Radio România Internațional

Category: World of Culture

  • Casademuzicieni.ro

    Casademuzicieni.ro

    This November has seen the launch of a website named casademuzicieni.ro (in English, musicians’ house), a virtual space that facilitates an encounter with Bucharest’s musical history. It’s a project for all ages, inhabitants of Bucharest or from elsewhere, from Romania or abroad, anybody who is interested in hearing the tale of the city. The site has an online guide that invites one on a walk through the old streets of Bucharest, the central area and not only. The stories of the big musicians are building a portrait that is both objective and subjective, strongly imprinted in the cultural and emotional memory of the city. We talked to one of the initiators of the project, Stefan Costache, a producer at Radio Romania Musical, about the birth of this project, about the team and the work behind it.

    It’s a project developed by a relatively small group of colleagues and friends, a project that is actually twofold: a bilingual, EN-RO site, named casademuzicieni.ro, and a map implemented with the help of Google Maps, which shows the location of such houses, old or not so old, like the house owned by the great Anton Pann in downtown Bucharest, or the modern blocks where composers like Pascal Bentoiu – probably the best expert in Enescu’s work – lived. The project came to life first of all because it got funding under the program Bucharest, an open city 2021. It actually projects both an objective artistic map of Bucharest, and also a subjective, emotional one, because these houses are more than just objective information from our perspective, of those who live in the city. 9 people have been involved in this project, starting from an idea by my colleague and friend Monica Isacescu. We’ve been running projects like these for 10 years now. We started with Lipatti’, which is also part of the current project. Petre Fugaciu, Ioana Marghita and Maria Monica Bojin, the one who translated the texts posted on the site, have also been part of it. Then, Andreea Chirca, a new collaborator of ours, an architect and PhD student who took care of the applied architectonics part. The site as such was developed graphically by Daniel Ivascu. And, last but not least, the images one can see on the website are the result of the work done by Andra Aron, who trod the streets and photographed all these houses. They are not easy to take, because there are some rigours that must be observed.

    Stefan Costache also told us about the unseen work behind the site and gave us some hints about what we are going to find in this online environment:

    The fact finding and information gathering work is extremely hard, like that of a detective, but also one that brings lots of satisfaction. First, you have to identify where the big musicians lived, to confirm that info, to find out as much as possible about the relationship between that place and the said musician. We still do not have a feedback on the most searched musicians on this website, but I could anticipate two elements that will determine the popularity of the names searched: the popularity and value of the musician, but also the interest in the architecture of the house that musician lived in. There are three such names that I can think of right now, looking at things from this perspective: George Enescu, always associated with the Cantacuzino Palace, which is now undergoing renovations, Dinu Lipatti, a legendary pianist, loved all over the world, and whose fans travel to Bucharest to see where he lived, and the great Ion Voicu, whose name is connected to that of a beautiful house in downtown Bucharest.

    Stefan Costache told us how the site was received in the online environment and shared some of the team’s desires with regard to the future of this musical, architectural and cultural guide to Bucharest:

    We were surprised to see that the website was very well received even before it was launched. There is an interest in continuity, and the project as such is interactive. Those who know more about a certain topic are encouraged to provide that info and we mention them, so it’s like a bridgehead now, and we want to extend it as much as we can. We will try to also cover other types of musicians, not just the classical ones, because there are many valuable song writers too and they deserve a place on this site. And of course, we will try to place some memorial plaques on those houses, provided the current owners agree with our idea. (MI)

  • Literature for children in Romania in the digital era

    Literature for children in Romania in the digital era


    The Fairy Tale Association has organised this autumn’s
    leading event focusing on children’s and youth literature. Running as LittleLIT
    Days, the event brought together more than 650 children who enjoyed workshops,
    public reading sessions and book launches, staged as part of the aforementioned
    project.


    For
    a whole week, more than 25 online events were held, dedicated to pupils. Among
    them, reading workshops offered by Romanian authors of children’s and youth literature,
    staged in schools around Bucharest, Timișoara and Cluj. The activities were
    dedicated to professionals in the field on children’s literature, such as
    authors, illustrators, translators, editors, PR specialists, book sellers. Part
    of the events also targeted the lay public. Together was this year’s theme,
    purposefully thought out as a feasible alternative to the social environment we
    live in, marred by fear, loneliness and isolation.

    Writer Victoria Pătrașcu, one of the founders of the Fairy Tale Association:

    When we thought out this project, that is a year ago, we never imagined things
    would be just the same, that we will still be confined indoors. We would have really
    liked to enjoy all that, together with the children, to be able to join them,
    to take their questions. Things were not the same just as we would have liked
    to, which doesn’t mean we cannot be together even in these difficult conditions,
    so that the LittleLIT story may continue, beautifully. LittleLIT stemmed from a
    collaboration between the Fairy Tale Association and EUNIC. What we had there,
    from the very outset, was an idea in a nutshell, it was a project by means of
    which we thought of taking writers of contemporary Romanian literature for
    children to their readers, so that the latter may have the chance to know those
    who craft the stories. The little ball that we had in the beginning had grown
    into a maiden edition, in 2019, themed LittleLIT Mirrorings, where we had partnerships
    with five foreign cultural institutions. Back then we had five foreign guest writers
    who gave workshops for Romanian writers as we very much want the Romanian
    writers to have examples of good practice, so they may know how to make themselves
    better known, how to become better writers, how to refine their writing. And it
    was also then that we staged meetings with potential readers, we took those writers
    to the meet the children, in schools or in rather underprivileged milieus,
    where children do not have access to culture.


    The
    LittleLIT Days, Together schedule has been thought out to highlight the importance
    of the book and reading for the development of children and in a bid to give
    them the opportunity to get acquainted with books what were written for them,
    and with those who wrote them. Equally, the project seeks to create a space of
    dialogue between children’s literature professionals (writers, editors,
    professors, reading promoters) from Romania and from other European countries. So
    The Fairy Tale Association continues to strengthen the dialogue with schools
    and the teaching staff, offering teachers specific methods for using literature
    as a method for teach the content-based items in the curricula.


    Victoria Patrascu:


    We somehow felt lonely and lost in the great Romanian literature and we
    thought it was unfair for the children’s literature to be viewed as a
    Cinderella of literature. There weren’t back then, and there still aren’t
    either, as we speak, any awards for Romanian children’s literature or if they exist,
    they’re not being awarded. Notwithstanding, there is an increasing number of
    writers of children’s literature, writers whose success has been growing. Some
    of us have got round to participating in international fairs, in the meantime,
    even at the International Children’s Book Fair in Bologna, which is something
    extraordinary, we have become increasingly aware of the importance of children’s
    literature in the world. This literature shapes up readers, it a literature
    that has been developing one year after the next. Although book sales are on
    the wane, children’s literature is on the rise, literature for children brings
    money and that’s what editors should be interested in. Many of them realized, and
    that is precisely why they created special collections, they realized children’s
    literature does have its perks, apart from those we know already: those of bringing
    up the new readers, of developing children’s emotional balance, of helping them
    develop. Now,
    returning to the 2018 moment, when we founded the Fairy Tale Association, things
    fared worse than they fare today, so we thought of turning pro. We had some
    examples as well, many of them from the Nordic countries, telling us that when
    we were together, we were able to do a lot of things. And that’s what happened,
    we were a nucleus made of four writers, Adina Rosetti, Laura Grünberg, Iulia
    Iordan and myself, who started up this Fairly Tale Association. But here we are,
    three years on, we are 20 writers already, we have three caravans who reached dozens
    of communes, as well as hundreds of workshops on the record. Also, we organize
    this event as well, the LittleLIT Days, under the form of a children’s
    literature festival. As of late, we also have a YouTube channel we want to
    develop.


