Category: World of Culture

The 21st edition of the festival bearing the name of Romania’s greatest composer, unfolded between September 1st and 28th and offered 150 music, opera and ballet shows in Bucharest and other cultural centers across Romania. RRI’s contest has aroused the interest of many listeners and we have received 493 complete and correct answers. The prizes and honorable mentions consist of objects related to Enescu, to Romanian symphonic music and to general cultural topics. RRI’s contest was sponsored by Oltenia Energy Complex and supported by the “George Enescu” National Museum (including the Sections in Sinaia and Tescani), “Monitorul Oficial” (the Official Gazette), “Casa Radio” Publishers, the European Commission representative office in Romania, and the “Euro Foto Art” Association of Oradea.

You could find the answers to the contest questions in RRI’s shows, on RRI’s website and on our Facebook and Twitter profiles. The contest came to an end on September 30th. Before announcing the winners we remind you the questions:

When was George Enescu born? Correct answer: August 19th 1881. Which edition of the festival is being held in 2013? The correct answer: the 21st edition. Name three compositions by Enescu. You could have chosen from: the opera Oedipe, the 3 finished symphonies, the “Romanian Poem”, “The Romanian Rhapsody no. 1”, “The Romanian Rhapsody no. 2”, the 3 orchestral suites, numerous sonatas for piano, violin, and cello, the 3 suites for piano, several quartets for piano and strings, music for chamber orchestras, lieder and so on. Who is Ioan Hollander? Correct answer: the artistic director of the Festival. And it’s also worth mentioning that Ioan Holender was also the director of the Opera in Vienna.

Now time to announce the winners. We have 30 honorable mentions some of which will go to the following listeners of the English Section: Paritosh Chattopadhyay, Reema Goyal, Muhammad Shamim S., all three from India, Martin Rogan and Grant Skinner, both from Great Britain, Martin Gallas of the USA, Obaid Chowdhry, from Pakistan, Takao Ono of Japonia, Sunil Dhungana from Nepal, Mozahidul Islam and Robina Aktar Golapy, both from Bangladesh, and Robert C. Ackx and Maria Ackx-Blom from the Netherlands.

There are 20 3rd prizes for the listeners of RRI’s programs and also Internet users, 9 of which went to the following listeners of the English language programs: John Selesky and Tim Watson, both from the USA, Marek Pis from Poland, Shantish Nayel, Sreerekha Reddy and Venkata Rao, all 3 from India, James O’Brien of Great Britain, Catherine Agboola from Nigeria, Syed Ali Akbar from Pakistan.

We also have 30 2nd prizes and the following English Section listeners were the lucky winners of some of them: Solomon Mesgun from Eritrea, Bob Wood and Timothy Johnson both from the USA, Christer Brunstrom of Sweden, Koichi Saito from Japan, Richard Cooke, Mark Stevens and Alastair Pamphilon all 3 from Great Britain, Ian Morrison from China, Henk Poortvliet from the Netherlands, Nasir Aziz from Pakistan, Debaki Ranjan Biswas, Najimuddin and Muralidhar M., all 3 from India, and Allan Fenix of the Philippines.

The 20 1st Prizes will go to the following listeners of the English language programs: Keith Simmonds, Brian Kendall and Howard Barnett, all 3 from Great Britain, Weldon Walles, Donald Davis, Alex Klauber and Dean Nonanno, all 4 from the USA.

We also have 3 special prizes up for grabs, which will go to the following RRI listeners and Internet users: Thein Soe from Malaysia, Jayanta Chakrabarty from India, and Bezazel Ferhat, from Algeria who wrote to the French Section.

Here is what Thein Soe wrote: “There is a famous anecdote about Enesco. One day in the 1920s, Enesco was touting one of his students to his friend the famous pianist Alfred Cortot. Enesco begged Cortot to come to the students recital to hear this student. Enesco (who was also an excellent pianist) said he would be accompanying. When the time for the recital came, Cortot indeed did attend, but the page turner didnt show up, so Enesco asked Cortot if he would turn pages. The person playing the piano should have been playing the violin. The person turning the pages should have been playing the piano. One presumes the person playing the violin could have turned pages’. I must confess that despite over 55 years of playing music and being a symphonic performer, I cannot name any other Romanian composer other than Enescu. Bartok wrote some music which was based of Romanian themes (notably the six Romanian Dances, often heard in its violin transcription), but he, of course was Hungarian. There are quite a number of Romanian performers, most famously Angela Gheorghiu nowadays, but also Pianist Radu Lupu, violinist Ion Voicu, but Enescu is the most famous Romanian composer”.

Jayanta Chakrabarty from India wrote the following, we quote: “The main motivating factor that prompted me to take part in this special contest is to know about the specific reasons as to why George Enescu is considered one of the most influential composers of the 20th century and what is so special about this greatly talented Romanian. I am glad to state that this Contest has enabled me to unearth hitherto unknown facts about the greatness of this uniquely talented pioneer in Romanian classical musical history who effectively blended the traditional elements of Romanian music to the noble influences of international music. This noble Romanian soul contributed immensely to the harmony and well being of his countrymen by spreading his music throughout Europe. He financially supported young struggling musicians, made donations for musicians scholarships and instituted national music awards for deserving candidates. Enescu was also a benevolent and exceptional teacher who wanted to share his musical experience with fellow musicians. Some of his contemporary famed students are Yehudi Mehuhin, Dinu Lipatti, Arthur Grumiaux, Christian Ferras and Ida Haendel, among others.”

The prizes will be sent by mail. Please confirm reception of the prize and its content by mail, fax or e-mail. Thank you once again for participating in RRI’s contest devoted to the “George Enescu 2013” Festival and we kindly invite you to participate in other contests RRI will organize in the future.

Ioana Parvulescu is among the 12 awardees of the European Unions Prize for Literature in 2013. The distinction is awarded in token of recognition for the best emerging authors from across Europe.

Announcing their names at the opening session of the Book Fair in Goteborg was the European commissioner for Education, Culture, Multilingualism and Youth Androulla Vassiliou. “The European Union Prize for Literature draws international attention to fantastic new or emerging authors, who might otherwise not gain the recognition they deserve outside their home country. As well as helping these writers to reach new audiences, our aim is to introduce readers to great new European literature and offer them more choice. “

Ioana Parvulescu is an Associate Professor with the University of Bucharests Faculty of Letters where she teaches modern Romanian literature. For 18 years Ioana Parvulescu was the editor of one of Romanias leading literary magazines, “Literary Romania. With the Humanitas Publishers she initiated and coordinated the world literature collection “The Book on the Bedside Table. She is the author of a string of essays that have been reprinted several times, among which, “A Return to the Inter-War Bucharest ( 2003), “In the Intimacy of the 19th Century ( 2005) “ The Book of Questions ( 2010).

Great 19th century Romanian classical playwright Caragiale is Ioana Parvulescus special area, so much so that she wrote two critical essays focusing on Caragiales work. “In Mitica s Country. 7 Times Caragiale, published in 2008, and “The World as a Newspaper. Caragiale the Fourth Estate, published in 2011.

Ioana Parvulescu: “There were two happy coincidences. One of them was that I wrote the novel in 2009, the year when this prize was created. Of course, I knew nothing about the prize, and yet, since I believe in some sort of universal harmony whereby good things eventually come to us all, I think the fact that I wrote the novel that particular year did mean something. The second happy coincidence was that Romania was guest of honour at Goteborg Book Fair, so that it focused on the literature of our country, which had a pavilion right near the entrance which was visible all-round, a privileged position, that is. And then, out of the 12 winners of the prize I was the only one invited to attend the announcing session, since the awarding ceremony is scheduled on November 26, right in Brussels.

Ioana Parvulescu is the happy recipient of the European Unions Prize for Literature for her novel “Life Begins on Friday, a book she published in 2009 and whose Swedish version was brought out in 2011 by the Bonnierforlagen Publishers, with the support of the Romanian Cultural Institute. The novel was out from the Humanitas publishers in Bucharest. It marks Ioana Parvulescus debut as a fiction writer. The book starts off from the fascination Ioana developed for the flavour of Bucharest, as it was in the early 20th century, a kind of flavour she also captured in a collection of essays, “In the intimacy of the 19th century.

