnten.“



    Es gibt auch einen Bereich mit Postkarten, Briefen, Korrespondenz zwischen den Musikern, aber auch Alben, die z.B. für Menschen mit Sehbehinderungen zugänglich sind. Cosmin Năsui erzählte uns weiter:



    Ein Museum muss nicht unbedingt in die Vergangenheit blicken, in die Steinzeit oder das Mittelalter oder die Neuzeit Rumäniens. Wir glauben, dass wir auf eine Zeit schauen müssen, die näher an der Gegenwart liegt, denn viele dieser Bands gibt es gar nicht mehr, auch einige der Bühnen sind mittlerweile verschwunden. Dinge dieser Art können verloren gehen, sie sind ziemlich vergänglich. Selbst mündlich überlieferte Geschichten, die aufgeschrieben werden können, gehen manchmal verloren. Daher ist es schwierig, ein solches Unternehmen in Angriff zu nehmen. Es ist sehr schwer, all das wiederzufinden, was hinter der Musik und ihrer Entstehungsgeschichte steckt.“



    Die Geschichte geht weiter. In der nächsten Phase wollen die Museumsgründer regional vorgehen und versuchen, zu entdecken, was die Rockmusik an verschiedenen Orten im Land bedeutet, in Studentenzentren. Die Projektinitiatoren wollen ein Netzwerk von Museen aufbauen und es mit gro‎ßen Musikveranstaltungen verbinden — was als eine Art Backstage Pass fungieren soll.

  • Neues Museum thematisiert Zwangskollektivierung der Landwirtschaft

    Neues Museum thematisiert Zwangskollektivierung der Landwirtschaft

    Im Jahr 1951 wurden 80.000 Bauern eingekerkert oder zu Zwangsarbeit an den berüchtigten Donau-Schwarzmeer-Kanal geschickt, weil sie den Beitritt in die Genossenschaften verweigerten. Insgesamt wurden 800.000 Bauern in kommunistische Gefängnisse eingesperrt, weil sie ihr Land nicht freiwillig aufgaben. Nach 13 Jahren der Zwangskollektivierung, in denen Propaganda und Terror Hand in Hand gingen, konnte die Kommunistische Partei die Kollektivierung der Landwirtschaft in Rumänien als abgeschlossen erklären. Das Ereignis wurde im Rahmen einer Sondersitzung der Gro‎ßen Nationalversammlung gefeiert. Sie fand zwischen dem 27. und 30. April 1962 statt. 11.000 Bauern nahmen daran teil. Die damaligen kommunistischen Führer erklärten, der Sozialismus habe sich in der Volksrepublik Rumänien endgültig durchgesetzt.



    Im Dorf Tămăşeni im Bezirk Neamţ wurde zur Erinnerung an diese Ereignisse ein Museum eröffnet. Es stellt typische Gegenstände bäuerlicher Haushalte aus den 1950er Jahren aus. Iulian Bulai, der Projektleiter, erzählte Radio Rumänien davon:



    Heute eröffnen wir die ersten drei Räume des Museums der Kollektivierung. Seit eh und je fragen wir uns schon, warum die Landwirtschaft in Rumänien im Chaos versinkt, warum sich die Menschen nicht wie in anderen Ländern um den öffentlichen Raum kümmern, warum es ein solches Entwicklungsgefälle zwischen ländlichen und städtischen Gebieten in Rumänien gibt und warum es einen solchen Unterschied zwischen den ländlichen Gebieten in Rumänien und dem Westen gibt. Ich habe versucht, diese Fragen zu beantworten. Eine Antwort, die ich fand, war die Kollektivierung. Als soziales und politisches Phänomen wirkte sie sich irreversibel auf das rumänische Dorf aus, in dem Sinne, dass die Beschlagnahmung von Privateigentum zu dem führte, was wir heute auf dem Land sehen — ein enormes Ausma‎ß an Unterentwicklung, das man in westlichen Ländern nicht findet. Bei dem Versuch, diese Fragen zu beantworten, die sich auch auf meine Familiengeschichte beziehen, die ebenfalls von Kollektivierung betroffen wurde, verstand ich, dass wir uns Fragen stellen müssen, um uns selbst besser kennen zu lernen. Wir müssen uns das Drama vor Augen führen, das Millionen von Rumänen während der Kollektivierung in den 1950er Jahren betroffen hat. Ich musste dieses Museum errichten, um die soziale und anthropologische Realität der Gegenwart widerzuspiegeln.“




    Iulian Bulai lie‎ß den Haushalt seiner Gro‎ßeltern in ein Museum verwandeln. Wir fragten ihn, was es dort vorerst zu sehen gebe.