    There were three keynote online launches of LittleLIT
    Days’ special guests this year. Swedish writer Åsa Lind, Swiss author Dana
    Grigorcea and Romanian writer Lavinia Braniște gathered more than 2, 000 young
    readers. Equally successful were the two big events dedicated to specialists and
    those interested to find out more about contemporary Romanian children’s
    literature – the webinar Incubator themed The domestic book market for
    children: a magical, otherworldly world facing worldly problems and the Masterclass
    given by the special guests.

    (Translation by Eugen Nasta)



  • The 9th edition of The International Literature and Translation Festival

    The 9th edition of The International Literature and Translation Festival


    The 9th edition of the Iasi International Festival of Literature and Translation – FILIT took place between October 20-24, 2021. The program consisted of a wide range of events attended by guests from 10 countries. The events were meetings with writers in various locations in the city of Iasi, debates, exhibitions and concerts. The House of Museums became the central point of FILIT, the place where volunteers, guests and the public enjoyed personalized events and experiences consisting of visits to 5 recently inaugurated museums: the Pogrom Museum in Iasi, the Museum of the Jewish Theater in Romania, the Poetry Museum, the Romanian Literature Museum, and the Museum of Childhood in the Communist period.



    José Luís Peixoto, considered by the writer José Saramago “one of the most surprising revelations of recent Portuguese literature”, was among the guests of this edition of FILIT. As part of the FILIT two editorial projects were also launched, issued by the Literary Museums Publishing House, which were an immediate success: the “Original Parodies” collection, made up of five volumes to which fifty contemporary poets have contributed, and the volume “3 Croatian poets”, which is the first in the project called “Small countries, big literatures”, which focuses on some of the most appreciated poets in Croatia.



    The writer Florin Lăzărescu, founding member and program coordinator of the FILIT will talk about these two projects: “Basically, the classic writers, whose names were given to literary museums in Iasi — such as Vasile Alecsandri, Otilia Cazimir, Mihai Codreanu, Mihai Eminescu and George Topîrceanu – were just the pretexts for making the ‘Original Parodies’ collection. We insisted on this aspect, we suggested to the poets to keep the original title of a poem and one verse, and then continue writing in their own style. Thats how five collective volumes of very good poetry have emerged, and I can see that everyone is starting to notice that. Furthermore, the project enjoys extraordinary visibility, as we are talking about 50 people who are involved in its promotion. Im glad that these volumes have come out, the creation process was not very easy because we are talking about five new books of poetry made in only three months. To give you an insight into this project, there were all kinds of situations, some very funny. There is this poet whom I invited to participate in the project and the next day he was ready, he handed us five impeccable poems. And there were poets who told us the poems would be ready in one week, but they finished them only two months later, but eventually they all wrote some very beautiful poems. There were also poets who wanted to participate in the project but later withdrew, because they were not inspired or did not like what they had written. There is a very interesting story behind all these volumes that I consider very nice. There is another wonderful poetry project that is worth the public’s attention. Some time ago, I had the idea of launching a collection at the Literary Museums Publishing House, a publishing house within the National Romanian Literature Museum of Iasi, dedicated to writers from the neighboring countries, from Bulgaria, Croatia, Serbia, Slovenia, writers who have not been translated in Romania. And this year we had the opportunity to publish a volume including three very good Croatian poets – Goran Čolakhodžić, Miroslav Kirin, and Nada Topić – with whom we started this collection. It is an anthology made by a Croatian critic, and the respective poets were translated by Adrian Oproiu, a translator who lives in Zagreb, one of this year’s guests at the FILIT. We, at the Romanian Literature Museum of Iași, have been talking about the literature of Romania’s neighbors and I am glad that we started this project, which I hope to continue in the coming years.”



    “The FILIT workshops for translators”, an initiative of the Romanian Literature Museum – MNLR Iaşi and of the International Festival of Literature and Translation – FILIT Iași, support contemporary creation and the promotion of the cultural heritage at international level, contributing to the development of a large system of literary residencies in Eastern Europe. The 7th edition of the “FILIT Workshops for Translators”, organized by the National Museum of Romanian Literature of Iaşi in collaboration with the Ipoteşti Memorial – Mihai Eminescu National Center for Studies provided the framework for training and professional communication to translators from Romanian into a foreign language. The beneficiaries of this edition came from twelve countries, and the program included two round tables and a series of conferences held by Florin Bican, Bogdan Crețu, Cristina Hermeziu, Doru Liciu, Doris Mironescu, Mihaela Ursa, and Radu Vancu. The translators spoke about the transposition in different languages ​​of some classic and contemporary texts from Romanian literature and identified strategies for promoting Romanian literature abroad.



    The writer Florin Lăzărescu, founding member and coordinator of FILIT programs, is at the microphone with details: “This year, given the context of the pandemic, we decided not to take any risks inviting translators from abroad. So far, at FILIT, we have paid special attention to native translators from other countries who translate Romanian literature. The novelty this year was that we invited more translators who translate into Romanian, certainly any reader knows them, since they are translators of famous authors in Romanian. But along the way, we came to have a hybrid event because it so happened that many of the translators from Romanian into a foreign language had residences in Romania. And we were happy with this formula because their discussions have been very interesting.”



    During the last FILIT event, at the “Vasile Alecsandri” National Theater in Iaşi, the writer Simona Goșu received the “High School Students Award for the most beloved book published in 2020” for her novel ‘Fragile’. The award was offered by the Iaşi County School Inspectorate following the vote of a jury made up of 29 students from 11 high schools in Iași. (LS)

  • Decaying landscape

    The place
    is an anthropic lake in the Văcărești neighbourhood, in the south-west of the
    city. Spreading nearly 200 hectares, the lake was originally designed as part
    of the complex engineering works on the river crossing Bucharest, Dâmbovița, and
    was supposed to be part of the flooding defence system designed in the
    communist years.


    Its construction
    required the demolition of one of Bucharest’s most beautiful religious
    buildings, the Văcărești Monastery. The original project went unfinished after
    the fall of the communist regime in Romania in 1989. In the years that
    followed, the area was reclaimed by nature, and turned into a genuine delta-with
    diverse vegetation and animals ranging from birds to fish to foxes, rabbits,
    otters and so on. The Văcărești Delta grew into a stable ecosystem, and a habitat
    for protected species. In 2015, the Văcărești Delta was declared a nature park
    (Văcărești Nature Park)-a protected nature area and the first urban nature park
    in Romania.


    This October
    the Văcărești Nature Park played host to a project entitled Decaying Landscape,
    designed to bring people, nature and art closer together. We talked to the
    project manager and curator Gabriela Mateescu about the organisation of the
    event and the ideas on which it was based:


    Gabriela
    Mateescu: Placed in the urban nature scenery of the Văcărești Delta, this
    project called Decaying landscape is a cross-disciplinary artistic
    cooperation and at the same time a research effort resulting in performances, land
    art works and site-specific installations. The event was organised by Nucleus
    0000 Association and co-financed by the Bucharest City Hall via ARCUB, as part
    of a programme entitled Bucharest: open city 2021. Bucharest is a city
    suffocated by concrete. But among the heavy slabs outlining the city, nature
    claims its place. On the site of the long abandoned, communist-era artificial
    lake of Văcărești, an ecosystem has formed over the past 30 years, with no
    human intervention whatsoever, right at the heart of the country’s largest
    urban settlement. Grown into a true delta, an autonomous ecosystem in the
    middle of Bucharest, the Văcărești Park is the right place to contemplate the state
    of nature and the effects of human intervention.