As she completed that book, Ioana Parvulescu said: “I would have very much liked to write a book about a time travel of one of our contemporaries who from the 21st century goes back into the second half of the 19th century. This essay, a halfway house between a work of fiction and historical evidence, is closer to the form of the novel,

Ioana Parvulescu: “I made my debut as a novelist when I was 49. And you need a lot of nerve to do that. In the long run, I believe were not totally capable to make things work for us, theres something beyond that drives us along one course or another, and I may not have had another choice, I wouldve written a novel anyway. Writing a novel is an extraordinary adventure because it comes out under the public eye. Its not that simple to create a world, running the risk of ruining everything. The very idea of writing calls for a lot of courage. Actually I kept on searching definitions of creativity and the best I could find belonged to Paul Johnson, an essay writer whom I hold in high esteem. He was the one who said that it was a matter of courage. Indeed, people who lack courage are not creative.

Another risk Ioana Parvulescu took is that she rehabilitated the good, which is something novelists avoid. And chances are that might actually account for the success Ioana Parvulescus books have enjoyed with her readership.

“Its so very hard to do that and this is precisely why I do it. Its much easier, more so today than before, to shock everyone, to attract by placing the evil in the foreground. The good has become almost forbidden in literature. “Good forbidden, thats what is written on the best novels. My novels are meant for a multi-layered reading. At one level the reading should run very easily, because mine are action novels. There are other layers as well, for the more astute readers, and I am glad those layers are also visible. On the other hand, were I to choose between Alexandre Dumas and James Joyce, I‘d rather be Dumas. And thats because a quality action novel reaches more readers, and in a way I find it more pleasant.

Ioana Parvulescus latest release is “Life Begins on Friday, a novel the Humanitas Publishers in Bucharest brought out in 2012.

Today we’ll be talking about the premiere of the choreographic theatre performance “Mozart Steps,” a production of the Radu Stanca Theater in Sibiu, which marked the opening of the season and the 225th anniversary of the theatre in Sibiu. Here is how the former prima ballerina of the Bucharest National Opera House, Simona Somacescu, described her emotions right after the show:

“I am so happy! Gigi Caciuleanu gives so much joy, he’s got such a tremendous capacity to give like no one else I had worked with. And the show is absolutely fantastic! “Mozart Steps” is very rich, it has more than one layer of reading. Gigi Caciuleanu’s works have a very subtle quality. I don’t know how he does it, but he manages to reach the innermost parts of our being. Even those who are used to watching such performances cannot avoid a shock, be it emotional, aesthetic, you name it. I have always thought that if a creator feels the need to explain himself, that means that somehow his work is not complete. With Gigi Caciuleanu and this show, I needed no explanation. Everything is so exquisitely built, and all with such profundity and with so many nuances!”

Gigi Caciuleanu created “Mozart Steps” starting off from the music on volumes one and two of the album “Mozart in Egypt,” compiled by musician Hughes de Courson and the Egyptian professor Ahmed Al Maghreby. The two created a fusion between Mozart’s works and the sounds, rhythms and instruments that are typical for present-day Egyptian music. The work of the two artists has been rated as a true musical phenomenon. Wit details on that, here is Gigi Caciueanu himself:

“This is Mozart seen through the “eyes” or rather “heard” through the ears of Oriental music. And you will be surprised to find out that sometimes that kind of music coming from Egypt sounds very much like our music from Maramures, from Transylvania — the alpenhorn, the flute music. That’s what struck me when I listened to that album. It is a rather special Mozart. Apart from a musical genius, for me Mozart is one of the first Europeans. He wrote in German as well as in Italian. He is a Shakespeare of music, so to speak, who took us from one country to the other. I‘ve got his music in my mind as well as in my body and I had been waiting for that for quite some time. And now I was given the opportunity to work with it in Sibiu, this time with actors. There are no dancers.”

Indeed, the cast of “Mozart Steps” features actors from the Romanian and German sections of the “Radu Stanca” Theatre, as well as theatre students at the “Lucian Blaga” Drama University in Sibiu. Gigi Caciuleanu told us more about how they worked together:

“They are all natural-born dancers. I discovered they have a great deal of talent. The show is a difficult test for them, because they had a hard time working with limited dancing areas and using the most of their energy. But don’t think this is a “hopping” show, as I like to call it. It’s a show in which dance holds pride of place, with heavy focus on body movement and team play. That’s why it’s called choreographic theatre, because the stage directing is laid out as choreography. I didn’t want them to hide behind dancers’ masks or dress as ballet dancers. On the contrary, I wanted them to look like ‘normal’ people, just like the men and women sitting in the audience and watching the show. I’m always very keen on this aspect”.

The audience attending the premiere of the show appreciated the remarkable performance of dance-actors, as Gigi Caciuleanu usually calls them. Choreographer Simona Somacescu, former prima ballerina of the National Opera in Bucharest:

“Had I been taken blindfolded into the performance hall, without being told where I was and what I was watching, I would have never had them for actors. People would just say, well, yes, he managed to make some actors move. But it’s more than just that. You also need a sort of musical instinct, you can’t just make an actor move his legs and hands. You need to have an understanding of what movement is, a sort of motion insight and musical intuition, which tell you how to filter movement through the body. And this is an innate feature”.

One of the dance-actors that put on an impressive performance was actress Diana Fufezan, who told us more about her first time working with Gigi Caciuleanu:

“When I found out I had been selected for the project, I was over the moon, because during the casting I felt I knew what he wanted from us, from the way he spoke to us. What was the biggest challenge? Well, there were many, because dancing is like tightrope walking, as Gigi Caciuleanu always tells us. It was difficult to be strong and expressive at the same time. There were times when I felt I was just about to collapse, but I shook it off and went on. One night I stayed up late, practicing the duo with Florin. It was just the three of us — me, Florin and Gigi, and we danced for 3 hours straight. He worked us on the verge of exhaustion since true dancing, he argued, needed to push oneself to the limit. That’s when I felt truly liberated. From that time on I’ve always known I am capable of anything”.

For those of you wondering why the show is called “Mozart Steps”, Gigi Caciuleanu provides the answer: “The step is the element of space dynamics which we all share. It is the first link in any dance and any simple walk”.

The choreographic show “Mozart Steps” is to be presented in the official programme of the International Theatre Festival in Sibiu in 2014.

“Gherasim Luca was the man who relentlessly pushed language toward its limits, which he transmuted from a mere instrument of representation into an extreme style of intensities. Luca knew how to stammer not just words, but language itself.” This is how the celebrated French philosopher Gilles Deleuze described the Romanian-Jewish avant-garde writer Gherasim Luca in his book “Two Regimes of Madness”. According to literary critic Petre Raileanu, it was the monthly magazine “Dilemateca” that revealed a piece of information which, in his opinion, “completes the corpus of Romanian surrealism with one of its essential texts.” It was the discovery of the Romanian manuscript of “The Passive Vampire”, initially thought to have been written directly in French, that Petre Raileanu referred to. The manuscript written in Romanian is important in order to better understand Gherasim Luca’s work.

Gherasim Luca is in fact the pen name of Salman Locker, who also wrote under the names Zolman Locker, Costea Sar and Petru Malcoci. The avant-garde writer was born in Bucharest, into the family of a Jewish tailor, Berl Locker, who died in 1914. Luca spoke Yiddish, Romanian, German and French. Starting 1938 he travelled frequently to Paris, where he was introduced to Surrealist circles. WWII and the emergence of anti-Semitism in Romania forced him into local exile. From 1945 until 1947 he founded a surrealist artists group, together with Gellu Naum, Paul Paun, Virgil Theodorescu and Dolfi Trost. They soon started to publish their works, including poems in French and invented “cubomania”, a method of making collages in which a picture or image is cut into squares and the squares are then reassembled without regard for the image.

