Radio România Internațional

Category: Inside Romania

Traditions that last

Traditionally, Christian celebrations have often overlapped with archaic feasts. Shrovetide, for instance, is marked in several communities by various types of celebration, some inherited from times immemorial.

Not far from Bucharest, in Branesti, people celebrate Cuckoos Day, an old tradition passed down from one generation to another, but which has been affected by modernization in the past years, as Marius Ovidiu Sebe, the head of the Branesti Cultural Association told us:

In 2013 a partnership was created between the important institutions in the locality, with the aim of saving tradition. More specifically, we wanted to involve the education units and prepare the so called ‘cuckoo nests to participate in a traditional festival, in order to resuscitate old customs and traditions, which had been dying in the past years. This year we’ve been hit hard by the pandemic, and traditional events and celebrations have been affected as well. Last year we barely managed to hold the festival, on March 2nd, just before the lockdown. It was not easy, because the number of cases was already going up, but in the end we got the right papers allowing us to hold the festival. We also had guests from abroad and I could say that was an extraordinary edition. This year it’s been more difficult, because of the restrictions. On Monday, the first day after the day when Christian orthodox stop eating meat, then cheese and eggs, before Lent, the streets were empty, except for just a few ‘Cuckoos’. It was just one group that marched the village, by observing all protection measures. They wore masks and managed to carry through the ritual. Last year there were hundreds of ‘Cuckoos’ on the village’s street.

This year’s celebration was a good opportunity to move the discussion on tradition online, so a symposium was held, which stands very good chances of becoming tradition itself.

Marius Ovidiu Sebe told us what these ‘Cuckoos’ really are:

Cuckoos are young men who have just got married. They get dressed in women’s clothes, including a bell belt around their waist, a mask on the face and a headscarf. They also hold a stick and run along the main streets of the village to cast evil spirits away and shake hands with the ones they meet in the street, which bring the latter good health all year round. This is part of a set of customs that are observed before Lent, including the forgiveness and the Cuckoos’ days, which are actually ancient, ancestral customs, relating to the passing into the new vegetal year.

In Enisala, in the region of Dobrogea, the Lipovan Russians too mark the start of the Lent with specific customs. The villages of Sarichioi and Jurilovca celebrate near the Enisala fortress Forgiveness Day, the last day in the week when believers are allowed to eat milk and cheese, which announces the beginning of Lent. Here is Catalin Tibuleac, the president of the Danube Delta Management Association with more:

This first celebration organized in collaboration between the townhalls of Sarichioi and Jurilovca was marked this year by the health safety measures. But even so, this Forgiveness Day was a reason for joy, for celebration, a reason for the two largest Lipovan communities in the Danube Delta to meet. Normally, the two representative ensembles from the two villages gathered near the fortress of Enisala to celebrate Maslenitsa and mark the end of winter and the coming of spring. This celebration is also known as the Pancake Fest, as usually cheese pancakes are made on this day. Every year, the Lipovans celebrate the coming of spring in the same way, just as they celebrate the last day before Lent, Maslenitsa. On this day people ask for forgiveness from those they’ve harmed in any way or not, and it’s a reason for joy. People sing, dance, celebrate and meet with their families. The traditional costumes are full of colour. Women wear beautiful dresses with floral patterns and men are dressed in spectacular costumes. Traditional music is also very beautiful.

The 14 minorities living in the Danube Delta area are very much focused on preserving old customs and traditions, as Catalin Tibuleac told us. It’s another good reason to visit these communities, although these days restrictions make it more difficult.

This year, because of the pandemic and the measures in place, it’s been difficult to hold our traditional celebrations. That is why the meeting between the two traditional groups from Sarichioi and Jurilovca was made online, with a recording from each party. We hope that next year we will be able to organize it properly and have both direct and online participants in this beautiful event. We invite all who want to see a beautiful way of passing from winter into spring and also start the tourist season. We invite all those who love nature and the Danube Delta in particular to come and visit us. (MI)

27 July 2021
The Romanian Rock Archive

With a rhythm and a style that differed from those in the West, Romanian rock-and-roll emerged in the late ’60s, as both an art and an almost political manifesto. That was because, with limited access to the Western phenomenon, Romanian musicians who embraced the style had to recreate instruments, the music, and the fashion, which at the time also had political connotations.

In order to preserve the legacy of this phenomenon in Romania, a Romanian Rock Museum has been set up, and its curator, historian Cosmin Nasui, a consummate fan, told us about it enthusiastically:

“In order to be able to begin planning this rock museum, first we had our colleague, musicologist Doru Ionescu, who is on Romanian television with shows about rock in all its facets, do the documentation; he is also a publicist in this area, making musician dictionaries that have reached beyond the country’s borders. The idea comes from Doru Ionescu. He started this project by documenting this musical phenomenon by tying it to Club A and Preoteasa Club, both Bucharest clubs beloved by music loving youth, in books that he published. He also resorted to non-material patrimony, and material that he has come into contact with, he proved to us that it is necessary to take this phenomenon and put it into a museum.

Let us join our host, Cosmin Nasui, in exploring the Rock Museum:

“Putting something into a museum does not mean that it is ossified, quite the contrary, we worked on this project out of an interest in taking over these experiences in rock music in Romania, which started with the late ’60s, with various forms of evolution during the communist period, from the ’70s and ’80s, up to the period after 1989. There is an entire discussion about the invention of the rock guitar by Romanians. Because rock means electric guitar, folk means acoustic guitar, but an electric guitar could not be built during communist years in Romania. Such instruments could not be imported, so they were recreated, based on pictures, based on electrical blueprints of instruments that reached Romania in magazines. We still have access to sources, and that is why the project started upon Doru Ionescu’s initiative grew as we intensified documentation and research in all areas, and used instruments found in museum catalogs, instruments typical of this discipline, to be applied to a domain that is often ephemeral. It is a phenomenon that belongs to the audio area, the audio-video area sometimes, which left behind, in addition to fabulous tracks, legendary bands, legendary artists, many elements of material heritage, from musical instruments to outfits, letters, correspondence kept by these fabulous people. We also got sheet music, first drafts, showing the inner workings of these mechanisms for creation. We even got in the area of the cultural infrastructure during communism, based on clubs that were integrated into the Student Culture Houses, which highlight a very interesting student and youth movement, and this is the particularity of Romanian rock, being born in a student and a youth movement.