    Condensing an
    entire universe into a micro-space, artists from various fields have deconstructed
    post- and trans-humanist theories in the language of contemporary art. Gabriela
    Mateescu told us more about the participants in the Decaying Landscape
    project:


    Gabriela
    Mateescu: On the 24th October, people were invited to walk
    around and discover the works of female artists Roberta Curcă, Mălina Ionescu,
    Gabriela Mateescu, Andreea Medar, Kiki Mihuță, Marina Oprea. Lost in the
    landscape were also the students of a performance workshop called microRave -
    attempts at becoming a landscape, coordinated by Andreea David, Maria
    Baroncea, on music written by Chlorys. A week before the event, we invited
    youth from Bucharest interested in art to come to the Delta for a dance
    performance workshop, taking advantage of the last sunny days of autumn. To help
    the visitors in their search, we put together a map with the GPS coordinates of
    the works, and mounted them at the Delta entrances and among the works. We also
    had 3 guided tours where the public walked the arts route together with the
    artists and the organisers. The installations were collected the next day, to
    keep the area unaltered.


    The artistic
    concept involved a hybrid space-brought to life by both the daily urban excitement
    and by the noises of the delta in the heart of the city. This area was
    temporarily revived in order to plead its own cause-a cultural function, to be
    precise-as the most appropriate place for contemplation, a means to reconnect
    with nature, a possible meditation on the harmful effects of improper human
    intervention on nature. Gabriela Mateescu also gave us some details on the public
    and their responses to the project in the Văcărești Delta:


    Gabriela Mateescu:
    Apart from the regular public of artistic events, we had people simply going
    out for a walk on a sunny day, who thus had an opportunity to see random works
    of art, which they were amazed with and interested in. And their curiosity was met
    by the explanations given by the artists and the project team. (tr. A.M. Popescu)

  • Decaying landscape

    The place
    is an anthropic lake in the Văcărești neighbourhood, in the south-west of the
    city. Spreading nearly 200 hectares, the lake was originally designed as part
    of the complex engineering works on the river crossing Bucharest, Dâmbovița, and
    was supposed to be part of the flooding defence system designed in the
    communist years.


    Its construction
    required the demolition of one of Bucharest’s most beautiful religious
    buildings, the Văcărești Monastery. The original project went unfinished after
    the fall of the communist regime in Romania in 1989. In the years that
    followed, the area was reclaimed by nature, and turned into a genuine delta-with
    diverse vegetation and animals ranging from birds to fish to foxes, rabbits,
    otters and so on. The Văcărești Delta grew into a stable ecosystem, and a habitat
    for protected species. In 2015, the Văcărești Delta was declared a nature park
    (Văcărești Nature Park)-a protected nature area and the first urban nature park
    in Romania.


    This October
    the Văcărești Nature Park played host to a project entitled Decaying Landscape,
    designed to bring people, nature and art closer together. We talked to the
    project manager and curator Gabriela Mateescu about the organisation of the
    event and the ideas on which it was based:


    Gabriela
    Mateescu: Placed in the urban nature scenery of the Văcărești Delta, this
    project called Decaying landscape is a cross-disciplinary artistic
    cooperation and at the same time a research effort resulting in performances, land
    art works and site-specific installations. The event was organised by Nucleus
    0000 Association and co-financed by the Bucharest City Hall via ARCUB, as part
    of a programme entitled Bucharest: open city 2021. Bucharest is a city
    suffocated by concrete. But among the heavy slabs outlining the city, nature
    claims its place. On the site of the long abandoned, communist-era artificial
    lake of Văcărești, an ecosystem has formed over the past 30 years, with no
    human intervention whatsoever, right at the heart of the country’s largest
    urban settlement. Grown into a true delta, an autonomous ecosystem in the
    middle of Bucharest, the Văcărești Park is the right place to contemplate the state
    of nature and the effects of human intervention.


    Condensing an
    entire universe into a micro-space, artists from various fields have deconstructed
    post- and trans-humanist theories in the language of contemporary art. Gabriela
    Mateescu told us more about the participants in the Decaying Landscape
    project:


    Gabriela
    Mateescu: On the 24th October, people were invited to walk
    around and discover the works of female artists Roberta Curcă, Mălina Ionescu,
    Gabriela Mateescu, Andreea Medar, Kiki Mihuță, Marina Oprea. Lost in the
    landscape were also the students of a performance workshop called microRave -
    attempts at becoming a landscape, coordinated by Andreea David, Maria
    Baroncea, on music written by Chlorys. A week before the event, we invited
    youth from Bucharest interested in art to come to the Delta for a dance
    performance workshop, taking advantage of the last sunny days of autumn. To help
    the visitors in their search, we put together a map with the GPS coordinates of
    the works, and mounted them at the Delta entrances and among the works. We also
    had 3 guided tours where the public walked the arts route together with the
    artists and the organisers. The installations were collected the next day, to
    keep the area unaltered.


    The artistic
    concept involved a hybrid space-brought to life by both the daily urban excitement
    and by the noises of the delta in the heart of the city. This area was
    temporarily revived in order to plead its own cause-a cultural function, to be
    precise-as the most appropriate place for contemplation, a means to reconnect
    with nature, a possible meditation on the harmful effects of improper human
    intervention on nature. Gabriela Mateescu also gave us some details on the public
    and their responses to the project in the Văcărești Delta:


    Gabriela Mateescu:
    Apart from the regular public of artistic events, we had people simply going
    out for a walk on a sunny day, who thus had an opportunity to see random works
    of art, which they were amazed with and interested in. And their curiosity was met
    by the explanations given by the artists and the project team. (tr. A.M. Popescu)

  • Decaying landscape

    The place
    is an anthropic lake in the Văcărești neighbourhood, in the south-west of the
    city. Spreading nearly 200 hectares, the lake was originally designed as part
    of the complex engineering works on the river crossing Bucharest, Dâmbovița, and
    was supposed to be part of the flooding defence system designed in the
    communist years.


    Its construction
    required the demolition of one of Bucharest’s most beautiful religious
    buildings, the Văcărești Monastery. The original project went unfinished after
    the fall of the communist regime in Romania in 1989. In the years that
    followed, the area was reclaimed by nature, and turned into a genuine delta-with
    diverse vegetation and animals ranging from birds to fish to foxes, rabbits,
    otters and so on. The Văcărești Delta grew into a stable ecosystem, and a habitat
    for protected species. In 2015, the Văcărești Delta was declared a nature park
    (Văcărești Nature Park)-a protected nature area and the first urban nature park
    in Romania.


    This October
    the Văcărești Nature Park played host to a project entitled Decaying Landscape,
    designed to bring people, nature and art closer together. We talked to the
    project manager and curator Gabriela Mateescu about the organisation of the
    event and the ideas on which it was based:


    Gabriela
    Mateescu: Placed in the urban nature scenery of the Văcărești Delta, this
    project called Decaying landscape is a cross-disciplinary artistic
    cooperation and at the same time a research effort resulting in performances, land
    art works and site-specific installations. The event was organised by Nucleus
    0000 Association and co-financed by the Bucharest City Hall via ARCUB, as part
    of a programme entitled Bucharest: open city 2021. Bucharest is a city
    suffocated by concrete. But among the heavy slabs outlining the city, nature
    claims its place. On the site of the long abandoned, communist-era artificial
    lake of Văcărești, an ecosystem has formed over the past 30 years, with no
    human intervention whatsoever, right at the heart of the country’s largest
    urban settlement. Grown into a true delta, an autonomous ecosystem in the
    middle of Bucharest, the Văcărești Park is the right place to contemplate the state
    of nature and the effects of human intervention.


    Condensing an
    entire universe into a micro-space, artists from various fields have deconstructed
    post- and trans-humanist theories in the language of contemporary art. Gabriela
    Mateescu told us more about the participants in the Decaying Landscape
    project:


    Gabriela
    Mateescu: On the 24th October, people were invited to walk
    around and discover the works of female artists Roberta Curcă, Mălina Ionescu,
    Gabriela Mateescu, Andreea Medar, Kiki Mihuță, Marina Oprea. Lost in the
    landscape were also the students of a performance workshop called microRave -
    attempts at becoming a landscape, coordinated by Andreea David, Maria
    Baroncea, on music written by Chlorys. A week before the event, we invited
    youth from Bucharest interested in art to come to the Delta for a dance
    performance workshop, taking advantage of the last sunny days of autumn. To help
    the visitors in their search, we put together a map with the GPS coordinates of
    the works, and mounted them at the Delta entrances and among the works. We also
    had 3 guided tours where the public walked the arts route together with the
    artists and the organisers. The installations were collected the next day, to
    keep the area unaltered.