Together with Dolfi Trost, he authored the famous manifest “The Dialectic of Dialectic”. Harassed in Romania and caught while trying to flee the country, the self-called “étran-juif”, that means “StranJew”, finally left Romania in 1952, and moved to Paris, via Israel. Gherasim Luca was a Surrealist theorist and a Romanian-Jewish poet, frequently cited in the works of Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari. He joined the avant-garde movement at a young age, being a prominent member of the surrealist group in Alge (1930,1933). In the second surrealist wave, he joined a group made up of Gellu Naum, Victor Brauner and Jack Herold.

Professor Ion Pop from Cluj-Napoca, who has studied Gherasim Luca’s work, has told us more about the writer:

Ion Pop: “It’s true that in the last years of his life Gherasim Luca made a sensation with several public readings. He was a gifted reciter. I’ve heard several recordings of him and I noticed his Romanian accent was unaltered. He continued to publish many books, one more inventive than the other, counting on a sort of a game of words, as the playful side of the language he used is more than obvious. He is now one of the important names of French poetry. Gherasim Luca led a very interesting life and kept in touch with a few friends from Romania. Given his connection with Romania he lived rather isolated, was marginalized and his recognition came a lot later than he would have deserved.”

To mark his birthday centennial, the Romanian Peasant Museum in Bucharest has devoted an entire evening to Gherasim Luca’s poetry, which enjoyed the participation of poet Valery Oisteanu, who settled in the US.

In 1988, Gherasim Luca was nominated for the prestigious Neustadt International Prize for Literature, alongside René Char, Milan Kundera, and Léopold Senghor, but Gherasim Luca withdrew himself from competition when learning he was among the top three candidates. His brief response to the jurors was: “I don’t accept literary prizes.” The same year, the TV-portrait by Raoul Sanglas, “Comment sen sortir sans sortir”, made him famous for a larger readership.

In 1994, on February 9, at the age of 80, he committed suicide by jumping into the Seine. He had spent forty years in France, without papers, and could not cope.

Early this year, playwright Szekely Csaba of Targu Mures was granted the Imison Award for best debut script, by the British Writers Society. Competing alongside two Brits, Szekely Csaba is the first non-Brit to be nominated for the award. The award winning radio play script “Do You Like Bananas, Comrades?” had already won in 2009 the prize for best European play granted by the BBC, and as such it was broadcast on the British radio. Szekely Csaba had only written short prose before his first play. His success encouraged him to write yet another play, this time for the stage. “‘Mine Flowers” won in 2011 the first prize at the National Theater Festival in Pecs, called the Vilmos award for best script. The play became the first of a trilogy, followed by “Mine Pitch Dark” and “Mine Water”. The first two plays were staged in Romania and in Hungary, and won awards in both countries. The third part of the trilogy, “Mine Water”, won a playwriting contest at the Orkeny Istvan Theater of Budapest, where it will be staged this year.

Many prizes for just a few years for a young playwright. Here is his take on it:

“It is true that I got too many prizes in the last two years. When I meet an acquaintance I haven’t seen in a while, they always ask me what other award I got. It’s not that usual around these parts. These awards give me confidence. I was feeling insecure when I started writing for the BBC contest, and I am still insecure every time I sit down to write something. I still don’t know if I am talented enough or if I am able to write a good play. And when I get an award, that gives me strength and tells me I should go on, write the next play.”

The plot of the three plays in the trilogy occurs in the same Transylvanian mining village, the language is appropriate, but the characters and issues they face are different. Here is the author telling us about it:

“I am most interested in the way in which people act in various situations, what it means to be human, what it means to be a good human being. These things can be best captured when you talk about social issues. There have always been social issues, but now there are more specific issues, at least here, in the Hungarian villages of Transylvania. The plays have been staged in Hungary, and I realized, by their reactions, that these are not just issues relating strictly to Transylvania, they are issues that the Hungarian audience from Hungary can relate to. The second part of the trilogy deals with corruption and nationalism, and the audience so far has been very receptive, both Hungarian and Romanian. ‘Mine Flowers’ deals with joblessness, alcoholism, high suicide rate, the latter being specifically Transylvanian. But the other problems are universal — when we are left without a job and we choose alcohol we’re desperate, there’s nothing we can do and we don’t want to do anything either. The third play, ‘Mine Water’, is about religion. The plot is centered on the priest’s house. We know the village pries and schoolteacher, therefore in fact this is about the spiritual education and intellectual education in Transylvania, and the failure of education. It is also about pedophilia in the church, and lots of other uncomfortable things for many.”

Szekely Csaba’s style is to grapple with human issues in a social context, which has brought him a lot of success. His point of reference is Chekhov, as he himself admits:

“I had a lot to learn from Chekhov, especially his playwriting, as structure, and as psychology also, from the way in which he comprehends the Russian heart, love, or melancholy…I like his phrasing a lot. He formulates things intensely and simply, as if he was talking about the weather, and yet he says everything about the soul. I tried to achieve something similar with my techniques. I am not a pessimist, I am rather an optimist, but skepticism characterizes me in many things. I am more optimistic than my plays, and I believe my optimism comes through in the humor in these plays. I think I should be more tragic, and more pessimistic when I write, because otherwise people drift off, they aren’t touched. For me it is very important for the audience to be touched by what they see on stage.”

Right now, Szekely Csaba is working on a play for actors from Figura Studio, Gheorgheni, staged by director Alexandru Dabija. The same director will be staging the play which was written by the author especially for actors Marcel Iures and Nicu Mihoc, a show designed for travel. Szekely Csaba is preparing to go into film as well. He is writing a film version of his play “Mine Flowers”. Of course, he also entered a contest in Hungary with a history play about Michael the Brave, a major historic figure who briefly ruled the three Romanian principalities: Wallachia, Moldavia and Transylvania.

We talked to Constantin Chiriac, the director of the Festival and of the Radu Stanca Theatre in Sibiu, about how the festival has grown over the years.

Constantin Chiriac: “It’s been 20 years since we started with 3 participating countries and 8 shows. And here we are at the 20th edition, with 350 events, 66 different locations, 70 participating countries and around 60,000 spectators every day. These figures make the Sibiu International Theatre Festival the third-largest such event in Europe, after Edinburgh and Avignon, which is a great honour for us.”

This year’s anniversary edition has also brought to the public a joint production forming part of a European project called Cities on Stage, which will be presented in 2014 in the official programme of the Avignon Festival and will be staged at the National Theatre in Brussels. The performance is entitled “Solidarity” and was created by Gianina Carbunariu, with a cast made up of actors from the Radu Stanca Theatre.

A highly appreciated young playwright and director, Gianina Carbunariu is also a founding member of the dramAcum group, a platform aimed at developing and promoting Romanian theatre. The main theme of the project “Cities on Stage” is life in urban communities in today’s large cities. Gianina Carbunariu explains:

Gianina Carbunariu: “I usually conduct interviews and research before beginning to work on a play. This time, the research was not that extensive, because the themes were already there, in my mind. The topics I have chosen are topics that are already discussed in the public arena. I was very interested in how political rhetoric has been focusing, ever more radically over the past few years, on blaming those who are not efficient, who are not competitive enough. We’ve been hearing a lot lately the idea that those who don’t work, don’t deserve to eat. But what about those who do work, but don’t make enough to eat? This question is rarely asked. I think that, in these times of crisis, we are looking for scapegoats. And what’s more disquieting is that we seem to embrace this rhetoric and start looking for scapegoats all around us. I find that quite dangerous, and there is a connection between this and urban living. And that’s not just Romania’s problem, it happens all over Europe now.”