Cosmin Nasui went on to add:

“Before any physical form of the museum appears, we were interested in having an archive, being able to put together inventories. For that we needed to borrow from private collections objects that we scanned, photographed, and some of them are photographed 360 degrees, and so can be rotated on the on-line platform, they can be zoomed into, it made possible the beginning of creating a panorama of these objects. Some of them are still functional, even to use on stage, not just the studio. Others are lost to the Romanian patrimony, because a large part of Romanian musicians emigrated to various Western countries, taking with them instruments that we could never recover.

There is also an area of postcards, letters, correspondence between the artists, but also albums accessible to people with visual impairments, for instance. Cosmin Nasui told us:

“A museum does not necessarily have to look to the past, to the Stone Age or the Middle Ages, or the modern period of Romania. We believe that we have to look to a period closer to the present, because many of these bands are no longer functioning, some of these stages have disappeared, things of this sort can be lost, they have quite an amount of fragility, because even oral histories, that can be written down, or the instruments, these can disappear, making it very difficult for anyone taking on such an enterprise to recover and rediscover those things that cannot be heard in the music. The music that, of course, is center stage.

The story goes on. In the next stage, they plan to go regional, and try to discover what rock meant in various places in the country, in student centers, starting to build a network of museums, to be associated with big music events, as a sort of backstage pass.

20 July 2021
Art by the Square Meter

There is a bridge over the river Olanesti, which was lined with Plexiglas panels at a certain point. However, the light reflected in the panels, creating optical illusions, causing accidents in the area, and even pigeons got confused, crashing into them. Local authorities came to the rescue with a great idea: having them painted. This resulted in an achievement worthy of the Guinness Book of Records. Adrian Ionut Luta painted old buildings from the city of Ramnicu Valcea, depicting the rural and urban life of people of yore, displayed on the 58 panels that line the road near the boardwalk of the municipality.

Adrian Ionut Luta, who teaches fine arts at the Children’s Palace of Ramnicu Valcea, told us how the project emerged:

“City Hall told me to make a painting to beautify the area, which would also have a practical side, to reduce accidents in the area and prevent the pigeons crashing into the panels, but also promoting the history of our city. I thought I would depict old pages in the history book, painting images of all the monuments in the city, which have existed or still exist, on each of the panels. There are 58 panels in all, with a surface of over 300 sqm, as each panel has 2 meters in height and 4 in width. This is the only oil painting on Plexiglas. No one so far has ever attempted to paint on such panels, because of the risk of exfoliation and quick degradation, except I used very durable paint, which lasts for 50 years.

Convinced of the durability of the work, Adrian Ionut Luta chose as his theme historical buildings and monuments that are no longer in the city:

“In a short time now, this work will be recognized; it was supposed to be a year and a half ago, but the pandemic made that impossible. There are monuments such as the Anton Pann House. It is an urban architecture monument built in the 18th century, a county museum that houses the memorial exhibition for Anton Pann, a writer born in Bulgaria, who died in Bucharest in 1854. We also have the statue of ruler Mircea the Old, in the city square, a very old theater that no longer exists, the old postal service building, City Hall, and the statue of Alexandru Lahovari. As I teach at the Children’s Palace, I finished classes at noon, and then I would paint the panels until 10 or 11 PM. I would even paint in the bitter cold, sometimes as low a temperature as minus 10 degrees Celsius. I had gloves on, and thick clothing, but I did it out of passion. My pupils from the Children’s Palace lent a hand too. I had a deadline for the project to observe too. I met the deadline, even though the weather was bad, but I did my utmost to meet it.

The locals who use the Carol Bridge are pleased with the way in which this changed the area, and say it is an excellent idea, which the artist himself confirmed:

“Most of the people in the city are pleased with the panels, they are unique in the world. What I tried to make is an open air museum, I inserted messages on the panels when I painted, I gave each of them a name, naming the places where the monuments are or were. These panels also have phosphorescent colors in them, making them stand out at night, also shedding some light in the area. I can tell you that I loved this project, I put a lot of my heart into it, because I love what I do. I tried to achieve a sort of symbiosis between street art and studio art. Street art uses graffiti, in the studio one works with oil colors. I combined oil colors with street art, and built an outdoors museum with an education theme.

Adrian Ionut Luta told us that he walks the bridge every day, reviewing the paintings, and fixing any damage, because his paintings are sometimes scratched, or partially covered in graffiti. The artist is eagerly awaiting this project’s listing in the Guinness Book of Records.

13 July 2021
Google Maps Revisited

Google Maps has been for a while now man’s best friend, and Street View is a popular service offered by Google Maps, at present available over 85 countries, including the Arctic and Antarctica. In Street View, people can see 360° images from all over the world, be they streets, cities, historical monuments, cultural venues, and wild nature, on land or sea, and even outer space. The service is also available in Google Earth and the mobile phone app Google Maps. Google covers over 16 million km of roads, enough to go around the world 400 times. More information about Street View, how it works, and how it feeds Google Maps can be found in an article on the Google blog. Street View has been covering Romania since 2010, when they started publishing the first images from the most important cities on Google Maps. Coverage of Romania was completed in 2012, when they took in images from 40,000 km of roads, 39 cities, and hundreds of tourist objectives.

Gabriela Chioran is Google communication director for CEE, and she told us:

“I was thinking, over ten years ago we used to keep a map in our cars to help us move around, and we didn’t have information on traffic, or other details, such as how crowded is the restaurant we want to go to, but since then we overcame the limitations of what a map can do. If I think of only last year, Google Maps made a lot of improvements, which made life in quarantine a bit easier, such as information on the number of COVID cases in a given area, where the testing centers are, what travel restrictions are for various countries, which restaurants are open, and which offer take-out.

Since this is a reality based service, the change is constant, as Gabriela Chioreanu told us:

“Improvements never stop, and this year we will introduce over 100 changes more, based on the latest in AI. The ones of most interest for users in Romania could be information on the weather and the quality of the air. This is also the information most sought after on Google Search, and has become important for a healthy life for many users. Also, the ways in which you can reach a destination are shown in the same screen, to allow you to decide faster if you want to walk, drive, or use public transportation. What seems to me interesting is introducing versions of eco-friendly routes, which are obtained by a new model, which optimizes fuel usage, taking into account factors such as the slope of the roads and the anticipated speed. In the same category, next to eco-friendly routes, Google Maps will show Let when it is near an area with low emissions, which are perimeters that restrict access for some cars in order to reduce pollution.

Then Gabriela Chioreanu added:

“When travel restrictions will be lifted, I think what would become useful would be the Live-View functionality, which is an AI technology that uses Street View to provide navigation instructions for walking, making it easier to take your bearings. Starting this year, Live-View will also be available for indoors, in malls, railway stations, and airports. All these updates will be introduced gradually this year, and I hope they will be useful to our users.