    The artistic
    concept involved a hybrid space-brought to life by both the daily urban excitement
    and by the noises of the delta in the heart of the city. This area was
    temporarily revived in order to plead its own cause-a cultural function, to be
    precise-as the most appropriate place for contemplation, a means to reconnect
    with nature, a possible meditation on the harmful effects of improper human
    intervention on nature. Gabriela Mateescu also gave us some details on the public
    and their responses to the project in the Văcărești Delta:


    Gabriela Mateescu:
    Apart from the regular public of artistic events, we had people simply going
    out for a walk on a sunny day, who thus had an opportunity to see random works
    of art, which they were amazed with and interested in. And their curiosity was met
    by the explanations given by the artists and the project team. (tr. A.M. Popescu)

  • Decaying Landscape

    Decaying Landscape

    The place
    is an anthropic lake in the Văcărești neighbourhood, in the south-west of the
    city. Spreading nearly 200 hectares, the lake was originally designed as part
    of the complex engineering works on the river crossing Bucharest, Dâmbovița, and
    was supposed to be part of the flooding defence system designed in the
    communist years.


    Its construction
    required the demolition of one of Bucharest’s most beautiful religious
    buildings, the Văcărești Monastery. The original project went unfinished after
    the fall of the communist regime in Romania in 1989. In the years that
    followed, the area was reclaimed by nature, and turned into a genuine delta-with
    diverse vegetation and animals ranging from birds to fish to foxes, rabbits,
    otters and so on. The Văcărești Delta grew into a stable ecosystem, and a habitat
    for protected species. In 2015, the Văcărești Delta was declared a nature park
    (Văcărești Nature Park)-a protected nature area and the first urban nature park
    in Romania.


    This October
    the Văcărești Nature Park played host to a project entitled Decaying Landscape,
    designed to bring people, nature and art closer together. We talked to the
    project manager and curator Gabriela Mateescu about the organisation of the
    event and the ideas on which it was based:


    Gabriela
    Mateescu: Placed in the urban nature scenery of the Văcărești Delta, this
    project called Decaying landscape is a cross-disciplinary artistic
    cooperation and at the same time a research effort resulting in performances, land
    art works and site-specific installations. The event was organised by Nucleus
    0000 Association and co-financed by the Bucharest City Hall via ARCUB, as part
    of a programme entitled Bucharest: open city 2021. Bucharest is a city
    suffocated by concrete. But among the heavy slabs outlining the city, nature
    claims its place. On the site of the long abandoned, communist-era artificial
    lake of Văcărești, an ecosystem has formed over the past 30 years, with no
    human intervention whatsoever, right at the heart of the country’s largest
    urban settlement. Grown into a true delta, an autonomous ecosystem in the
    middle of Bucharest, the Văcărești Park is the right place to contemplate the state
    of nature and the effects of human intervention.


    Condensing an
    entire universe into a micro-space, artists from various fields have deconstructed
    post- and trans-humanist theories in the language of contemporary art. Gabriela
    Mateescu told us more about the participants in the Decaying Landscape
    project:


    Gabriela
    Mateescu: On the 24th October, people were invited to walk
    around and discover the works of female artists Roberta Curcă, Mălina Ionescu,
    Gabriela Mateescu, Andreea Medar, Kiki Mihuță, Marina Oprea. Lost in the
    landscape were also the students of a performance workshop called microRave -
    attempts at becoming a landscape, coordinated by Andreea David, Maria
    Baroncea, on music written by Chlorys. A week before the event, we invited
    youth from Bucharest interested in art to come to the Delta for a dance
    performance workshop, taking advantage of the last sunny days of autumn. To help
    the visitors in their search, we put together a map with the GPS coordinates of
    the works, and mounted them at the Delta entrances and among the works. We also
    had 3 guided tours where the public walked the arts route together with the
    artists and the organisers. The installations were collected the next day, to
    keep the area unaltered.


    The artistic
    concept involved a hybrid space-brought to life by both the daily urban excitement
    and by the noises of the delta in the heart of the city. This area was
    temporarily revived in order to plead its own cause-a cultural function, to be
    precise-as the most appropriate place for contemplation, a means to reconnect
    with nature, a possible meditation on the harmful effects of improper human
    intervention on nature. Gabriela Mateescu also gave us some details on the public
    and their responses to the project in the Văcărești Delta:


    Gabriela Mateescu:
    Apart from the regular public of artistic events, we had people simply going
    out for a walk on a sunny day, who thus had an opportunity to see random works
    of art, which they were amazed with and interested in. And their curiosity was met
    by the explanations given by the artists and the project team. (tr. A.M. Popescu)

  • Decaying Landscape

    Decaying Landscape

    The place
    is an anthropic lake in the Văcărești neighbourhood, in the south-west of the
    city. Spreading nearly 200 hectares, the lake was originally designed as part
    of the complex engineering works on the river crossing Bucharest, Dâmbovița, and
    was supposed to be part of the flooding defence system designed in the
    communist years.


    Its construction
    required the demolition of one of Bucharest’s most beautiful religious
    buildings, the Văcărești Monastery. The original project went unfinished after
    the fall of the communist regime in Romania in 1989. In the years that
    followed, the area was reclaimed by nature, and turned into a genuine delta-with
    diverse vegetation and animals ranging from birds to fish to foxes, rabbits,
    otters and so on. The Văcărești Delta grew into a stable ecosystem, and a habitat
    for protected species. In 2015, the Văcărești Delta was declared a nature park
    (Văcărești Nature Park)-a protected nature area and the first urban nature park
    in Romania.


    This October
    the Văcărești Nature Park played host to a project entitled Decaying Landscape,
    designed to bring people, nature and art closer together. We talked to the
    project manager and curator Gabriela Mateescu about the organisation of the
    event and the ideas on which it was based:


    Gabriela
    Mateescu: Placed in the urban nature scenery of the Văcărești Delta, this
    project called Decaying landscape is a cross-disciplinary artistic
    cooperation and at the same time a research effort resulting in performances, land
    art works and site-specific installations. The event was organised by Nucleus
    0000 Association and co-financed by the Bucharest City Hall via ARCUB, as part
    of a programme entitled Bucharest: open city 2021. Bucharest is a city
    suffocated by concrete. But among the heavy slabs outlining the city, nature
    claims its place. On the site of the long abandoned, communist-era artificial
    lake of Văcărești, an ecosystem has formed over the past 30 years, with no
    human intervention whatsoever, right at the heart of the country’s largest
    urban settlement. Grown into a true delta, an autonomous ecosystem in the
    middle of Bucharest, the Văcărești Park is the right place to contemplate the state
    of nature and the effects of human intervention.


    Condensing an
    entire universe into a micro-space, artists from various fields have deconstructed
    post- and trans-humanist theories in the language of contemporary art. Gabriela
    Mateescu told us more about the participants in the Decaying Landscape
    project:


    Gabriela
    Mateescu: On the 24th October, people were invited to walk
    around and discover the works of female artists Roberta Curcă, Mălina Ionescu,
    Gabriela Mateescu, Andreea Medar, Kiki Mihuță, Marina Oprea. Lost in the
    landscape were also the students of a performance workshop called microRave -
    attempts at becoming a landscape, coordinated by Andreea David, Maria
    Baroncea, on music written by Chlorys. A week before the event, we invited
    youth from Bucharest interested in art to come to the Delta for a dance
    performance workshop, taking advantage of the last sunny days of autumn. To help
    the visitors in their search, we put together a map with the GPS coordinates of
    the works, and mounted them at the Delta entrances and among the works. We also
    had 3 guided tours where the public walked the arts route together with the
    artists and the organisers. The installations were collected the next day, to
    keep the area unaltered.