Another special performance in Sibiu was “The Life of the Insects — A Psychedelic Musical Mystery” by Karel and Josef Capek, which was staged by Victor Ioan Frunza at the Nicolae Balcescu Cultural Centre for UNESCO. “The Life of the Insects” is a contemporary fable about man’s initiation into death, a story of frailty and survival, told by five young actors. Director Victor Ioan Frunza:

Victor Ioan Frunza: “This is a text that I have long been interested in. I was particularly attracted by the fact that this fable-like form of text comprises a lot of realities. Directors rarely approach the medieval mystery genre, but when it happens you realise how important it is to have some form of didacticism in theatre. And the reaction of the public confirmed that a certain note of naiveté that the text carries has reached the audience and helped them understand things that, if told directly, would seem very brutal. This reduction to insects helps us better understand the problems we have and the dark prospects awaiting us. Like all performances, it doesn’t offer solutions, but rather some strong ellipsis marks, and I believe that’s important.”

One of the noteworthy guests of the 20th Sibiu International Theatre Festival was the Sasha Waltz & Guests Company, which, like the festival, also celebrates the 20th anniversary of its founding. The company has this year been chosen as a cultural ambassador of the European Union. They presented to the public in Sibiu a performance called “Continuum.”

Constantin Chiriac: “The 20th Sibiu International Theatre Festival was an edition that proved that Sibiu is a dialogue, a city that has the strength to proudly show its beauty and capacity to organise a festival comparable to the largest ones in the world. And at the same time a city that is able to carry on its projects. The most important thing is that this edition eloquently builds what tomorrow will bring, proving that nothing is taken out of context and that there is a continuity of success, of its capacity to stay there, at the top. And the most important demonstration of all is, I believe, the fact that we can deliver such achievement in this particular art form, which is so difficult and so dangerous.”

As director Constantin Chiriac put it, the motto of the festival was “today we build our tomorrow.”

We talked to Constantin Chiriac, the director of the Festival and of the Radu Stanca Theatre in Sibiu, about how the festival has grown over the years.

Constantin Chiriac: “It’s been 20 years since we started with 3 participating countries and 8 shows. And here we are at the 20th edition, with 350 events, 66 different locations, 70 participating countries and around 60,000 spectators every day. These figures make the Sibiu International Theatre Festival the third-largest such event in Europe, after Edinburgh and Avignon, which is a great honour for us.”

This year’s anniversary edition has also brought to the public a joint production forming part of a European project called Cities on Stage, which will be presented in 2014 in the official programme of the Avignon Festival and will be staged at the National Theatre in Brussels. The performance is entitled “Solidarity” and was created by Gianina Carbunariu, with a cast made up of actors from the Radu Stanca Theatre.

A highly appreciated young playwright and director, Gianina Carbunariu is also a founding member of the dramAcum group, a platform aimed at developing and promoting Romanian theatre. The main theme of the project “Cities on Stage” is life in urban communities in today’s large cities. Gianina Carbunariu explains:

Gianina Carbunariu: “I usually conduct interviews and research before beginning to work on a play. This time, the research was not that extensive, because the themes were already there, in my mind. The topics I have chosen are topics that are already discussed in the public arena. I was very interested in how political rhetoric has been focusing, ever more radically over the past few years, on blaming those who are not efficient, who are not competitive enough. We’ve been hearing a lot lately the idea that those who don’t work, don’t deserve to eat. But what about those who do work, but don’t make enough to eat? This question is rarely asked. I think that, in these times of crisis, we are looking for scapegoats. And what’s more disquieting is that we seem to embrace this rhetoric and start looking for scapegoats all around us. I find that quite dangerous, and there is a connection between this and urban living. And that’s not just Romania’s problem, it happens all over Europe now.”

Another special performance in Sibiu was “The Life of the Insects — A Psychedelic Musical Mystery” by Karel and Josef Capek, which was staged by Victor Ioan Frunza at the Nicolae Balcescu Cultural Centre for UNESCO. “The Life of the Insects” is a contemporary fable about man’s initiation into death, a story of frailty and survival, told by five young actors. Director Victor Ioan Frunza:

Victor Ioan Frunza: “This is a text that I have long been interested in. I was particularly attracted by the fact that this fable-like form of text comprises a lot of realities. Directors rarely approach the medieval mystery genre, but when it happens you realise how important it is to have some form of didacticism in theatre. And the reaction of the public confirmed that a certain note of naiveté that the text carries has reached the audience and helped them understand things that, if told directly, would seem very brutal. This reduction to insects helps us better understand the problems we have and the dark prospects awaiting us. Like all performances, it doesn’t offer solutions, but rather some strong ellipsis marks, and I believe that’s important.”

One of the noteworthy guests of the 20th Sibiu International Theatre Festival was the Sasha Waltz & Guests Company, which, like the festival, also celebrates the 20th anniversary of its founding. The company has this year been chosen as a cultural ambassador of the European Union. They presented to the public in Sibiu a performance called “Continuum.”

Constantin Chiriac: “The 20th Sibiu International Theatre Festival was an edition that proved that Sibiu is a dialogue, a city that has the strength to proudly show its beauty and capacity to organise a festival comparable to the largest ones in the world. And at the same time a city that is able to carry on its projects. The most important thing is that this edition eloquently builds what tomorrow will bring, proving that nothing is taken out of context and that there is a continuity of success, of its capacity to stay there, at the top. And the most important demonstration of all is, I believe, the fact that we can deliver such achievement in this particular art form, which is so difficult and so dangerous.”

As director Constantin Chiriac put it, the motto of the festival was “today we build our tomorrow.”

The Bookfest International Book Show was held in Bucharest in early June. More than 90 thousand people visited the Show, which was hosted by the Romexpo exhibition compound located in Northern Bucharest. At the eighth edition of the Show, the publishing houses taking part in the event had on offer around one million volumes and the 200 exhibitors included some of Romania’s leading publishers and book distributors. Nora Iuga, Neagu Djuvara, Lucian Boia, Radu Beligan and Emil Hurezeanu are some of the major authors who saw their new volumes launched at Bookfest 2013, alongside 24 other authors and book professionals who were introduced by Bookfest’s guest of honor, the “ trio” made up of Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

Bogdan Suceava’s “ Memoirs of an Ideal Library” was brought out by the Polirom Publishers in Bucharest. The essays highlight ideas of long gone scientists like Huygens, Newton, Meusnier, Euler, Sophie Germain, also introducing people who had an impact on Bogdan Suceava’s subsequent intellectual progress. Rounding off the picture are icons of mathematics at the University of Bucharest, such as Gheorghe Titeica, Dan Barbilian, Nicolae Teodorescu. “ Above all, I saw myself as a problem solver. Back then it was all clear to me that the most salient expression of intelligence should be the identification of a specific solution, an optimal one, be it literature or mathematics”, Bogdan Suceava wrote in “ Memoirs of an Ideal Library”. We asked the author who currently is a professor at the California State University what he thought a specific solution would be, as far as literature was concerned.

Bogdan Suceava: “ If we talk about writing a novel, the literary solution as such starts off with the narrator’s voice, with the selection of the moment when the story ends, the selection of a carefully thought-out ending. Also, you need to think of the characters at stage and at the climax of the story. All of those mean a literary solution, and it is not that simple to work with a lot of characters, yet this time I had the opportunity to give an account, in my book, of how the things we get to learn in mathematics end up helping us in other areas of cultural life as well, in literature, in particular. These memoirs are not a volume of recollections as such.”

“If the dream of purebred mathematicians is to demonstrate theorems that should bear their name, my dream was to be able to understand up to their ultimate consequences not only certain mathematical ideas but also where those ideas stem from, their historical affiliation, their progress in time, “ Bogdan Suceava also writes.

“Nora Iuga wrote her volume in Vienna in spring last year. Only initiates can grasp its meaning, only those who love and admire her, only authentic readers of poetry. This is the Cartea Romaneasca Publishers’ blurb for “The Wet Dog is a Willow Tree”. Speaking now about the poems in the volume is critic and poet Radu Vancu.