Google Maps was one of the top most used Google products, with the application providing information on the testing centers in various areas, as well as information on COVID, or on businesses, because many had shut down, some temporarily, and some changed their opening hours, started home deliveries, and all these details were available to people. Our interlocutor also wanted to specify:

“What seems to me to have had a very positive reaction, based on usage data for our products, are ecological functions, more so during this period, air quality has all of a sudden become a priority for many people, all that has to do with ecological routes, routes to take for cycling, and all that has to do with nature, these have all become more important compared to previous years. I think there is increased interest in subjects that have to do with healthy life, with air quality, and quality of life in general. And I am glad that there is a reaction on the part of companies, which are interested in bringing improvements to answer to what people want.

Over the next months, Google Street View cars will go all over the country’s roads, visiting over 100 localities, in order to update Street View images in Google Maps in cities, on roads, and on motorways.

6 July 2021
Landmarks in modern Romanian history

The year 2021 is, among other things, a year of utmost
importance for the history of Romania. In 2021 we mark 200 years since an
iconic event occurred in Romania’s past. Historians have been unanimous in
describing the event as the trigger factor for the process of national rebirth.
Such a process was possible against the backdrop of a deep-seated social discontent.
The event is known as the 1821 Revolution. In April 2021,
Romanian Parliament voted in favor of the year 2021 being officially declared
the Tudor Vladimirescu Year. By the same token, Ecaterina Teodoroiu and Tudor
Vladimirescu were granted hero status of the Romanian nation. In one of our previous instalments we focused extensively on the events
staged in Gorj county, the native region of both Teodoroiu and Tudor
Vladimirescu. Our host back then was Gorj County
Council’s spokesperson Oana Palos. It is also Oana Palos we have
approached, so that she may give us details on the whys and the wherefores of
the 1821 Revolution. First off, Oana Palos emphasized the importance of the
1821 Revolution.

Oana Palos:

In fact, it
was a revolt known as the Revolution of 1821, which was started right here in
Gorj, by a bunch of commoners who were known as panduri/pandours (irregular,
skirmisher troops) and who grouped themselves around Tudor Vladimirescu, a
chieftain who was also born in Gorj, into a family of freehold peasants. The
Revolution flared up and galvanized Oltenia, reaching as far as Bucharest, but it was short-lived, it lasted for a couple of months,
because Tudor Vladimirescu was assassinated, just as it happened to a great
many other Romanian leaders, at various stages in history. However, for the
full commitment of those who fought for the Romanian cause, the 1821 Revolution
earned its place in history and Tudor Vladimirescu gained hero status, being
associated, according to the traditional mindset, to the status of prince,
Prince Tudor. Let us perform an exercise in imagination, 1821, 1921, 2021. We
go across time and space. And here we are, marking 200 years since those
events. Allow me to invite you to think of the month of June
1921, when, a century ago, Tudor Vladimirescu’s centennial had also been marked
through the reinterment, in Targu Jiu, of the remains of Romanian army’s first
female officer who fought in World War One, we’re speaking about Ecaterina Teodoroiu,
the young woman who was also born in Gorj, back in the day she took a go-against-the-grain-stance
and went on to become a symbol of courage and sacrifice.

Oana Palos also told us that, locally, a yearly
program has been thought out, dedicated to Tudor Vladimirescu’s bicentennial,
including cultural and artistic evocative presentations, so each and every
month, taking into account the circumstances generated by the pandemic,
exhibitions were mounted as well as stage performances or religious and
military ceremonies.

Oana Palos:

On May 2, but also on June 9,
the events we staged were held under the aegis of the bicentennial. In Tudor
Vladimirescu’s birthplace, the commune of Vladimir, in the very house where he
was born, a wreath-laying ceremony with military honors was held, followed by a
significant historical and military reenactment of a battle episode in 1821,
when the apparel was presented, typical for the age, that of the boyars, of the arnauti (the Albanian guards), the pandours. In the same evocative vein, this
time on June 9, in the center of Targu Jiu municipal city, where The Heroine of
Jiu is interred, at the Mausoluem that was erected in her honor, a wide-scope
series of events was held, followed by a traditional manifestation: a
commemoration round dance was performed, whose significance was twofold: 200
years since the Tudor Vladimirescu’s Revolution and 100 since the reinterment
of Eaterina’s bones in Targu Jiu. We should also say that the official
commemoration divine service was performed by a 100-strong gathering of
priests, the number of one hundred was purposefully picked, to pay tribute to
Ecaterina Teodoroiu, the divine service was followed by that ancient, typical
Gorj custom, the commemoration round dance, usually performed to commemorate
the departed. The custom has been preserved to this day. Also, as an absolute
first, a stage performance was presented, titled The Tudor Vladmirescu Case,
no doubt, a one-of-a kind-performance, primarily because of its concept, we’re
speaking about a rock opera, a fusion between a ballad, rock and traditional music, which brought before
the audiences unique episodes of Tudor Vladimirescu’s life way back when the
battles were waged, led by him, yet the conception is a modern, abstract one.
We would also like the show to become an element of tourist attraction, it will
be on in Targu Jiu for the summer.

Oana Palos once again, this time speaking about other projects they have
prepared for the Tudor year.

What else have we prepared for the Tudor Year…Projects,
that’s for sure, and we want them to have as great an impact as possible. We’re
speaking about photo-documentary exhibitions, including documents from museum
archives and the collection that are our property, pertaining to Tudor
Vladimirescu’s life and activity, launching events for photo and graphic
albums, street performances, theatre and film festivals. In august, for
instance, and also as part of the bicentennial, we will mount a street
exhibition with 50 metal boards being placed in the city center with historical
images of the Revolution, we will also have images projected on the municipal
city’s historical buildings, a national historical film and theatre festival
will also be held, the Vatra/The Hearth festival.

The organizers are set to facilitate participation in
the events to all those who so wish, so they assured us we’re only one click
away from that. We can follow, live online, all the events, if we search Gorj,
Targu Jiu, Tudor Vladimirescu on our computers.

(Translation by Eugen Nasta)

22 June 2021
A European Castles Fair

The first thing that comes to mind when we are speaking of castles is a
fairy tale atmosphere with beautiful ladies, armored knights and sumptuous
buildings where life is good and happy. However, nowadays castles the world
over have a life of their own and even a fair where they are being represented.
Such is the European Castles Fair traditionally hosted by the Corvins Castle in
Hunedoara, central Romania. This year, the castle hosted the 6th
edition of the aforementioned fair, which this time brought together only 20
exhibitors. Here is Sorin Tincu, director of the Corvins Castle in Hunedoara
with more on this year’s edition of the event.