    The artistic
    concept involved a hybrid space-brought to life by both the daily urban excitement
    and by the noises of the delta in the heart of the city. This area was
    temporarily revived in order to plead its own cause-a cultural function, to be
    precise-as the most appropriate place for contemplation, a means to reconnect
    with nature, a possible meditation on the harmful effects of improper human
    intervention on nature. Gabriela Mateescu also gave us some details on the public
    and their responses to the project in the Văcărești Delta:


    Gabriela Mateescu:
    Apart from the regular public of artistic events, we had people simply going
    out for a walk on a sunny day, who thus had an opportunity to see random works
    of art, which they were amazed with and interested in. And their curiosity was met
    by the explanations given by the artists and the project team. (tr. A.M. Popescu)

  • Becoming Landscape

    Becoming Landscape

    The Delta Vacaresti Nature Park is the place in Bucharest that still features one of the grand unfinished communist projects. Before 1989, Vacaresti Lake was a hydrological system to prevent flooding in Bucharest. During the time it was neglected the area was taken over by nature once again, right in the heart of a European capital, with protected animal species, gaining an ecosystem similar to that of a delta. In October, this urban nature park was the venue for a special project, meant to bring city dwellers closer to nature and integrate this area into the city. It is called Becoming Landscape — An Attempt to Become Scenery. We spoke about this project with one of the attending artists, Diana Miron, vocal coach, sound artist, and composer, about how the project was born, and how she came to attend it:


    “Becoming Landscape is an interdisciplinary project bringing together three art forms, sound composition and contemporary music, land art, and performance art. This project is the initiative of a group of women theoreticians and artists with a rich expertise in contemporary and experimental art, where their connected understanding is dedicated to opinion shaping and professional training for emerging artists who are interested in new forms of expression, group research, audio-visual experimentation, as well as body, sound, and visual re-contextualization. Hence the initiative of the project, based on previous projects, such as Techno Fields, in which I personally, Diana Miron, sound artist and composer, took part in last year, teaching voice courses, voice timbre rediscovery, and extended music improv techniques.”




    We asked our guest what her contribution was to the Becoming Landscape project:


    “Together with composer and sound designer Laurentiu Cotac created with this work called Harmony of Disaster, a contemporary music work, which included the soundscape of Vacaresti Delta. Repeated meetings in Vacaresti Nature Park inspired us very much, be it about contemporary music, land art, or performance art, and offered us a fertile environment, visually and sound wise, allowing us to generate new pieces for Romanian art, but also international art. Spanning three months, which included rehearsals and actual events with the public, taking into account restrictions, we believed it was opportune to move outdoors the events, where we could socially distance, allowing the public to join us. We were amazed to see how positive the response was after the event. I am talking from experience, because I was part of the Harmony of Disaster concert, on the edge of the concrete dam, which became a makeshift amphitheater. People told us that they felt the special atmosphere, that they were transported as if through a portal. Of course, very few people have ever heard such music being played in a unique space, Vacaresti Nature Park.




    At the end, Diana Miron told us about the future:


    “We want to carry forward this collaboration, turn it into something much bigger. Laurentiu Cotac and I had this idea of putting together the first contemporary music orchestra in Romania, like many other countries have. We feel we need this, we need alternative culture, and creativity supported by the authorities and culture programs, in order to contribute to the development of life quality in a metropolis such as Bucharest, in order to open our minds and perspectives.”

  • Art and technology merging in a very interesting project

    Art and technology merging in a very interesting project


    The Open Practice Society is
    a project run by the Qolony Association – The Colony for Art and Sciences.
    Qolony is financed by Bucharest Municipality, through ARCUB. The Open Practice
    Society supports the infrastructure and the development of the Malmaison
    Workshops. Also, the project facilitates the access of the public to the
    initiatives of this community of active support for the young artists. 177-year
    old Malmaison building, initially an army barracks, has a highly relevant
    historical significance. In time,
    Malmaison was an Officers Army School and a military tribunal. Also, it was a
    prison during the Antonescu regime, as well as an investigation and detention
    centre in the early days of the communist regime. The Malmaison Workshops seek
    to put the building back on track, making it a landmark of the city’s living
    circuit. The project inaugurates a new stage in the long history of the
    building.


    As present, the Malmaison
    Workshops in Bucharest are an artistic community and a space jointly shared by
    artists, workshops, projection areas and galleries. Open Practice Society equally
    targets the artistic community, the new, up-and-coming generation of artists
    and the lay public in Bucharest. Through the talks given by prominent cultural
    personalities, artists of an international standing, a curator and a gallery
    owner, One Practice Society is set to provide an alternative to the mainstream
    educational curricula, offering pupils and students aged 16 to 20 the
    opportunity to work with internationally -acclaimed artists. With details on
    that, here is a member of the Qolony Association and a broadcast journalist
    with Radio Romania’s Culture Channel, Mihaela Ghiță.


    We have
    dispatched the information which is helpful for the youngsters, we have
    dispatched it in high schools, the Nicolae Tonitza Fine Arts High School,
    the Fine Arts University in Bucharest, the Saint Sava National College, the Octav
    Onicescu National College, and when the project was launched, a teacher
    attended the event, based with the Saint Sava National College. We seek to make
    our project known in all categories of milieus which include pupils and
    students who may want to develop artistic projects. We lay emphasis on that
    kind of practice, on the alternative practice which is not taught in schools,
    but which is part of the experience of the artists who got involved in that. What
    we’re doing right now is some sort of groundbreaking operation, that is we try
    to make room for ourselves in that particular filed of education with a new
    style, with a new system, which is off the beaten track, less conservative,
    which implies learning by doing, that is learning and doing, letting imagination
    and creativity work at full scale. We shouldn’t forget that today’s art is
    assisted by technology and by alternative issues which are close to science
    rather than artistic mastery. That is why there is a need for this visual
    education, for his artistic education of the youngsters, given that art will
    have a different form, a different manner of expression. It is normal for it to
    change, the world, as we speak, is a different one as compared to what it was
    100 years ago, it is different even as compared to what it was 50 years ago, it
    even is different from what it used to be 2 years ago. And such changes are
    increasingly generated by our interaction with the online environment.


    The Open Practice Society includes
    mentoring and practical work sessions carried with 9 youngsters, shortlisted
    following the call for registration. They are divided in three teams made of
    three members each. Each group is coordinated by one of the artists, and,
    enjoying the support of the curator and of the gallery owner, work on the premises at the
    Malmaison Workshops to develop artistic work, aimed at enhancing their
    practical abilities.


    Mihaela Ghita:


    There are
    three mentor artists, Sabina Suru, working with holography, Floriama Cândea, a
    bio artist and one of the artists involved in the Fusion Air project and Larisa
    Crunțeanu, specializing in sound and working on the borderline between video
    and performance. So we offer a wide enough range for the youngsters who want to
    learn and try their hand in the artistic field. Earlier, I mentioned Sabina
    Suru, who is interested in alternative photography and I should like to say that
    she had a very complex exhibition this summer, and exhibition of dance and
    holography. As for Floriama Cândea, she is a bio-artist working in living
    matter. In Fusion Air, an artists’ residences project we ran this year, Floriama
    Cândea tried some experiments with the researchers based with the a National
    Institute of Materials Physics. There are quite a few projects artists have
    been trying to promote. Contemporary art, science-assisted art rather targets
    the mind and poses problems, triggers emotions and doesn’t leave you
    indifferent. Such a work of art that does not necessarily have the painting
    mastery of an artist is truly capable of raising ethical concerns.