Radu Vancu: “For me it is a great joy to be able to speak about Nora Iuga and about that book. Nora Iuga is a model for me in many respects and what makes me happy is her extraordinary vitality, all the more so since it runs counter to the statistics whereby the Romanian writer seems to be rather inconsistent, rather short-lived, deprived of vitality. Among the most vital persons in Romanian literature today are women writers such as Nora Iuga, Angela Marinescu, Ileana Malancioiu. Now, returning to Nora Iuga, she seems to be working wonders, so to speak. To me it seems extraordinary to have a book or two published each year, poetry, prose, diary, all written with the same audacity and acumen, with the author always trying to reinvent herself. Who reinvents herself or himself at the age of eighty? Well, Nora Iuga performs a real tour de force.”

The art album dedicated to “Corneliu Baba” was authored by art critic Pavel Susara. It was brought out by the Official Gazette Independent Company’s Publishing House. Presenting it at Bookfest was art critic Tudor Octavian. Fine artist Corneliu Baba known particularly for his portraits, is considered “a painter of man.” His portraits have prompted critics to liken Baba to Francisco Goya. The Timisoara Art Museum’s Baba Collection includes 90 items among which several paintings brought from Bucharest City History and Art Museum and the National Art Museum. Speaking now is art critic Pavel Susara.

Pavel Susara:“In this book I did not try to capture or pedagogically set forth what interested me most, but to come up with three perspectives on an artist’s work. First off, there is a contextual overview, since painter Corneliu Baba is not alone in the world of fine arts. Then I sought to trace in his work all the great experiences of a century. And finally I made an attempt to reach the gray areas, the place where a special kind of reading is needed, the insightful kind, a kind of galvanizing reading, at once providing coherence and credibility to the world Corneliu Baba created.”

“Three Countries, the Same Language” is a project that brought together at Bookfest more than 20 German-speaking guests: publishers, writers, authors of books for children and young people, book illustrators, philosophers, marketing and communication experts, translators, as well as two hip-hop poets. More details on that- from Oana Boca, PR Officer for Headsome Communication, a partner in the project “ Three Countries, the Same Language”.

Oana Boca:“I believe it came out fine and when I say that I’ m thinking of the reactions we’ve got from those who visited us. I‘ve heard that from lots of visitors, saying that for the first time ever that they managed to grasp an impression of the guest countries, and that was visible in town and at our stand as well. But apart from those opinions, sale figures are relevant too. I have just checked with Polirom Publishers, where Catalin Dorian Florescu’s “Jacob Decides to Die” is in the runner-up position in the sale chart. Likewise, with the Curtea Veche Publishers, Uwe Tellkamp’s novel saw record sale figures. At the same time, at Humanitas Publishers’ Humanitas Fiction Collection Jan Koneffke’s book is 2nd placed in the overall sale chart.”

“An event which was on the up-and-up”, “a fantastic experience” those were the organizers’ conclusions, at the end of the couple of dozens of events held as part of the project which ran under the heading ”Three Countries, the Same language: Germany, Austria and Switzerland — guests of honor at Bookfest 2013.”

The end of May was a special time for people in Timisoara, who enjoyed a special theatre event. The Csiky Gergely Hungarian State Theatre organized a new edition of the Euro-regional Theatre Festival called TESZT, also celebrating 60 years of existence for the institution.

Since its first edition in 2007, the festival has represented the multicultural character of the so-called DKMT Euroregion, demarcated by the Danube, Kriss, Mures and Tisa rivers, strengthening the ties between theatres within the region. This makes this festival unique, as Attila Balazs, director of the festival, told us:

“Every year, we identify trends, and this defines the main axis of the festival, adding on top other shows and auxiliary programs. This year, we had the show ‘Times of Peace’, staged by Hajdu Szabolcs, widely known in Romania as a film director. He directed Biblioteque Pascal, for instance, featuring Razvan Vasilescu and Oana Pellea, which was Hungary’s proposal for the Oscars for Best Foreign Film. In the show staged at our theatre, the director is also the scriptwriter, and acts on stage as well. It was our intention to bring in such shows, and we brought in a show from Novi Sad, staged by Kokan Mladenovich, where you can clearly see that the director re-wrote the second act of the Marriage of Figaro. Chekhov’s The Seagull generated a 6-hour show in which the theme is developed in several directions.”

In fact, these were some of the shows the most highly appreciated by the public this year. Here is theatre critic Katalin Kolo:

“I loved the show staged by the Serb National Theatre of Novi Sad, ‘The Seagull’. It was a very good experience for me, in professional terms. Although it was 8 hours long, with three 30-minute breaks, it was a theatre workshop absolutely worth attending. I also enjoyed the show of the Hungarian Theatre from Novi Sad, called ‘Opera Ultima’. This is a satire, blending Mozart’s opera ‘The Marriage of Figaro’ and the prose of Beaumarchais. The play staged by the Hungarian Theatre in Timisoara, ‘Gardenia’, was also very well done, and I simply loved the acting of the leading actresses.”

“Gardenia” is the story of a Polish family made up of four women from four successive generations, portrayed on stage in Timisoara by Andrea Tokai, Emilia Borbely, Rita Lorincz and Monika Tar. Andrea Tokai had a very complex role to play, that of a daughter, lover, wife, mother, grandmother and great grandmother:

“When I first read the text I thought it was phenomenal and I fell in love with it and with the character I had to portray. Of course, they’re not heroes, they’re not necessarily positive characters. They have to face all kind of problems such as poverty, alcoholism and the destiny of an abandoned woman, of a deceived woman. But it has depth, it is complex and describes a life that is not easy to summarize. It’s different…The fact that it was written by a very young author might explain it.”

Another show with a theme similar to that of the TESZT festival is “The City of Demons — Pass-port Subotica” directed by Urban Andras on the stage of the “Kosztolanyi Dezso Theatre in Subotica. The play is part of a trilogy about cohabitation in a multicultural area and about accepting each other.

The theatres that take part in the Timisoara Euro-regional Theatre Festival every year have in time formed a community. The festival’s director, Attila Balazs:

“What interests us is the direction our theatre is taking and the partners we have along the way. We want to strengthen ties with other theatres and communicate in a more direct manner. It’s no longer something unusual for an actor from Timisoara to perform on the stage of another theatre or for foreign actors to perform here. Directors are also invited to direct plays in theatres in various cities. So these things are already happening. A good plan would be for several theatre companies to get involved in the staging of the same play. I think it would be great for theatres in Timisoara, Subotica, Novi Sad and Szeged to stage together, under the guidance of a renowned director, a grandiose show. It’s important for it to be an artistic act, based on an idea formulated together. When we gather together we start making plans for the future, many of which eventually turn into reality.”

Ilinca Stihi: “We are a bunch of lunatics in love with sound. We don’t just come over to the radio to record a play, we come to tell a tale of sounds, since sound technology has grown into offering so many new and astoundingly powerful formulas to keep the audience on their toes.”

That is how Ilinca Stihi, the youngest director of the National Radio Drama Department’s team of directors, describes the people she is working with.

On February 18th, 1929, the Romanian Radio Broadcasting Corporation aired the first Romanian radio drama production. The play was “What the Village Knew” by V.Al. Jean. Performing were actors from the Bucharest National Theater, Maria Filotti and Romald Bulfinski. Vasile Manta is the oldest member of Radio Romania’s Drama Department team. He recalls radio drama’s early days:

Vasile Manta: “Back then all broadcast was live. There was no such thing as sound support. The sound support proper was used only after 1950, as the magnetic tape was invented. We started storing the sound in 1952, and since then we have preserved almost all titles we recorded in our tape library. There are over 12 thousand titles of plays, there are absolutely all authors the world may have heard of.”

In the IT age, every now and then radio drama producers reenact the experience of live broadcasts. Attila Vizauer, the head of the Radio Drama Department has more:

Attila Vizauer: “There were times when radio drama was broadcast live with the audience taking part in the transmission. Actors would turn up on stage at Radio Romania ‘s Big Hall, there were also sound specialists, technical staff. The audiences were in the hall and witnessed how a radio drama was being made. On the National Radio Drama’s 84th anniversary we intend to reenact such a show, also in Radio Romania’s Big Hall, with the audience taking part in the show, in a attempt to provide a version of the drama that in 1929 was the first to have been produced by the National Radio Drama Department, “What the Village Knew” by V. Al. Jean.