Sorin Tincu: Outdoor stands
have been set up for the first time since we started staging this event on a
plateau in front of the castle in the so called Court of Hussars. We decided
this year that we have only 20 stands, 20 invitees in total. We’ve had with us
a nucleus of collaborators, so to say, those are very close to this fair. Most
of them have been present in almost all the editions that we have staged so far.
We’ve had representatives of the Bran Castle, the Brukenthal Palace, the
Medieval Fortress of Rasnov, the fortress of Feldioara and Rupea, the Fortress
of Sarmisegetuza, the Citadel of Deva, the Fortress of Malaiesti, the Fortified
City in Targu Mures, the Alba Iulia Citadel, the Fortress of Arad and of
Oradea. Of course we’ve had our own stand this year as well.

But how have the citadels and fortresses from all over Romania introduced
themselves at the fair. Here is Sorin Ţincu again at the microphone:

Sorin Tincu: Every entity
attending our fair has introduced itself as well as they possibly could. We’ve
had fortresses and citadels whose volunteers and personnel have donned medieval
costumes and they mounted various demonstrative events on this plateau. All the
participants had promotional materials with them like leaflets, brochures and
publications.

And because during this fair the medieval castle atmosphere has always
been brought back to life again, the Corvins Castle has again become venue for
a series of enacting events aimed at presenting to visitors what life was like
back in the Middle Ages. Here is again at the microphone the Corvins Castle director
Sorin Ţincu

Sorin Tincu: During these
three days, besides the events staged by the exhibitors we, as organisers,
mounted a series of shows involving the order of the Hunedoara Castle Knights
and the Carpathian Castle Association. Concurrently visitors were able to see a
series of demonstrative falconry events. We tried to preserve this medieval
atmosphere and keep it pure, free of contamination with modern life. In the
previous years we used to have better conditions and enjoyed a larger attendance.
We were even able to stage concerts on this plateau. However, this year we
opted for a smaller formula, as we didn’t want to expose either the
participants or the visitors to any risk.

Ladies in medieval attire, knights in shining armours, tournaments, falconry,
and various workshops have completed the fairytale atmosphere of the castle.

Soring Tincu has also told us what a normal day at the castle looks like

Sorin Tincu: Visitors are
usually welcomed in the courtyard where they have the opportunity of visiting a
series of exhibitions with artefacts dating back to the Paleolithic period or the
Roman civilization. We also have a special room entitled the Guilds Room,
hosting an exhibition devoted to the guilds of Hunedoara and inside the castle
we have exhibitions with medieval and ethnographic themes. Here one can also
admire the Golden room, which was used as the royal bedroom and has been
refurbished to reenact the atmosphere of that time. We also have two
lapidariums, one Gothic and the other illustrating the period of Renaissance
and there are many stories, you know, legends and observations related to
various elements of architecture in the castle.

The Corvins Castle is representative for medieval architecture being one
of its kind in Romania and also one of Europe’s most attractive sites through
its various construction styles present here as well as through its innovative
military and civil engineering.

(bill)

8 June 2021
Romania’s rural treasures

Today we will take you to a journey along fairy-tale
paths. Our stopover is a commune that was first documented in 1551. The place
was officially registered as the Paunesti clearing. Back in the day, the locals
were free peasants or freeholders, razesi, in Romanian, living in the
surrounding villages. We’re in the Paunesti commune of today, in the
north-eastern part of Vrancea county, close to the border with Bacau county, on
the left bank of Carecna river. There is a place here, which is a one-of-a kind
spot countrywide: the center of the commune, where there are 30 stone-built wells with counterweight. The perimeter where the wells can be found is no larger than 2,500 square
meters. Wells with counterweight and carved, wooden buckets. The wells once used to
make the pride of the locality, since they were dug so that people can have
water, in a commune which is spread on several hills, and where the aquifer is
usually deep.

Gheorghe Popa is the mayor of the Paunesti commune. He
told us the tale of the wells with counterweight.

Gheorghe Popa:

The wells with counterweight are 100 years old,
in the commune of Paunesti and are made by the well-to-do people in the
locality. Two or three affluent families got together and had the wells built
in the center. People would come in the ox-drawn or horse-drawn carts they got
together and used wooden cisterns to transport the water back to their home, in
order to use it. There used to be many more such fountains, but now only around
30 of them were left. We have a project, we want to preserve them, and right
now we are waiting. We approached the minister, he even had a fact-finding visit,
then the development minister Ion Stefan, he also sent us a state secretary
with the Ministry of Culture, we try to preserve them. We have a bituminizing
project for the alleys between them which is the feasibility study stage.

The say the first well was the property of parish
clerk Ioniţă Chiriac. And also according to the legends of the place, back in
the day people got up at day-clean, driving their ox-drawn cart to the wells.
They no less than waited in line, taking water for the animals, but also for
themselves. Then the vineyards appeared and people took water back with them to
sprinkle their vineyards. The mayor of Paunesti also told us that each well
bears the name of the one who built it, so everybody knew they went to Duman
for their water supply, or to Ichim. According to the locals, the wells are
inherited from parents, so, for instance, the Berbece’s Well is today the best
well-kept of them all, since the inheritors in the family were supplicated by
their ancestors to take good care of the well.

Gheorghe Popa:

We cleaned them, every now and then. We
maintain them, we lime-coat them, we set them in order. Some of the people made
lids, but to do that, a great sum of money is needed. The people, and let me
just give you some of the names of the people of yesteryear: Ţaburaşi,
Berbecii, Duma, Murgoci, Ifrim, those were the names of the people who made them. And then the
wells were used by everybody. Wooden cisterns
were used to bring water home until 86-88, so people could fill their water
tanks.

However, the mayor of Paunesti, Gheorghe Popa, was
unhappy with the fact that the people still drank the water from the wells,
even though the water was not so safe.

At present, the commune is connected
to the water supply facility. On each well we had notifications written saying
the water was not drinkable, but people still use it for the animals.

Apart from the need to have water, another explanation
the locals gave for the construction of the wells was that according to a
tradition of the place, a well or a water source had to be built or repaired 40
days after someone died. Nearby those sources of water, roadside crosses were
placed, as well as crosses or icons.

Lots of foreigners arrive in the region, filming those
unique pieces, but the official approval is still expected so that the
project for the museum restoration of the wells can take off. At any rate, the area is beautiful and
welcoming.

Gheorghe Popa:

The commune of Paunesti is a big,
beautiful commune, with lots of hills, with the Carecna river valley, many
chalets have been built there, recently, on the either side, on one side we
have the Carecna river valley, on the other side the Mohorata commune. The
landscape is very beautiful.