    Qolony is a non-profit
    organization generating connections between art, science and technology. Qolony
    acts like a bridge between professionals in those fields. Set up in 2019,
    Qolony is based on the conviction of its founders, Mihaela Ghiță, Sabina Suru and
    Floriama Cîndea, whereby the trans-disciplinary practices are the cornerstone
    of the development of innovative ideas. Qolony supports and stages such events
    as exhibitions, conferences, production projects, discussions between artists
    and scientists, as well as artists’ residences, structured around scientific
    research and artistic creation.

    (Translation by Eugen Nasta)




  • “Us against Us”, winner of best film award at Astra Film Festival’s Romania section

    “Us against Us”, winner of best film award at Astra Film Festival’s Romania section

    Us against Us directed by Andra Tarara won the best film award in
    the Romania section of the 28th edition of Astra Film Festival, held
    at the beginning of September. The jury praised the film for its touching and
    honest exploration of the relationship between the director and her father and
    the authentic dialogue about the illness that affected both of their lives. The
    jury also noted the collaboration between two film makers belonging to
    different generations and how they both found a common language through cinema.




    The film, which is Andra Tarara’s debut feature film,
    is made up of a series of dialogues about the relationship between father and daughter,
    both of whom share the same mental health problem, as well as passion for
    cinema. Their dialogue touches on subjects such as the inability to
    communicate, education, personal development and mental health. The protagonists
    tell their own stories, in fact their views on the same events, both through words
    and with the help of the camera.




    Us against Us was first screened last year at the International Documentary
    Film Festival in Jihlava, in the Czech Republic, and was also shown in
    Bucharest last autumn at a local retrospective of the 2020 Cannes Film Festival.
    This summer, it was shown at various other festivals, including the Moldova
    Film Festival and the DOKer Moscow International Documentary Film Festival,
    Ciao Cinema! Festival in Timișoara and the Romanian section of the Transylvania
    Film Festival in Cluj Napoca.




    The idea for the film was born while Andra Tarara was doing
    research for a previous production called Death in My Family, and during
    which she found a number of video tapes containing footage shot by her dad, Ion
    Tarara. She explains:




    That’s how I came across this idea, by rummaging through
    the family archive. Finding these VHS tapes, I realised that what my dad did
    was to create a record of our family life. There’s a lot of footage of me and
    the main topic that transpires from these tapes is our relationship. I thought
    it would be interesting to explore this further and how expressing himself
    through cinema is important for my dad and how I inherited this passion from
    him. The film began as an exercise in connecting with each other and exploring
    our relationship through film. The story is getting more complex because dad used
    to be very passionate about cinema and had the opportunity to work in cinema
    but was unfortunately unable to continue working because he lacked the
    resources and his parents didn’t agree with it. I, on the other hand, had total
    support, as a form of compensation perhaps, on the part of my dad for his inability
    to pursue his own passion. So, the stories that went into this film already
    existed in my family and dad was willing to talk about them.




    In her documentary Us against Us, Andra Tarara
    says she also wanted to give a voice to people with mental health issues who
    are stigmatised by society because of that and to discuss an illness that is not
    very often spoken about. Andra Tarara:




    The illness is very present in the film because of my
    dad. He really wanted to tell his story and, in a way, for him this film is about
    making his story heard so as to help others who are going through the same
    thing. The film was born in the end out of this negotiation, I had my agenda,
    my intention to make a certain kind of film, and he wanted to tell his story. I
    told him how I saw the film, but he prepared well before the shooting started,
    made plans, thought about what he was going to say. So, although I was the
    author, I sometimes felt that things were getting out of my control and that at
    times my reactions in the film were a bit aggressive. This is how Us against
    Us was born, out of the tension between these two perspectives, mine and
    his, between these two agendas, and the way in which each of us experienced, individually
    and together, the same situation and how we summed it up into words. My dad
    speaks a lot about the stigma he felt, how people stigmatise those who are sick
    and because they don’t know other people in that situation.




    By telling an intimate story, the documentary Us
    against Us     in fact starts a much-needed conversation about mental health,
    about problems we often don’t recognise or identify on time, about how we can
    relate with our loved ones who are diagnosed with mental health issues and
    about the existence or lack of support networks. We would like to help those
    who see the film approach such subjects easier, both through the personal
    experience of Andra and her father and with the support of a team of psychologists
    and psychiatrists who joined us in the distribution stage of the film, said producer
    Anda Ionescu from Tangaj Production.

  • “Otto the Barbarian”, the best Romanian feature film in TIFF, now in theaters

    “Otto the Barbarian”, the best Romanian feature film in TIFF, now in theaters


    Otto the Barbarian, filmmaker Ruxandra Ghitescu’s
    debut feature film, is in theaters across Romania as of September 24. Otto the
    Barbarian saw its world premiere in the official competition as part of the
    Sarajevo International Film Festival’s 26th edition, and it was
    selected as the best feature film in the TIFF Transylvania International Film Festival’s
    section Romanian Film Days.


    The plot revolves around a 17-year-old punk teenager
    who grapples with the death of his girlfriend. The boy ends up captive in a
    vicious circle created by his parents, his grandfather, his former lover’s
    mother and the investigation carried out by the social services. In order to survive,
    Otto will have to confront his feelings and his guilt.


    According to the film critic Victor Morozov, Otto is
    the most engaging Romanian film character in recent years, all the more so as
    he is guided by Ruxandra Ghitescu’s lenient gaze, which is everything a film character
    may wish for, when in a tight corner. As for Ruxandra Ghitescu, she hopes for Otto
    the Barbarian to be a film that will reward us all emotionally.


    The film started off from an article she came across a
    couple of years ago and which focused on Octavian Albu, the film’s musical
    director and the author of the original movie soundtrack, jointly with Cardinal
    rock group. With details on that, here is Ruxandra Ghitescu herself.


    Ruxandra Ghitescu: Yes, well, I was trying to find a
    contact point with adolescence, and I came across an article about Octavian Albu,
    who had been nicknamed Otto the Barbarian and to me, this encounter seemed a
    very fortunate one. As the frontman of a punk-rock group, with the entire
    outward architecture of punk culture, it seemed to me that Octavian embodied
    the marginality of an age that is pretty much ignored in social interaction, in
    film and also in literature. Octavian Albu was, from the very beginning, the
    adviser for the soundtrack, he joined our team as a musical director, he and
    Cardinal group wrote most of the soundtrack, and together we picked up the
    songs on the soundtrack that belonged to other punk groups. I can say that, of
    the article that inspired the plot, only the name, the hairstyle and the jacket
    survived. It is a fictionalisation with no connection whatsoever with Octavian’s
    life. In fact, we two met a couple of years after I had found the article, when
    Otto was 23 already and a student in London, and he gave me the go-ahead to use
    the article as a source of inspiration. I got the impression he was very happy
    that we managed to make this film, he is a positive person and helped me a lot,
    including with on the screenplay.


    Ruxandra Ghiţescu set out to make a movie about adolescence
    as an age of emotional turmoil and loneliness, an age when music plays an
    essential part. At the same time, Otto the Barbarian speaks to teenagers and
    parents alike, it is an invitation to dialogue about depression and its consequences.




    Ruxandra Ghițescu: From the very beginning our goal was to make a film that relies
    on emotion rather than on intelligence, especially because it focuses on this
    age when emotion trumps reason. Otto is a very critical character, he is an
    introvert, he speaks very little, so his interactions with the others are a
    result of his emotions and feelings. We brought out the character’s entire
    emotional journey in his various relationships-with his parents, with his
    girlfriend’s mother, with the videos left behind by his girlfriend, and above
    all with music. I’m very happy to have caught a period when Otto the
    Barbarian is screened in theatres and has contact with the audience, it is
    only now that I really feel I have made a movie. The entire year 2020, with the
    restrictions entailed by the pandemic, with the film-going experience abandoned
    so easily, was very painful for me, and I imagine it was the same for others as
    well. so I enjoyed the experience of these festivals, the contact with the
    public and the experience of watching a film on screen in a cinema hall.