Eighty-four years on, the National Radio Drama Department, which is part of the public radio, is still a prestigious institution. Speaking again is Attila Vizauer.

“We were born at about the same time as the great European countries– that is around the third decade of the 20th century the first radio dramas were broadcast, so we can say we stand on a par with radio avant-garde. Today, we need to bear that in mind and aim to keep up with those who have been producing top-quality radio drama.”

In spite of some people’s skepticism regarding its future, not only is radio drama alive and kicking, but it also continues to reap prizes in international competitions. Here is Attila Vizauer with more on the latest results obtained by the National Radio Drama.

“I am proud to say that in the past three years, these events have happened quite often, becoming almost a routine. We have reaped awards in Hvar, the festival in Croatia, in Bratislava, in the Prix Italia Festival or the New York Festival. We also took part in the Berlin Festival, but we didn’t get any award there. However we’ve got awards in all the other festivals we have attended. Once we even got the Grand Prize with a production, which pushed us right to the top. Experts from all over the world have appreciated the new and spectacular kind of pieces we put on. I can safely say that the new generation of radio drama directors has won international acclaim for the National Radio Drama.”

This new generation includes Ilinca Stihi, who has made a name for herself with two plays of her own, ‘Maldoror’ and ‘Argentina’. The latter was awarded the Gold Winner in the ‘Special Drama’ section of the New York Festivals Radio Program and Promotion Awards. It also reaped the Grand Prize in Premios Ondas, Barcelona, Prix Marulic at the International Festival of Radio Drama, Fiction and Documentary in Hvar, Croatia also getting a nomination for Prix Italia, in Turin.

Ilinca Stihi: “Argentina was indeed a phenomenon. This production reflected my love for radio, because the main character dies at the microphone during a live transmission. I was inspired by the story I had heard from the jury president during the festival in Croatia, in which we participated with ‘Maldoror’. The story was about Fernando Pena, a famous radio DJ in Argentina, who died of AIDS during a live transmission, while he was trying to impersonate a dying character. Nobody realized that he had died for real and people continued to phone in to talk with him. I was so impressed by the story that I wanted to write about it.”

What is interesting is that Ilinca Stihi is actually a film director. Why did she go in for radio drama?

Ilinca Stihi: “In radio drama I discovered an imaginary space that gives me more freedom of manouvring than the film could have ever offered me. In this very intimate space, in which we work in small teams, we get to know each other very well and that allows for more freedom and originality than in other areas where big teams work and there are big budgets involved.”

As chief editor and director Attila Vizauer has underlined, a night radio drama is listened to by hundreds of thousands of people, whereas in order to get such an audience, a stage production has to be performed hundreds of times. And whenever a radio drama reaches its hundredth anniversary, this is regarded as a special event, but an event like this is quite common for a radio drama. So we are not wrong to say that the National Radio Drama, which has defined itself as a self-sufficient form of art, is the theatre with the largest audience.

Handing in the prize was Her Royal Highness Princess Margriet of the Netherlands. Giving the opening speech was Her Royal Highness princess Laurentien of the Netherlands, while Princess Astrid of Belgium attended the event. “This year’s winners have compelled us to take a critical look at our past as well as at the future. So, they have prompted and challenged us to draw out a new set of parameters, a new mental map of a more open Europe, at once more democratic and more comprehensive”, said Her Royal Highness Princess Laurentien in the opening speech.

With details on the award, here is Dan Perjiovschi: “It is a European recognition of an activity we have been conducting at home in Romania. Apart from the sheer individual value of each of us, mine and Lia’s, the prize rewards our joint work, which is not only about art as such, but also about how to communicate art. My wife Lia has created a debate platform under the heading Contemporary Art Archives. And the motivation for the prize makes mention of that aspect as well, reminding everyone of the social impact and of the way our art and activity can influence the way the world and Europe are perceived. Our choice to stay in Romania is another key aspect. In other words, we scooped a prize awarded by the Dutch because we stayed in Romania, and it was a decision we took at a time when most leading artists relocated to the great European capitals.”

Through his art, Dan Perjovschi describes himself as having a marginal status. However, he thinks that his and Lia Perjovschi’s position have statement value. Specifically, that means being careful about where you display your work, what the overall cultural background is, and last but not least, Dan Perjiovschi jokingly said, for whom you design T-shirts, free of charge. For instance, it has been ten years now since the National Contemporary Art Museum was founded on the premises of the former People’s House, a building erected at the initiative of Romania’s former communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, and which at present is home to the Palace of Parliament. Dan And Lia Perjovschi have since turned down any cooperation offer with that institution. Speaking about his drawings, Dan Perjovschi thought that at the beginning they were more poetic, more elaborate, more refined. Romania’s present-day history, with its miner riots, with Ion Iliescu’s term in office as the country’s president, with the war in Iraq, changed those drawings, made them simpler.

Speaking again is Dan Perjovschi: “The artistic language that I use is a marginal one, it is some kind of drawing which looks like a caricature, whereas in fact it isn’t. At any rate, when you place a caricature next to a painting, people will think only the painting is a form of art, since that’s how they had been taught to view it. But I say that is not true, anything can be a form of artistic communication and anything can convey an aesthetic or a political message. It all depends on how you phrase it. And my wife Lia does the same. She creates some sort of “temporary institutions” in the exhibition room. And those institutions are not necessarily artistic, quite a few of them have something to do with science, others with communication, these are very interesting demonstrations. I might even say we as artists are part of a group of artists who want to turn things upside down, to walk a path which is well off the beaten track, to transform the world of museums. We no longer want the museum to be that particular area we dress up for and where we step only on Sundays. On the contrary, we want the museum, that artistic province, to be something we visit every day, to be part and parcel of our lives.”

Dan Perjovschi drew in great museums around the world, covering large surface areas of walls with tales about the world we live in. Dan Perjovschi and the “22 Magazine” are tied by a friendship that has lasted for more than two decades now; the artist has been collaborating with the magazine ever since it has been founded. “Everything is a drawing and can be a drawing“, the artist said. Perjovschi managed to express himself in areas where the freedom of expression has been sanctioned. “Any culture can be stigmatized straight away. But I’m not interested in that. What I’m interested in is to be able to understand certain things. In the United Arab Emirates, where men can have four wives, I made a drawing where the white-dressed Arab said: “Give me five!”

Speaking again is Dan Perjovschi, this time about similar experiences: “I’ve been to Cuba, I’ve been to China, I even went as far as Moscow, where there are restrictions regarding the freedom of expression and where you are told bluntly you can criticize everything, except for the Orthodox Church. I’ve been to areas facing problems, but I made my drawings in such a way that I could create an area of reflection. As for my work for the “22” publication, I didn’t waste any time doing politics. For me “Magazine is more than a publication, it is more of a springboard. It was like a traveling exhibition that reached people’s homes. For me, the drawings there are like snapshots of everyday moments,, of some very intelligent texts written by intelligent people, that is why in time my drawings have become intelligent as well. And my drawings sum up some key ideas I borrowed from politics,. That ‘s what I usually do when I create a wall installation anywhere around the world”.

At the awarding ceremony for the Princess Margriet prize, in her Laudatio, Kristine Stiles, a professor with Duke University who has been working with the Perjovschis for the past two decades, said: “Enjoying international recognition for their originality, for their indomitable authenticity, dignity and integrity and for having completely dedicated their life to art and society, Lia and Dan Perjovschi have become the ideal ambassadors of European culture, citizens of the world who have changed the way in which art’s ultimate aim is perceived in society”.

Released in late April, the volume “A Whole World Made of Pieces. 1972-2012 Dance Reviews” by Liana Tugearu, in fact a collection of articles published mostly in the Romania Literara (Literary Romania) magazine, is the equivalent of a dictionary of choreographic art or of a history of dance. A former student of Elena Penescu Licu and Floria Capsali, after a few years of dancing on stage, Liana Tugearu kept on devoting her life to dance.