We also found out that in the old days, as part of the
religious feasts observed in the commune, each and every man in the village
gathered around the wells for the consecration of the waters.

25 May 2021
The Architectural Treasure Hunt

With the return
of sunny days and the drop in the overall number of COVID infections, people
have rediscovered their playful side. In an area in Bucharest, the local
community has organized an architectural treasure hunt. There’s no player limit,
and anyone can enroll, either as a group or individually. Participation is free
of charge, and once you’ve signed up, it doesn’t matter where you start, merely
how many clues you find. There’s no predefined circuit. One you find a clue,
you just have to take a photo of the site in order to tag it.

Elena Lucaci, a
representative of Părinţi de Cireşari community, the organizer of the hunt, says
the community she represents was born out of the need to protect and create
more green areas a few years ago.

We organize community
events and pool our efforts, since we are all neighbors, in the true sense of the
word. In November, 2020, we planted 23 saplings at a playground. We organize garbage-collecting
events and all sorts of civic activities. Now we’re organizing this
architectural treasure hunt, which helps us know our neighborhood better. A lot
of people who live here don’t know that part of the district is actually a
protected area.

The area Elena
Lucaci refers to was indeed developed after the First World War, when part of northern
Bucharest at the time played host to a new district called Domenii Park. Upon
the request of local inhabitants, Caşin Church was built in 1935. The patron saints
of the church are Archangels Michael and Gabriel, but also Saint Catherine,
making it one of the biggest Orthodox Churches in Bucharest. From an architectural
point of view, the Church is a blend of Brancovan and eclectic styles, also
transparent in other buildings in the neighborhood.

The clues for
the treasure hunt are wittily written, such as find a bas-relief or find a
stone goat, and participants score points for every site they identify. The largest
number of points decides the winner. Elena Lucaci told us such community events
are very popular.

We have a large
number of participants from the local community, we don’t have to call on
people from other neighborhoods, as we form a rather strong community. We all know
each other, although we are quite numerous. We have some 650 members right now,
including 50-60 very active families with children in all age brackets.

We’ve asked
Elena Lucaci what other events she has been organizing and if there’s an age
limit for the treasure hunt.

We’ve had an
Egg-Hunt for children aged 2-6 earlier this year. This treasure hunt addressed
for adults and children aged 11 and above. Clues aren’t that complex, and
children aged 11 and above can register freely.

And since the
architectural treasure hunt is an urban game, whereby participants discover or rediscover
the architectural heritage of the city and familiarize with architecture basics,
Elena Lucaci told us about some of the clues participants had to find last
weekend.

There was a
certain street where they had to follow a particular smell. Another clue was
finding two sisters, standing back-to-back. There are all sorts of clues hidden
in the architecture of the neighborhood. It’s a little weird, because some
people stop to ask us what exactly we are taking pictures of, and we feel
obliged to explain it is a game, we live in this neighborhood and there’s
nothing wrong about it. I’ve also worked with a team of architects for this
project, who do this sort of events across Bucharest. They’ve done similar
projects with other protected districts.

The
architectural treasure hunt is an ideal pastime for the weekend, in tune with
the beautiful weather outside. (V.P.)

18 May 2021
Magnolia Map

“There is beauty in every corner of Bucharest, waiting for us to pay more attention to it” says the first post on a web page entitled “Map of magnolias”. The name seems provocative from the start, as there are hundreds of pictures of magnolias there, one more beautiful than the other.

Diana Robu, aged 32, told us more about the project: “The initial idea was to make such a smaller project, a map with 500 magnolias of all colors, from purple and pink to white and yellow. It started more like a game, for me and my friends, because I wanted to somehow make up for what I lost last spring. And I really wanted to enjoy the magnolias, because they are the first to announce spring. This contrast, between the gray areas that can still be found in Bucharest and the magnolias in bloom, before the trees turn green, is very nice. I wanted to enjoy spring, something that I could not do last year, and I initially made a map for myself, to make it easier to find them. I put 10-20 points on the map with the famous magnolias that I already knew in Bucharest and I said that I would take a walk to see all of them. But on the way to each magnolia I found 10 or 20 more. I didnt even know there are so many magnolias in Bucharest. And so the map began to be filled with purple hearts.”

Diana Robu tells us what she expected to find on her journey: “I set off without any expectations, I just wanted to enjoy the city a little, the quiet streets, I allowed myself to get lost, to discover or rediscover alleys in Bucharest, neighborhoods of old houses, places where I have never been before. I did not have many expectations, instead I discovered a lot of things, because the map of magnolias was not necessarily about flowers, it was about the fact that there is beauty at every step, there is color, there are many magnolias, in the yard, near the blocks, and people enjoy the flowers.

What impressed me a lot was the reaction of the people, because I learned a lot of stories. People were happy to receive me in their yards, to share their stories with me. In the May 1st area, there was a gentleman who let me photograph the magnolia in his yard, and put it on the map. He was a unique presence in Bucharest: he was dressed like Charlie Chaplin and he invited me to visit his shop, which was in fact a very beautiful museum of antiquities. I had no idea you can find such things in Bucharest. I spent about an hour there, we talked about all the sculptures and paintings he had, he told me about his wife, who is an ICU nurse, and has been in the front line during this pandemic period. He kept the shop open during this period, even if people did not visit it much. He wanted to feel that he was doing something and to live his life as close to normal as possible. ”

Life stories, city stories, magnolia stories. These are the main ingredients of this project, the magnolia map. Diana Robu: “Right at the beginning of April I started walking through Bucharest. I had started the map for myself, at the end of March, and in April I began to walk the streets and discover the magnolias in Bucharest. There are 500 pins. The last two weeks have been pretty intense, because I wanted to reach 500 pins, not necessarily for this spring, because their season is already coming to an end, but I wanted to also have the map for next spring. I wish I had it in early spring, to be easier to navigate. The map includes 500 magnolias, but that is thanks to everyone who wrote to me. It became a collaborative project; people sent me photos of the magnolias they saw on their way to work or during their walks. And thanks to the people who got involved, the map reached 500 magnolias. ”

The number of magnolias seemed bigger this year. Diana Robu: “I love especially little magnolias. In Bucharest we also have magnolias that are more than 100 years old and even protected magnolias. I like small magnolias the most, especially those near the blocks of flats. A purple spot in a sea of concrete shows that people really want to make the place they live in more beautiful and take care of that little piece of land in front of the block. ”

Since Dianas posts went viral, more and more people began to announce what magnolias they had found and where. Diana Robu: “The feedback was overwhelming at one point. I never imagined that it would have such a magnitude, especially since we are coming after a difficult period, which has affected us all and people need to disconnect and think of something else: a splash of color in a pretty gray period! ”

11 May 2021
Fashion Revolution

We’ve been friends with Roxy and
Kids Arts a few years back, and we’ve followed their collaborative arts
projects. Although the pandemic seems to have stopped time, Roxy and Kids Arts,
a project run by visual artists Roxana Ené and her son, Alexander,
together with Roxana Elena Petrescu, con-founder and vice-president of the Roxy
and Kids Arts Association, have had their hands full. Roxana Elena Petrescu
told us more.