    Wir haben zwei Häuser und einen Anbau. Dies ist ein typischer moldauischer Haushalt, den es seit 100 Jahren gibt und die Kollektivierung durchmachte. Dies ist das Haus meiner Vorfahren, die diesen Prozess in den 1950er Jahren durchliefen. Ihnen wurde das Land, die Werkzeuge, die Mühlen konfisziert. Dieses Haus zeugt von der Geschichte einer Familie, deren Leben von der Kommunistischen Partei entführt wurde, deren Häuser konfisziert und einige von ihnen in Dorfläden verwandelt wurden, wie es hier zwischen 1950 und 1992 geschah, als es an die Familie zurückgegeben wurde. Das ist ein Symbol, das viele Rumänen noch immer erkennen können, denn Millionen von Rumänen ging es ähnlich.“




    Iulian Bulai fuhr fort, das Museum zu beschreiben:



    Dieses Museum stützt sich nur in geringem Ma‎ße auf Gegenstände, die früher meinem Gro‎ßvater gehörten. Diese zeigen zwar, wo wir als ländliche Gesellschaft stehen, die seit den 1950er Jahren, also seit etwa 70 Jahren, sich kaum verändert hat. Doch diese Gegenstände sind nicht der Kern des Museums. Es basiert vielmehr auf Installationen, die Geschichten erzählen und eine wissenschaftliche Sicht auf dieses Phänomen vermitteln. Wir haben aber auch einige Objekte, die eine Geschichte erzählen, landwirtschaftliche Geräte, die hier verblieben sind, seit ich den Haushalt geerbt habe, und die ich in den 17 oder 18 Ausstellungsräumen des Museums ausstellen werde.“




    Iulian Bulai startete diese Initiative aus der Zuversicht heraus, dass sich die Dinge ändern könnten:



    Wir werden uns nur dann als Volk im heutigen Rumänien verstehen können, wenn wir der Vergangenheit aufrichtig entgegentreten und unsere wahren Geschichten erzählen. Auf diese Weise werden wir in der Lage sein, einige traurige Momente unserer Geschichte zu überwinden. Bis jetzt waren wir nicht in der Lage, den Kommunismus in irgendeiner Hinsicht positiv zu deuten und somit eine heilende Wirkung zu erlangen. Da viele Orte der Kultur schlie‎ßen, eröffnen wir einen weiteren. Ich glaube, dies ist ein guter Ausgangspunkt für eine allgemeine Haltung, die wir in diesen schwierigen Zeiten von einem zum anderen weitergeben können.“




    Das Museum soll künftig noch wachsen und die Besucherräume werden erweitert. Auch Veranstaltungen sollen hier stattfinden, sobald es möglich sein wird. Dadurch werden die Gäste die Möglichkeit haben, mit der Vergangenheit in Kontakt zu kommen.

  • The Neolithic shrine in Parța

    The Neolithic shrine in Parța

    Ancient monuments are fascinating sites, and the older they are, the more fascinating they get. This is true for the shrine in the village of Parța, Timiş County, which has recently become better known to the public thanks to an initiative of local authorities, which turned it into a museum.



    This is a shrine dating back to the Neolithic, located in a system of archaeological sites discovered back in the 19th Century. The shrine was partly restored in the ’80s, and a scale model of it, which included original items found on the site, was hosted by the Huniade Museum in the city of Timișoara.



    But experts decided that, over 40 years since that moment, the time has come for the entire site to be introduced in the tourist circuit. Here is archaeologist Leopold Ciobotaru, with the Banat Museum in Timişoara, with more details about the project:



    “It is basically a 10-11-m long, 6-m wide building. This building, which was quite impressive in size, divided into two rooms. There are ritual elements included in the structure, and the shrine is spectacular in that it is not only very old, but also it was in quite a good state when discovered, and we were able to reconstruct it properly. We would like the site in Parța to also include the original items discovered here.



    The western Romanian region of Banat is an area where a lot of Neolithic sites have been discovered. As archaeologists will tell you, this is the home place of the Turdaș – Vinča culture, which had spread to todays Serbia and small parts of Bulgaria and Romania. This culture dates back to 5,700 – 4,500 B.C., and it was first found by the Serb archaeologist Miloje Vasić in 1908. Leopold Ciobotaru told us what makes Banat such an archaeologically rich region in terms of Neolithic cultures:



    “There are several archaeological sites in the Parța area. This one is probably the best known because it is located on the banks of the river Timiş, which winds here and every year eats into the settlements on the banks. So over centuries, some islets have formed on the Timiş, out of debris and remains from the archaeological site. People found small statues and pieces of pottery from Parţa in the 19th century, and brought them to Timișoara—this is how our museum came to own them. In the inter-war years, there was some digging here, but it was only after WW2, thanks to the efforts of professor Gheorghe Lazarovici, that a large-scale archaeological project began here in the ‘80. There are lots of items from this shrine in our museum, a lot of research documents have been written on the topic and quite many young archaeologists wrote papers on the items found in Parța.



    By analysing the artifacts found by archaeologists and historians, we can understand how people used to live in those times.



    “We actually needed a museum able to better showcase this shrine, and to display many of the items found here and which are still kept in warehouses. And it is better for this to be done right here in Parța, where people can connect the site area to the present-day village. It is also better for people to be able to go out of Timișoara and visit a new cultural site. It has a correspondent in Serbia, our partners are setting up another museum there, a medieval one this time, so people can visit both of them and understand the connections between them.