Liana Tugearu: “Dance has been a major part of my life, because my very existence has always been linked with the world of dance. I used to dance, my husband has danced or has done choreography and I’ve been always in touch with everything that has happened in the field, be it here in Romania or abroad.”

Liana Tugearu’s book was released on the opening of the new hall of the National Dance Centre in Bucharest, an institution that published the volume in cooperation with the Coresi Publishers. Here is choreographer Mihai Mihalcea, the director of the Centre:

Mihai Mihalcea: “We thought it was common-sense and a necessity. It was an emergency, so to say, because this volume speaks of 40 years of history. Mrs. Tugearu is that rare dance critic that, with patience and generosity, has accompanied all phenomena, all shows, all dance events, be they classic, contemporary, the work of young artists or well-established dancers and choreographers. It’s been an incredible companion along 40 years of Romanian dance.”

“A Whole World Made of Pieces. 1972-2012 Dance Reviews” has 900 pages. Here is dance critic Liana Tugearu speaking about this huge volume of reviews and images.

Liana Tugearu: “ I realized it makes up for the lack of a dance history of the past 40 years. It’s a sort of critical, live history recollecting each and every event. And I also realized it perfectly matches my other book “Experimentalism in the Romanian choreographic art in the 1960s-1990s” and that dance has always been in a crisis area. Proof of that is that we did not have a stage or a rehearsal room for two and a half years and it’s only today that we’ve managed to inaugurate this oasis. Romanian dance has been faced with many difficulties for 40 years, also before 1989, when contemporary dance shows were hosted by museums, some theatre halls that were willing to host such shows and even by private homes. Anyway, rehearsals were always held in private spaces. So, there is continuity between the difficulties of the Romanian dance before and after 1989. However, we hope we’ve put an end to that with the opening of these new premises.”

We asked Liana Tugearu how the book begins and how it ends:

Liana Tugearu: “The first review dates from 1972 and the last from 2012 and both of them are dedicated to two outstanding figures of Romanian culture. The former is about a performance inspired by the work of the sculptor Constantin Brancusi designed by the choreographer Alexandru Schneider, while the latter is about a performance by Gigi Caciuleanu inspired by the playwright Ion Luca Caragiale.”

“A World Made of Pieces” also documents some of the work produced by Ioan Tugearu, Liana Tugearu’s husband and a well-known ballet dancer and choreographer. Here she is again:

Liana Tugearu: “I collected all the reviews that have been written about him. I archived them and added photographs to the texts. This was my starting point. My intention is to publish an entire volume dedicated to him alone, including reviews, his works, photographs of his own performances and performances for which he created the choreography.”

Liana Tugearu is the author of dance librettos for a number of performances staged in Romania, including the National Opera House in Bucharest, the Oleg Danovsky Ballet Theatre in Constanta and the Opera House in Iasi. She also curated the choreography section of a 1996 exhibition entitled “Experimentalism in the Romanian art in the 1960s-1990s” and in 2004 published the book “Experimentalism in Romanian choreographic art in the 1960s-1990s”. In 1995, she received a lifetime achievement award for her activity as a ballet critic from the Romanian Union of Performers, Choreographers and Music Critics.

Today we introduce to you one of the personalities that influenced the history of Romanians in the first half of the 20th Century: Queen Marie of Romania. V.F. Writer and analyst Stelian Tanase, president of the “Orient Expres” Foundation, makes a portrait of Queen Marie:

“She was coming from England, she was half British, half Russian, with such great forerunners as the Czar and Queen Victoria. And here she comes, in the middle of nowhere, so to say, in a world that was completely unknown to her and that she didn’t understand. But even so, from the very beginning we see the signs of what Queen Marie was to become.”

Marie Alexandra Victoria, chosen at the age of 17 to be the future Queen of Romania, was born on October 29th, 1875, in Eastwell Park, the daughter of Prince Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, and of Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia. Marie got married to Ferdinand of Hohenzollern, crown prince of Romania, on December 29th, 1892, and the two were crowned in 1914. Here is Dinu Zamfirescu, president of the Institute for the Investigation of the Crimes of Communism:

“This young woman who came to a country she knew nothing about, managed to earn everybody’s respect, thanks to her powerful personality. She played a great part in persuading her husband, King Ferdinand, to be on the side of the Allies in World War I, somehow against the wishes of the late King Carol I, who had made an alliance with the Central Powers.”

Queen Marie was dubbed “Mother of the Wounded” and “Mother of Soldiers” thanks to her active role during WWI, when she could be seen both on the front line and in hospitals, to ease the suffering of soldiers. Here is Dinu Zamfirescu again:

“We should also remember the important part she played in the Peace Conference in Versailles in 1919, and how she pleaded the cause of Romania in the USA, whose president, Woodrow Wilson, was not necessarily a friend of Romania.”

Talking about that period, historian Ion Bulei explains:

“Marie is the one who talked to Clemenceau, the one who represented France at the Peace Conference in Versailles. Clemenceau said: ‘I’ll take my hat off to the Romanian people, but not before the Romanian politicians,’ but Marie replied: ‘How little you know us, Mr. Clemenceau!’ Marie was also the one who arranged a meeting between the then Prime Minister of Romania, Ionel Bratianu, and Wilson, and in that meeting she was also their translator, because Wilson did not speak French and Bratianu could not say a word in English. At that time, in Paris, Marie played a key role for Romania.”

In addition, Queen Marie was involved in the cultural-artistic life of Romania. She was particularly attached to two places, on which she left her unique mark and of which she used to say, “Balcic and Bran are my dream homes, they are my heart.”

She is said to have discovered Balcic, a small town on the north-eastern Bulgarian border thanks to painter Alexandru Satmari (1872-1933) who convinced the queen to visit the place in 1924. One year later, she began the building of the property in Balcic. Historian Ion Bulei explains:

“Balcic is more than a residence built by Queen Marie. There’s also a church there, called Stella Maris, where her heart is buried. She also built a cactus garden there, which is still the biggest of its kind in Europe. She basically developed that town. She saw in it what the painters saw, a town where light can change every two hours, something they captured in their canvases.”

The town hall allotted land to the artists who used to come to Balcic every summer to paint, artists who started building houses there.

Queen Marie was a fascinating person, with her own individual lifestyle, as can be seen in Balcic. She collected and even created art works and would decorate the interiors and exteriors of her dwellings, being one of the promoters of the Art Nouveau style.

In 1933, when drafting her will, Queen Marie expressed her wish that, after her death, her heart be laid to rest in the small chapel, Stella Maris, that she had built on the Black Sea Coast, and her body be entombed in Curtea de Arges, next to her husband, Ferdinand, and the other members of the royal family. The chest carrying Queen Marie’s heart is now in the custody of the National History Museum, in Bucharest. Fully understanding her role and mission during those times, when she stood out as a Queen deeply involved in promoting Romania, Queen Marie wrote her memoirs between 1914 and 1936. Written in English, they were published between 1934 and 1936, under the title of “The Story of My Life”. The book was later translated into Romanian.

Queen Marie’s ardent wish to win the respect of her people emerges from the book. Marie wanted to be loved and she was loved indeed. Ion Bulei has further details:

“Marie’s words in her will: ’It is not for me to judge you, I’ve loved you’ disclose much of her feelings, of a caring person which made her become a Romanian by heart.”

Queen Marie’s biography also mentions a gesture rounding off her unique personality: on March 26th 1926, on Annunciation day, Queen Marie converted to Orthodoxy. Queen Marie did more for the Romanian people than hundreds of diplomats, ministers and presidents.

Following a nationwide competition aimed at selecting projects that would represent Romania at this year’s edition of the International Venice Biennial, the Romanian Ministry of Culture together with the Ministry for Foreign Affairs and the Romanian Cultural Institute have selected two projects: “An Immaterial Retrospective of the Venice Biennale”. which will be exhibited at Romania’s pavilion in Giradini della Biennale and “The Reflection Center for Suspended Histories: An Attempt” — at the New Gallery of the Institute for Culture and Humanistic Research in Venice. Vice commissioner Alexandru Damian gave us more details about the former of the two projects.