    Ruxandra Ghițescu paints a loving portrait, not
    without its surprises and some spectacular acting, writes critic Georgiana
    Mușat about the film produced by Alien Film jointly with Polar Bear and Alien
    Films Entertainment.The cast
    includes Marc Titieni, Adrian Titieni, Ioana Bugarin, Ioana Flora, Mihaela
    Sîrbu, Iulian Postelnicu, Ana Radu, and the late Constantin Drăgănescu. Ana
    Drăghici was the director of photography and Dana Bunescu was in charge with
    the editing.

  • Horezu Ceramics – UNESCO intangible heritage

    Horezu Ceramics – UNESCO intangible heritage

    Horezu, in Vâlcea County (in southern Romania) is the place where the pottery tradition has been passed down from generation to generation for hundreds of years, pottery being a craft raised to the rank of traditional art. As you drive down the winding roads on the hills that go up from Horezu, you enter Olari Street-a Street full of the houses-workshops of the potters in the area. On both sides of the road visitors are welcomed by house porches crammed with ceramic objects, decorated fences, windows and doors adorned with hanging plates, jugs and cups placed on top of fences – all of them emanating color, joy and centuries-old Romanian tradition. We stopped at the workshop of the master potter Mihai Bâscu, to discuss about this special type of ceramics and about how it is made.



    Mihai Bâscu: “When you say Horezu, you actually mean the only locality in Romania with two UNESCO brands – Hurez ceramics and Hurezi Monastery. Hurez ceramics is famous around the world, and its fame is also due to its being included on the UNESCO intangible heritage list, because we have a unique way of decorating ceramics and equally unique decorating tools. The decorating tools we use are the cow horn, the goose and jay feather. As everyone knows, the general symbol of the region is the “Rooster of Hurez”, and we also have some secondary symbols, so to say, such as the “Tree of Life”, the fish, the snake, the sun, the “Spiral of Life”, plus the traditional motifs of the spider or spiral, the ear of wheat, the peacocks tail, the flower, the trefoil, and the vortex. Our decorations are a combination of traditional motifs, of motifs and symbols, or just of symbols.”



    The Horezu ceramic objects are quite varied, ranging from small to big-size objects. Mihai Bâscu has described their range: “The Hurez ceramics includes objects and especially plates starting from the size of 8 centimeters up to 40 centimeters. In this regard, I can assume the merit of making a ‘revolution’ in the years 2000, which made a difference from the ceramics of my father’s generation, the so-called ‘golden generation’, as I made the biggest Horezu objects, plates and even large soup bowls. In addition, Horezu ceramics also includes cups, brandy cups and “square” plates. We have diversified the range, making magnets and even clay sinks.”



    Potter Mihai Bâscu told us how he learned this craft and talked about the secrets of this traditional profession: “This craft is passed down from father to son. I learned it as a child, I also learned the old technology, as I used to help my father, by preparing the clay. At the time, since there were no electric engines, I would prepare the paints by stirring with my hand. The clay we use is from our area, from Dealul Ulmului — Ulmului Hill, where I usually go in autumn to take clay for a whole year. I take a bulldozer to dig 2 meters until I find the good clay, and then, helped by some of the villagers, I pick the best clay and clean it. I bring it home clean, there are also very large lumps. I bring it in a clean trailer. I store it at home and leave it outside all winter — because the freeze-thaw cycle crumbles the clay. I mix the clay twice in the mixer, then I knead it in my hands until it becomes very good for shaping. The paints we use are all natural, from earths I prepare myself. White, orange and black are natural types of earth, and for the green and blue earths I make several combinations. I combine copper oxide and kaolin (white earth) to obtain green, and cobalt and white earth to obtain blue earth. After that, there follow the phases of the work proper: modeling clay, in the sense of shaping the clay into whatever form I want, a plate, a bowl or a cup. The second phase is decoration — which is the most spectacular and important phase in our technology. The object is decorated in a fresh form, as we call it, fresh but hardened, because, the paints being made of earth, the new decoration merges into the clay object. Then, because our objects, 70-80%, are hanged on walls, I scrape them on the back, make a hole for hanging and, what is very important, I stamp them with my name. Then I put them to dry. When they are perfectly dry, they enter the first firing in the oven, which lasts about 8 hours, at a temperature that reaches 850 degrees. The next day I take them out of the oven, apply enamel on them and give them a second firing at 1,020 degrees. This is how a final object is obtained.”



    In the end of our discussion, the master potter Mihai Bâscu wanted to add something which he learned from his father and which refers to the ruler of Wallachia Constantin Brâncoveanu (1654-1714), who was canonized as a holy martyr. Brâncoveanu was the founder of many churches and monasteries, a leader under whose rule the Romanian arts and culture knew an extraordinary development:




    Mihai Bâscu: “What I didn’t tell you, something very important — is something that I know from my father: pottery in our region has been a craft since the time of the ruler Constantin Brâncoveanu. His second passion after the church was pottery, we even have a decoration style called Brancoveanu decoration style.” (LS)

  • Up-and-coming Romanian-born filmmakers scooping awards in Cannes

    Up-and-coming Romanian-born filmmakers scooping awards in Cannes


    La
    civil, the film directed by Teodora Ana Mihai, scooped the Prix de l’Audace (Prize
    for courage) award as part of the Un Certain Regard section at the Cannes Film
    Festival, held over July 5 and 17, 2021. This year, the festival’s Un certain
    Regard section returned to its original mission and format, that of presenting
    the young and the research cinematography. Or at least that is what the general
    delegate of the festival, Thierry Frémaux, said, when he announced the section.
    La Civil will be distributed by Voodoo Films in Romania. Its premiere is scheduled
    sometime this fall, as part of the 12th edition of Les Films de
    Cannes à Bucarest Festival, to be held over October 22 and 31st. La
    Civil is a Belgium-Mexico-Romania production, involving Menuetto Film in
    Belgium and enjoying the support of Eurimages. La Civil has been highly recommended
    by several well-established filmmakers, such as The Dardenne Brothers known for
    their film production company Films du Fleuve in Belgium or Michel Franco of
    Mexico, the director of The Theorem. The director of photography is Marius
    Panduru, known among other things, for Policeman, Adjective, Closer to the
    Moon, Aferim! and If I Want to Whistle, I Whistle .


    La
    civil is Teodora Ana Mihai’s first feature film. Teodora was born in
    Bucharest, in 1981. In 1989 Teodora Ana Mihai relocated to Belgium, together
    with her parents. When she was in high school in San Francisco, California
    Teodora discovered her passion for cinematography. She pursued a study
    programme with the Film Academy in New York. She began working as a screenplay
    writer in Belgium, then she was assistant director. La Civil tells the story
    of Cielo, a Mexican mother who is searching for her daughter who was kidnaped
    by the members of a drug cartel. The authorities fail to help her so Cielo
    decides to go on her own completely. Gradually, Cielo turns from a house wife
    into a vengeful activist. La Civil is based on true facts. The film is the outcome
    of many years of research Teodora Ana Mihai did jointly with Mexican writer Habacuc
    Antonio de Rosario. Initially, when she began her research, Teodora Ana Mihai had
    set for herself the task of making a documentary.