    Thousands of years ago, people used to do the same things they are doing today: work, pray, socialise. Leopold Ciobotaru told us more about the daily lives of the people in Neolithic Parța.



    “We are talking about the Banat culture in the middle Neolithic age. There were large settlements, surrounded by defensive moats, and consisting in several houses, up to several tens of them. Some of these houses had an upper floor and a ground floor, so we are talking about strong buildings, arranged along small streets. This is essentially a proto-urban settlement, it is the dawn of the large community organisation system in the Banat Plains. The geography of the place was favourable, the river was close by, people used to hunt and work the land, they raised animals, so settlements developed and evolved in this area. Life carried on here until the end of the Middle Ages, and the present-day village of Parţa is nearby. In Neolithic times, people would manufacture tools, using the resources they knew at that time, namely stone, bone, leather and other organic materials. They had not discovered metal yet, but they made do with what they could and they managed to use the resources they had available, so the community developed quite dynamically and they even managed to build temples. And this is not something trivial, given that this was happening thousands of years ago.



    The shrine in Parța has a three-fold mission today: it is a site of scientific research, museum education and a tourist site. From a distance of millennia, thanks to the items preserved here, the Neolithic people tell us, the people of today, about their lives, their struggles and their souls.


    (translated by: Ana-Maria Popescu)

  • The National Peasant Museum stays close to its public during lockdown

    The National Peasant Museum stays close to its public during lockdown

    The National Peasant Museum (MTR) has initiated a number of digital projects, held exclusively online, as part of a broader programme designed to diversify its cultural offer and adapt it to the new situation triggered by the pandemic that has hit the planet. “A playful dictionary of countryside life, “Bedtime stories… at MTR, “MTR inspires me, “The home at home: stories from everywhere, brought together, and “#Particular are just some of the titles of projects that introduce a new approach and build bridges between the Museum and the public at home. Here is Iris Şerban, coordinator of the MTR Image Archive:



    Iris Şerban: “We simply wondered what we can do in this context—and let this new challenge direct us. Our main resources are quite simple, yet very strong, as we came to realize: our creativity, know-how, and the answer to the question “what do we have available, and what can we build using all these?. So we had a brainstorming session, with colleagues from several departments, whether in research and documentation, or in archives, or in the museum education department. And we put together a programme consisting in a number of specific activities, to be held for a while exclusively online, as well as activities that we can carry on in the medium and long run. So when we get back to normal—although nobody seems to know when this will be and what this normal will actually be—these projects may be continued offline.



    The ideas of the researchers, archive experts and museum educators who designed this cultural programme for the isolation period can be carried on after the National Peasant Museum resumes its operation, with exhibitions and publications showcasing this online interaction with the public. But in the meantime, the Museums friends are invited to contribute to the project entitled “#Particular.



    Iris Şerban: “#Particular started from a very simple idea, an anthropological fact that we noticed in the current context. Whether we like it or not, we have to stay at home, and basically we have to go the same routes every day, and these interior routes can become repetitive, tiring, annoying. So our challenge was to look at the objects in our home in a different way, because everyones home is a universe in itself, with all sorts of stories and memories, and our home is part of the life that we now live in a different way.



    Why would a virtual museum showcase items that are so familiar to each and every one of us? Because they make up a personal heritage, says Iris Serban. But it is not only our interaction with specific objects that is important during these days in lockdown; interpersonal relations within the family also need strengthening. And in the project entitled “Bedtime stories…, children and parents are invited to listen to folk tales every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Here is Valentina Bâcu, an expert with the Museums Education Department:



    Valentina Bâcu: “This is an audio tale section, addressing both children and parents. Colleagues from various departments of the museum present short traditional stories, legends and folk tales. We chose them because most of them are already known to parents and as such they are a starting point for a dialogue with their kids.



    And the effort to encourage creativity, which is specific to the National Peasant Museum, has given birth to a project called “MŢR inspires me. Theatre, visual and sound improv and even a pandemic diary, are challenges for children of all ages.



    Valentina Bâcu: “We encourage the public to interact with us by sending their own creative activities, in several sections. We have a section devoted to home theatre, updated as a rule at the weekend, on Sunday night. Children, assisted by parents, are encouraged to create a performance using home items, or shadow plays. Children are invited to sing, or to invent sounds, or to act as story tellers, together with their parents.



    As for switching the older projects into the online medium, one example is a project called “A museum in a box.



    Valentina Bâcu: “Another section is called “A museum in a box. Because this is a time when we can only visit virtual museums, we encourage children to create their own exhibitions, their own museums at home. They can do this using the walls of their house or even a simple box. If they want to add a digital element, we offer a number of brief tutorials on doing stop-motion animation. This is basically a digital take on the animation workshop that we organise at the MTR.



    All the projects created specifically for the online medium are currently available on the National Peasant Museum home page and on the institutions Facebook and Instagram accounts.


    (translated by: Ana-Maria Popescu)