Alexandru Damian: “The first project was the initiative of Alexandra Pirici and Manuel Pelmush, with Raluca Voinea as curator. It is entitled “An Immaterial Retrospective of the Venice Biennale” and includes a performance-like research, which will be carried out all-throughout the Biennale. The project provides a fresh and dynamic perspective on the history of the Venice Biennale since its first edition in 1885 up until today. The curator and the authors have selected some 100 famous works that will be enacted every day by 10 performers in our pavilion. The performance is not an evanescent work of art, but merely immaterial, hence it can be documented”.

Anca Mihulet is the curator of “The Reflection Center for Suspended Histories: An Attempt”, a project hosted by the New Gallery of the Institute for Culture and Humanistic Research in Venice. The project brings together five fine artists from Romania and one from Poland.

Anca Mihulet: “The exhibition is accompanied by two book launches, one of which will be organized on the opening day. It comprises a guide for better understanding the exhibition and 6 interviews with the fine artists involved, so that visitors can quickly tap into the mood of the Reflection Center for Suspended Histories. The exhibition is constructed along the historical timeline of art, with an emphasis on the thirst for knowledge”.

Anca Mihulet tried to account for the very unusual name of the project.

Anca Mihulet: “As the name itself shows, the Reflection Center is an attempt to get people into the institutional mood that has been around in Venice ever since the 1930s. We very much relied on the history of the Institute of Culture and Humanistic Research in Venice, which is one of the oldest institutions of modern culture in Romania. From the very beginning it was designed as a shelter for Romanian thinkers in Venice. I somehow tried to bring this concept up to date and trace back a history which is not as much familiar, but which is highly relevant for a specific time and place”.

Besides the two projects representing Romania at the 55th edition of the International Venice Biennial, vice-commissioner Alexandru Damian also spoke about other artists whose works will be on display in Venice.

Alexandru Damian: “Taking part in the Biennale, whose curator this year is Massimiliano Gioni and Entitled Il Palazzo Enciclopedico — the Encyclopedic Palace, will also be Stefan Bertalan in the Main Pavilion and Geta Bratescu. Apart from this, Venice will also play host to an exhibition bringing together several Romanian artists, organized by the “Triade” Foundation and entitled If a Dandelion Could Speak, in which Stefan Bertalan is involved. Fine artist Bogdan Rata is involved in the collateral exhibition that will be part of the series of events at the Palazzo Bambo, which have been placed under the curatorship of Cosmin Nasui. This year we have many projects held in Venice, which are bound to enhance the visibility of Romanian art at this year’s Biennale”.

The Romanian public radio station was launched in 1928. It was also then that the Radio Symphony Orchestra was founded, at the initiative and under the supervision of composer Mihail Jora. According to Professor Grigore Constatinescu, since 1932, the Radio Orchestra has made a name for itself through public concerts given under the baton of notable Romanian conductors, such as Ionel Perlea, Alfred Alessandrescu, Constantin Silvestri, Iosif Conta, Horia Adreescu.

In its 85 years of existence, the National Radio Orchestra worked with other great conductors such as George Enescu, Sergiu Comissiona and Kurt Masur, and accompanied such classical music legends as Monserat Caballe, Placido Domingo, Luciano Pavarotti, or Romanian singers Ileana Cotrubas and Angela Gheorghiu. Pianist Eisabeth Leonskaja and violinists Yehudi Menuhin and David Oistrah were other great names the National Radio Orchestra had the privilege to work with.

Throughout these almost nine decades, the Radio Orchestra has gained popularity among classical music lovers, and prestige among professionals, thanks to a repertoire that includes a variety of musical genres.

Oltea Serban-Parau, artistic director of the Radio Orchestras and Choirs: “Since the early 1990s I have regularly attended the concerts of the Radio orchestras. I thought the Radio Concert Hall and the concerts it hosted to be a landmark just as important as those offered by the Romanian Athenaeum, and I appreciated all of them. Now things are a little more diversified, there are many venues for concerts, of various types, but back then we had fewer options.”

Indeed the range of options today is much wider and that’s why artists started to perform in non-conventional areas.

Oltea Serban-Parau, the artistic director of the Radio Orchestras and Choirs, and also the head of Radio Romania’s Culture Channel has further details:

“Competition is very important these days. You can’t just ignore the marketing aspect any more. I wouldn’t say it has become as important as the artistic performance itself, but it sometimes competes with the artistic side. At present, Radio Romania has a National Orchestra, a Chamber Orchestra, an Academic Choir, a Children’s Choir, a Folk Ensemble and the Jazz Big Band. Indeed, we have had many open-air concerts with the National Radio Orchestra, which is the most representative group of the public radio. This will also happen this year in September, in the George Enescu Festival Square. This idea has been around for some time, and in recent years we have tried to do the same thing with the Children’s Choir. We’ve had many concerts in Cismigiu Park. I would mention the open-air concerts of the National Radio Orchestra and Radio Choir featuring Andrea Bocelli. So our unconventional performances, outside the concert hall, held every Wednesday and Friday, are very important. Our soloists in 2013, Horia Mihail, Gabriel Croitoru and Razvan Suma, are people who responded positively to the initiative of going beyond the comfort of the concert hall and good acoustics and taking classical music throughout the country, thus promoting the image of public radio, and bringing music closer to those who are less familiar with this musical genre. This is extremely important, and I believe it is the mission of any public radio not to just broadcast music, but to bring music closer to people, to make music a part of their life and culture.”

The projects staged recently are extremely numerous. Here is Oltea Serban Parau, artistic director of Radio Orchestras and Choirs, with details about some of the projects she liked the most: “Besides the concerts we had with the Radio Orchestra, many of which were successful, sold-out concerts, the Children’s Choir gave a concert entitled ‘Walt Disney’s World’, which was a great success and will continue to be staged. We’ve had big vocal-symphonic concerts, such as “Carmina Burana”; the “Requiem” by Verdi, the “Collection Violins” festival at the Radio Concert Hall, which brought together violinists from Romania and abroad, who are playing on collection violins and of course the projects Radio Romania Culture channel runs nationwide, such as, “The Travelling Piano,” “George Enescu’s violin in villages,” “The Duel of Violins,” “The Golden Flute”…These are just four examples, and all these events are at their third edition, something we are very proud of!”

Voicu Popescu is the conductor of the Radio Children’s Choir, which reaped the first prize summa cum laude at the International Choirs Festival in Neerpelt, Belgium in 1996. The new conductor of the National Radio Orchestra is the young and charismatic Tiberiu Soare, who has already given two concerts abroad with this orchestra in the 2012-2013 season.

Oltea Serban Parau again: “I believe the international tours of the Radio Orchestra are very important. It is true that they are tough to go through, they involve additional costs and a certain type of international relations that cannot be handled overnight. When you work with an annual, not a multi-annual budget, your thinking tends to be less long term, it is harder to set up things too much time in advance. However, in 2012-2013, the National Radio Orchestra had the opportunity of playing in Chisinau — it may not sound that glamorous, but it was the first and only time when the National Radio Orchestra was heard there live since 1928. We recently went to Shanghai for our second time. This time we attended the Spring Festival there, a very important festival, an equivalent of the Enescu Festival, with a long-standing tradition and prestigious guests. This summer we will go briefly to Bulgaria, fortunately in the wonderful town of Balchik, on the Black Sea, the favourite vacation destination of Queen Marie of Romania. We are part of the Balchik Classic Days, with a concert with Horia Mihail, Gabriel Croitoru, Tiberiu Soare and the National Radio Orchestra.”

As this year is the 200th anniversary of Verdi’s birth, the National Radio Orchestra closed the season on June 21st with the composer’s Requiem. They will be back, on the stage of Palace Hall in September, for the 21st edition of the George Enescu International Festival.