    Teodora Ana Mihai:

    I have been familiar with Mexico ever since I was a child, and the Mexico
    I used to know back then was completely different from today’s country. You
    were quite safe as you were driving your car, you could go places you were safe
    as a tourist as well. Since 2006, when president Felipe Calderón declared war on
    drugs, more than 60.000 people went missing, and that political decision had
    and still has a strong impact. As I’ve said before, there were a couple of
    regions left where you could go as a tourist, there were places where you got
    greater safety, but mainly in the northern regions, close to the US border, you
    could be in trouble. And as we speak, such a situation is spread rather widely
    across several Mexican states. That is exactly why we picked such a topic,
    because there is an impending need for a debate on the present situation in
    Mexico. It is in no way okay to get out of your house in the morning, going to
    work or to school, and go missing, with nobody knowing what happened. I
    wondered what it was like to be an adolescent against such a backdrop, what it
    was like to be a parent, what it means to live in an insecure society.
    Initially, in 2015, when, jointly with Habacuc Antonio de Rosario, I began my
    documentation, the idea was for us to speak with as many families as possible,
    of the victims of drug cartels. It took us two and a half years to speak with
    very many people tackling that scourge, in the event of making a documentary.
    We eventually gave up on that idea, as our documentary would have presented
    illegal circumstances, sensitive statements, and we did not want to jeopardize
    anybody.


    Teodora
    Ana Mihai and Habacuc Antonio de Rosario gave up on the idea of making a
    documentary film altogether. Instead, they decided to tell the story of Miriam
    Rodríguez Martínez, a woman who was shot dead right in front of her house after
    she found her daughter’s kidnappers and murderers.

    Teodora Ana Mihai:


    During
    the investigation, I met Miriam Rodríguez Martínez, about whom much has been
    written as of late, there even was an article in the New York Times, about her activity,
    but that occurred four years after she died, unfortunately. We had the chance
    to meet her and talk to her, that is how the film’s main character was born,
    Cielo, the mother of the girl who was seized and murdered by a drug cartel. After
    several failed attempts to find help from the authorities, she tried to do
    things all by herself, she went on her own completely. As I was saying, we did
    lots of interviews, and my idea, initially, was to write the story from a
    teenager boy or a teenager girl’s point of view, but I met Miriam Rodríguez
    Martínez, who had found out we were doing our investigation in the region, on
    the issue, and told us what happened to her.
    Her story prompted me to make my decision, the view point in our film
    will be a mother’s viewpoint. The film, in fact, is also a tribute we paid to
    her and to all the families who told us what happened to them. Unfortunately,
    we heard lots of strong and tragical stories about that.


    The
    Flanders Audiovisual Fund was the main financier of La Civil. The production
    also enjoyed the joint support of Belgium’s Cinematography and Audiovisual
    Centre, Romania’s national Cinematography Centre and Eurimages, European
    Cinema Support Fund. The filming took place over November and December 2020 in Durango,
    Mexico, at the time of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic was ongoing.


    (Translation by Eugen Nasta)

  • Behind the scenes at Romania’s National Museum of History

    Behind the scenes at Romania’s National Museum of History


    Fragment. The Experience of restoration.
    It is the title of an exhibition hosted by Romania’s National Museum of History,
    located in the Old City Centre. The exhibition is on until mid-June. Visitors
    can have the chance to know the museum’s restoration laboratories, whether we speak
    about painting, metal or wood, or whether it’s about ceramic, paper or textile
    materials/fabric. It is an incursion in history but also a behind-the-scenes glimpse
    of the exhibits, there where the items are stored, maintained and restored by
    dedicated and passionate people. We were lucky enough to speak to restorer Sorina
    Gheorghiță, a collaborator of Romania’s National Museum of History’s painting restoration
    laboratory. Here she is, giving us details on the work behind the exhibited
    paintings but mainly about a restorer’s work as such:

    Sorina Gheorghita:


    Since
    2013, when the easel painting restoration lab was accredited as part of Romania’s
    National Museum of History, around 25 paintings have been restored. Many of the
    paintings are authored by renowned Romanian painters such as Luchian, Tonitza,
    Ressu, Stoica, Teodorescu-Sion. The Paintings depict major historical events,
    war scenes, mainly, focusing on the War of Independence or World War One. A major
    work which has been restored is a painting by Aman, titled The Proclamation of the
    Union, it is the Union of the Principalities, the depicted scene is a very familiar
    one, it is a scene that usually goes with the event.


    But what are the restoration stages for
    a painting? How does the whole process unfold?

    Sorina Gheorghita:


    Speaking about the
    steps to be taken for the restoration of a painting, the very moment the
    decision has been taken for that particular painting to be restored, it had
    been examined already by the preservation person responsible for the painting warehouse,
    jointly with the restorer, in some cases, and a common decision has been taken,
    to that end. The very moment the
    painting is taken to the restoration lab, the painting undergoes a research process for which using various means and operations are being used, direct light, lateral light, ultra-violet light, we sometimes
    have no choice other than using infrared light or X-rays.
    We resort to analyses, the laboratory of Romanian National Museum of History’s
    is extremely well-provided, giving us a hand whenever needed…Then, as soon as
    all those investigations have been made and the structure of the painting layer
    has been accurately detected, the level of degradation and the cause of the degradation
    are also specified. Then the proceedings are set, for a detailed research proposal,
    whereby all the required operations are presented for the painting to be
    restored, that particular research and the ensuing intervention proposals are
    presented before a sitting restoration panel which gives its go-ahead for the operation.
    The restoration process comes to a close, that’s for sure, while the
    freshly-restored work is again presented before a panel, whose job is to check
    if all the steps had been taken, that were put forward for the restoration work,
    also checking the respective work’s post-restoration condition, then the work
    returns to the storage room or is being displayed as part of an exhibition, like
    the one we’re having right now. The most rewarding surprises emerge, in fact, while
    we’re doing the cleaning, which is a spectacular operation, whether we remove
    the varnish alone and the surface layers. A great many details resurface, which had not been visible before, or the colors, which turn out to be a lot livelier.
    Also, if, in time, the painting was covered in certain re-painting layers, we
    can have the surprise of coming across some details that had become absolutely
    invisible, otherwise, or even signatures.


    As part of the « Fragment »
    exhibition, an important section is spectacularly represented, the metal
    restoration laboratory. Moreover, as an absolute first for the lay public,
    bronze and iron items are shown, in an exquisite display, items that are part
    of the archaeological site that was discovered in 2012 in Tartaria, lying in the
    central Romanian county of Alba.

    Archaeologist Corina Bors:


    The archaeological site in
    Tartaria, the Western Tartaria Bridge was unearthed in the spring of 2012. The
    discovery occurred as part of a series of large-scale or pre-emptive archaeological
    research, carried on the occasion of the construction of a highway along the
    Mures River valley. The two deposits, with bronze and iron objects, were
    discovered in an extremely special archaeological context, namely the western boundary
    ditch of the Hallstattian habitat, the objects were stored in two pots made of
    clay, with archaeologists taking samples of all that. The first deposit, labeled Tartaria 1, has, judging
    by what we have been able to find so far, and you will see why, more than 400
    items made of bronze and iron, dating, broadly speaking, from the 19th
    and the 18th centuries BC. The second one counts 50 objects, also dated
    for the same timeframe.


    But which of the items that have been discovered
    are the most precious, archeologically and historically?

    Corina Bors:


    The items of
    exception that were found in all those prehistorical votive deposits, among
    them, there is a chest lace piece, a lavish harness kit made of a tongue bit with
    a mouthpiece, but also several phalera, the golds medals offered to the Romanian
    soldiers as a prize and worn around the neck, as well as other everyday items,
    made of bronze. In the Fragment exhibition which is still open at the Romania’s
    National Museum of History, you can admire, separately, the seven-part necklace,
    but also, in a one-of-a kind display, the harness kit placed on a real-scale
    horse bust, as well as a series of adornment objects, day-to-day objects,
    belonging to a male set, also displayed on a man’s bust. And, last but not the
    least, a necklace made of bronze beads is also displayed, again, a piece which
    is extremely rare for the so-called middle Hallstatt age from the area of the Danube
    River basin. The discovery was made by archeologists and all the fragments kept
    in those deposits could be sampled, with utmost care, so organic materials were
    also sampled, which made it possible for the findings to be accurately dated.