We’re talking about the Fashion
Revolution Week campaign. Together with Alexander Ené, we were invited
to attend Fashion Revolution alongside other fashion designers and consumers
from Romania, as part of a campaign running in April. Fashion Revolution is a
global movement held in over 60 countries that started in response to a tragedy:
in Bangladesh, a building collapsed, killing thousands of fashion workers
inside. A lot of women died back then, over a thousand people, and that
generated a global movement saying ‘enough is enough’. We live in a world where
having has become more important than being. It doesn’t hurt asking who makes
these clothes, whether they are made responsibly, if materials are polluting or
not. Roxy and Kids Arts have been making efforts to adapt to a sustainable way
of life. Part of the things we do, outside manufacturing workshops, is to turn
old and second-hand clothes, especially stained clothes, into works of art, by reinterpreting
them in painting workshops.

In turn, Alexander Ené told us more.

It’s not enough to just turn materials into art. It’s really important
to educate people as well. For instance, Roxy and Kids Arts has been hosting
creative workshops for children, both in Germany as well as in Romania, using
fruit and vegetable leftovers, which usually end up in the garbage, as work
instruments. Sustainable living also means recycling and reusing as much as
possible, thus supporting the production of sustainable goods and cutting food
and material waste. Reduce, reuse, repair and recycle! The 4 Rs underlie the
concept of sustainable living.

Artist Roxana Ené has been monitoring how Roxy and Kids Arts revolution
is enjoying recognition at Fashion Revolution.

I was really impressed with the event. Everything worked out great, and
I wasn’t even there. I got a wonderful piece of news, that Fashion Revolution got
in contact with us and were interested in what we do. And it was perfect timing,
because we were just in the middle of turning clothing into canvasses. There’s
nothing extraordinary about it, if you come to think of it. You just take a bag,
a leather jacket, all sorts of clothing and you paint them. We didn’t hold out
much hope for 2021, but we were contacted by Fashion Revolution Romania.

Speaking about her team, Roxana Ené also expressed her excitement.

Things went very smoothly. My son, Roxana and I made a remarkable
performance, and presented a beautiful canvas, a bag we painted and a few pairs
of shoes. It was very beautiful. I’ve seen the pictures and I’m impressed!

We learned that Roxy and Kids Arts has a new prototype of reusable cotton
face masks, which can also be worn as a headdress accessory. Once she got to Germany,
Roxana Ené found out that canvas masks are now forbidden, and in Romania cotton
masks were already in production. Last year, in partnership with another
Romanian association working with teenagers with disabilities, Roxy and Kids
Arts started printing the works created in the workshops on cloth bags, made
100% from cotton, and they already have a large number of orders from Germany
and Israel.

The association’s activity has also been praised in Germany. Roxana Ené:

Here, in Germany, everything went slow last year. We
were supposed to implement the project ‘Reality 2020: the Mask’. It was a cool
project, children painted masks outdoors. We worked with 10 children and the
school was delighted with our project, that they decided to find a workaround
due to pandemic restrictions. So we submitted a handbook to school teachers and
they taught the Roxy and kids arts method in schools. Children ended up
painting oversized masks and the outcome was spectacular. The

4 May 2021
Fashion Revolution

We’ve been friends with Roxy and
Kids Arts a few years back, and we’ve followed their collaborative arts
projects. Although the pandemic seems to have stopped time, Roxy and Kids Arts,
a project run by visual artists Roxana Ené and her son, Alexander,
together with Roxana Elena Petrescu, con-founder and vice-president of the Roxy
and Kids Arts Association, have had their hands full. Roxana Elena Petrescu
told us more.

We’re talking about the Fashion
Revolution Week campaign. Together with Alexander Ené, we were invited
to attend Fashion Revolution alongside other fashion designers and consumers
from Romania, as part of a campaign running in April. Fashion Revolution is a
global movement held in over 60 countries that started in response to a tragedy:
in Bangladesh, a building collapsed, killing thousands of fashion workers
inside. A lot of women died back then, over a thousand people, and that
generated a global movement saying ‘enough is enough’. We live in a world where
having has become more important than being. It doesn’t hurt asking who makes
these clothes, whether they are made responsibly, if materials are polluting or
not. Roxy and Kids Arts have been making efforts to adapt to a sustainable way
of life. Part of the things we do, outside manufacturing workshops, is to turn
old and second-hand clothes, especially stained clothes, into works of art, by reinterpreting
them in painting workshops.

In turn, Alexander Ené told us more.

It’s not enough to just turn materials into art. It’s really important
to educate people as well. For instance, Roxy and Kids Arts has been hosting
creative workshops for children, both in Germany as well as in Romania, using
fruit and vegetable leftovers, which usually end up in the garbage, as work
instruments. Sustainable living also means recycling and reusing as much as
possible, thus supporting the production of sustainable goods and cutting food
and material waste. Reduce, reuse, repair and recycle! The 4 Rs underlie the
concept of sustainable living.

Artist Roxana Ené has been monitoring how Roxy and Kids Arts revolution
is enjoying recognition at Fashion Revolution.

I was really impressed with the event. Everything worked out great, and
I wasn’t even there. I got a wonderful piece of news, that Fashion Revolution got
in contact with us and were interested in what we do. And it was perfect timing,
because we were just in the middle of turning clothing into canvasses. There’s
nothing extraordinary about it, if you come to think of it. You just take a bag,
a leather jacket, all sorts of clothing and you paint them. We didn’t hold out
much hope for 2021, but we were contacted by Fashion Revolution Romania.

Speaking about her team, Roxana Ené also expressed her excitement.

Things went very smoothly. My son, Roxana and I made a remarkable
performance, and presented a beautiful canvas, a bag we painted and a few pairs
of shoes. It was very beautiful. I’ve seen the pictures and I’m impressed!

We learned that Roxy and Kids Arts has a new prototype of reusable cotton
face masks, which can also be worn as a headdress accessory. Once she got to Germany,
Roxana Ené found out that canvas masks are now forbidden, and in Romania cotton
masks were already in production. Last year, in partnership with another
Romanian association working with teenagers with disabilities, Roxy and Kids
Arts started printing the works created in the workshops on cloth bags, made
100% from cotton, and they already have a large number of orders from Germany
and Israel.

The association’s activity has also been praised in Germany. Roxana Ené:

Here, in Germany, everything went slow last year. We
were supposed to implement the project ‘Reality 2020: the Mask’. It was a cool
project, children painted masks outdoors. We worked with 10 children and the
school was delighted with our project, that they decided to find a workaround
due to pandemic restrictions. So we submitted a handbook to school teachers and
they taught the Roxy and kids arts method in schools. Children ended up
painting oversized masks and the outcome was spectacular. The

4 May 2021
Contemporary art at the time of the pandemic

The National Museum of
Contemporary Art in Bucharest has never ceased to be close to people in many
ways, and we’ve grown accustomed to that. This time, one of the museum’s new
projects drew our attention. It is themed Art through correspondence.
The project seeks to create a genuine bond between seniors, children and
contemporary art. Initially, the project has been implemented through a string
of pilot activities that took off in January this year but which are
nonetheless part of a long-term undertaking. The eventual aim of the project is
bringing together, through correspondence, the children and the elderly, also
creating emotional ties between people of those age brackets as well as a bond
of a different order, between those people and contemporary art, at a time when
the feeling of loneliness takes its toll on people’s psyche, especially in the
isolated communities. Mălina Ionescu is the head of the National Museum of
Contemporary Art’s education section.

Malina Ionescu:

It is
a model of working together that in recent years has been used on a large
scale, abroad. And because we, at the museum, through our ‘Community Art’ program, have been trying to
relate to school communities in a broader sense and we have also been trying to
reach out to the school communities that do not have the possibility to come to
us, be they underprivileged communities or communities lying outside Bucharest,
and then we thought that, because we know the children with Teach for Romania or
the elderly people with the Seneca Anticafe, the museum would be a proper bond
when it comes to having the two relate to one another. We have been doing that
through correspondence, sadly, because this is the context that we’ve got and
because the direct contact with the museum, but also between the two groups of
beneficiaries, is, as we speak, impossible.

For a six-month timespan,
the project seeks to form senior-junior teams that on a monthly basis will
convey their thoughts through letters turned works of contemporary art.
Children have learned notions of contemporary art, based on which they created
thematic letters as part of a workshop Malina Ionescu gave on Zoom.

Malina Ionescu:

For the time being, I’ve only had one
workshop with the children, and I also
had one presentation of the whole project for the seniors. The suggestion has
been made, that of the correspondence, to the children as well as to the
seniors, it was presented to them as an opportunity to befriend correspondents
belonging to age brackets that could be very familiar to them, nephews, for the
elderly, and grandparents, for the children. They placed themselves in such positions,
of grandparents and nephews and of course, that of distance friends. The
project began with the children, we’ve had the initial workshop where we span
the yarn of what having a correspondence meant, in general, since the concept
is quite unfamiliar, given that, almost all correspondence and communication
are digital, we also spoke about how a letter can in fact become a work of art,
in its own right, but also through the process of posting it as the letters are
to be received by the senior. The project is still in its early days.

The project’s pilot stage brings
together 30 lonely grandparents in Giurgiu county, currently on a program
labelled Our grandparents, there are 30 schoolchildren aged 12 and 13, from the
Herasti and Izvoarele villages, Giurgiu county, who are registered with two
schools that have been included in the Teach for Romania project.

The parties involved have
got enthused in the beginning. However, nobody knows what turn the
correspondence project is going to take.

Malina Ionescu:

The
first suggestion was to view correspondence as a form of art, rather than view it
as a form of communication. Of course, the challenge we’ve had was twofold,
since for the children, communication itself was something unusual, under that
form, the written one, a physical one, that is, while for the elderly, it was
not, whereas the fact that we have come
up with an approach that was slightly off-the-beaten-track as regards what a
letter and an envelope meant and the idea of posting it, that was a primary contact
with what mail-art meant, the letter which itself can turn into a form of
artistic expression, when we relate to the graphic and the visual sign as if
they were an image and not just an ordinary form of the written text, capable of
conveying the content alone and when the text and the form to go with it become
just as important as the message itself, through drawings, through
interventions. What they in fact did was to view the page and the envelope as
pages on which they could draw and paint. We presented children with various
means of playing, with the envelope and with the letter, with the message, and
we made available for them all sorts of colors and pencils and ink, enabling
them to go beyond the letter where all that matters is what you convey through
words alone.

Malina Ionescu tells us what is expected from the next step to be taken
as part of the project.

We hope the
elderly will be quite responsive as well and, when it comes to the next
letters, they will answer too and will be encouraged to go beyond the
correspondence proper with a child and what they would like to convey to that
child and
use that medium as a form of
personal expression, since that’s what it’s all about after all. And what we
most want is that, in the next stage of the project, when it is possible, we should
bring the children and the elderly together at the museum, for a couple of
workshops and visiting sessions so that certain bonds may become stronger, between
them, but also between them and the museum.

Each of the coming months
will see a workshop for children being held on Zoom. Children will create all
sorts of materials and will write letters that will be sent to the seniors
together with the usual food parcel Seneca sends them every month. The exchange
of letters will be made possible through the Seneca volunteers and through
Teach for Romania.

13 April 2021
The National Museum of Contemporary Art in Bucharest

The National Contemporary Art Museum in Bucharest has
never ceased to surprise us. After unconventional exhibition inaugurations,
some of which were allegedly way too disputed and collections that have been
renewed every six months or monster installations impressing visitors as soon
as they step into the museum, as of late caught up indoors because of the pandemic,
the National Contemporary Art Museum has come up with projects meant to get
children closer to the museum. That’s how a couple of projects have emerged as
of late. Among them, Contemporary Art from Plankton to Intergalactic Flight,
actually made of several workshops meant to help art lovers understand the
exhibition of the National Contemporary Art Museum Collection. Then there’s
also Watching History. 1947-2007, as well as projects focusing on where
contemporary art hails from and what its sources are, in general. A Night at
the Museum, workshops tailored to suit the needs of the little ones, staged in
a bid to help them understand, in a friendly formula, the National Contemporary
Art Museum Collection themed Watching
History. 1947-2007. Then there’s also Art through Correspondence, a project
bringing together the children and the elderly, facilitating the correspondence
between generations.

There is another project we’re going to be dealing
with in detail, themed A weekend at the National Museum of Contemporary Art online:
reading evenings for the little ones. On a weekly basis, the project seeks to
offer for reading a title from the library of the museum as a means of arousing
the little ones’ interest in reading, art, as well as in dialogue.

Astrid Bogdan is a librarian with the National
Contemporary Art Museum. She told us the story behind the project.

Late into the previous year, jointly with my
colleagues, we laid the foundation stone of what we’ve themed Reading evenings
at the National Museum of Contemporary Art. And what we do, actually, is
gather, the little ones and the elderly, on Fridays, at 7 pm, to read stories
from our library, the library of the museum. Taking one step after the next, we
have tried to corroborate those reading sessions, focusing on the reading
proper, with little graphic interventions made by book illustrators, as well as
with musical interventions, so that the textual intervention may have sound and
color attached to them, why not? We can
thus have the opportunity to discover some of the titles even while their
authors are doing the reading. There is no age limit for that, since our
workshops are inclusive. Also, we want to take the well- established custom
further, that of the tales told by the fireside, since the program is free of
charge. And the advantage of working online on a permanent basis is having
participants at local but also at international level.

Such a project is a support for book authors, Romanian
as well as foreign.

Astrid Bogdan:

We also dedicate some of the reading evenings to the
books tackling the topic of the recovery of children diagnosed with autism or
with other growth problems, children with certain special disabilities. The
start we had for our project was kind of bumpy, we began in December, back then
the project was titled Rolling astray on board a tramway and we continued
with the title ‘Introtale’ which gathered a great many readers around it. All
this time we have tried to bring the authors closer, so much so that on Fridays
we have one author reading from their own work.

We asked Astrid Bogdan if the reading sessions brought
together many participants.

Astrid Bogdan:

There are evenings, and there are evenings. There were
evenings when we’ve got 30 people taking part, there were evenings with many
more participants, we even had something to the tune of 70. We have been trying
to stage the event one week after the next, opening up the evenings to the
little ones, so we opted for a maximum number of 25 participants, and whenever
we had more people coming in, we staged another reading evening separately, on
a different day.

Having taken part in the sessions, people kept sending
encouraging messages, which, alongside the growing number of prospective
participants, gave an impetus to the organizers so that they could take take the project further and
keep searching for different and new, original titles. The library is open
Monday to Friday, from 13.30 to 17.30 pm, and on the first Monday of every
month, also from 13.30 to 17.30 pm. Astrid Bogdan said that, as soon as the National
Contemporary Art Museum library was discovered, quite a few people turned up,
who were willing to explore it.

Astrid Bogdan:

And I had no choice other than doing the reading for
them in the library and that’s what prompted me to keep my hopes alive that at
one point we could stage those reading sessions on the museum’s rooftop, when
that is officially allowed. Yet we will stay online as well, since there are a
great many users who opt for being with us from their hometown, and by that I
‘m not speaking about cities from across Romania, but also about cities from
abroad. We believe that any youngster, through reading and art, can have a
freedom of choice, nay, they can form certain genuine customs and habits, as we
pledge for stories that are not prescribed.

And that is an invitation worth taking in the
evenings.

16 March 2021
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.

8 March 2021
The Association of Premature Babies in Romania and the EESC Civil Solidarity Prize

The Civil Solidarity Prize of the
European Economic and Social Committee was unveiled on 15th February
in a virtual ceremony. The Romanian Association of Premature Babies was one of
the 23 EU and UK recipients of the prize for their exceptional contribution to
fighting Covid-19 and its disastrous consequences. Each winner received a prize
of 10,000 euros.

The project submitted by the Association
of Premature Babies in Romania formed part of a category related to the
production and distribution of medical equipment, which included projects on
the production and distribution of facemasks and hygiene products, the
transformation of buildings into hospitals, the building of new medical structures
and the purchase and donation of medicine and technical equipment.

Diana Gămulescu, the founder of the
Association of Premature Babies, explains:

It all started with a need that had
to be addressed, namely, at the beginning of the pandemic, many medical workers
were telling us that premature babies were having less access to hospital
services due to the Covid restrictions and that funding for neo-natal wards
were suspended or cut and used to turn maternity hospitals into Covid support
hospitals. So the organisation mobilised itself and the community, with the aim
of helping as many maternity hospitals as possible. We didn’t know at the time how
much we would be able to raise from donations or whether we would be able to
reach all the maternity hospitals in need of protection equipment, UV lamps and
hygiene products. There were maternity hospitals where you couldn’t even find soap,
but we took it one step at a time and by the end of September we managed to
raise the necessary funds and make donations to six maternity hospitals.

Diana Gămulescu told us more about
the work of the Association of Premature Babies before the pandemic:

The equipping of maternity
hospitals in general is a priority, because there are 22 such hospitals with special
neonatology wards and 64 general maternity hospitals around the country and
each and every one of them needs something at all times. Apart from raising
money, we also carried out projects aimed at the medical staff, such as continuous
learning, we held workshops in hospitals and helped prepare families with
new-born babies for the moment when they take their babies home, we ran
webinars and projects to prevent premature births and travelled around the
country to less privileged communities. We also provide financial support to
disadvantaged families with premature babies who need long-term care. So, we’ve
got a lot to do!

The European Economic and Social
Committee launched its civil solidarity contest in July 2020 on the theme of civil
society against Covid-19 as a one-off event to replace its traditional prize. Its
aim was to pay a tribute to civil society in Europe, which became actively and
selflessly involved in solidarity projects from the very early days of the
pandemic. Other Romanian projects that ran for the EESC prize include a social
solidarity project ran by the Adi Hădean Association. A chef who saw his
restaurant closed because of the pandemic, Hădean made sure his staff together with
volunteers prepared and distributed warm meals to doctors, other medical
workers, families in isolation and the elderly. Diana Gămulescu from the
Association of Premature Babies in Romania told us how her association decided
to run for the civil solidarity prize:

When we found out about the contest
we realised it would be a solution for us to be able to continue the donation
raising campaign we began. We saw it as an opportunity in this respect, but we didn’t
think we would win. One of the most important things when you’re trying to do good
is finding solutions to ensure funding. It’s complicated to find businesses and
convince people to make donations and for us the contest was simply a chance to
continue our work.

Winning was a big surprise and Diana
Gămulescu is still overwhelmed:

I still can’t believe that miracles
happen, that there’s a Santa Claus in February. I’d like the prize to help raise
awareness about premature births in general. I’d like to thank our supporters,
individuals and businesses, and my team for their involvement and dedication. I
would like it very much to be able to increase the impact of charitable actions
nationwide.

In the near future, the Association
of Premature Babies will continue to raise money to provide maternity hospitals
with the needed equipment, hoping to reach as many hospitals as possible, and to
carry out information and support programmes for parents.

23 February 2021