Tag Archives: article
Cronica Tinerei Generații – Misterul ‘Cameristelor’
Revista Teatrul – noiembrie 1988
Un lapsus al lui Cristian Mungiu
Într-un interviu recent la B1, discutînd despre deosebita vizibilitate pe care noul val din cinematografia românească a adus-o României în ultimii ani, regizorul Cristian Mungiu deplîngea faptul că nici o instituţie a statului nu a înţeles că trebuie să susţină în mod constant, coerent şi semnificativ reuşitele cineaştilor şi să consolideze această fereastră de oportunitate pe care filmele autohtone, atît de premiate şi de mediatizate internaţional în ultimii ani, au deschis-o imaginii României în lume.
ANDREI ŞERBAN AND THE TRAVELING ACADEMY: ABOUT CREATIVITY AND THE INNER SELF
In 1990, immediately after the fall of communism, Andrei Şerban
arrived in Romania from the United States. He was invited at the time to
become managing director of the National Theatre in Bucharest. Şerban
eagerly accepted the offer and soon took over the difficult challenge, perfectly
aware that there was much to be done and that the results had to be both
immediately visible and quantifiable in the long term. He was ready to try to
reshape the post-communist Romanian theatre and give it a new form and
creative energy, capable of nourishing fresh beginnings. He stubbornly strove
to turn this energy into the seeding ground for a decontaminated emotional
life to be offered to the people of Romania, who had been so alienated and
enfeebled by their totalitarian past.
Arts Don’t Have to Know How to Behave – A Commentary on Street art in Contemporary Urban Surroundings
From the outset, the issue of street art, as presented in the
following pages, will be considered more in its creative dimension
than in its political one. The interest of the ideas explored lies in
knowing how much today this kind of art is part of a more general
resurgence of a wider creative process. Also, the perspective
chosen as well as the style (an ad hoc commentary using direct
observation of street art practices and set in a general historical
context based on cultural studies in Europe) are aimed at pinpointing
some critical landmarks and at paving the way for further
comments and ideas.
New York–ul din mine.
New York este un oras in care intri asa cum ai intra intr- o carte buna. Primul lucru pe care il simti este un fel de tremur interior, foarte intim , greu de transmis in cuvinte. O bucurie a intilnirii cu ceva neasteptat, care te scoala din orice letargie, te surprinde si te inhata fara sa ai timp sa te aperi.
Orasul pare ca un val urias, iti pica in fata si te da peste cap, dupa care, cind iti recistigi echilibrul, te poarta in suvoiul unei energii teribile, orice impotrivire fiind imposibila.
The art of making choices and the choice to work with the arts
Policy choices when heading an already existing art organization are difficult to make and even more difficult to keep. And they have to be made quickly and clearly because in arts and culture, like in business, the quicker one gets the lot!
The Year of Intercultural dialogue – a challenge for Romanian democratic practices
In February 2008, just at the moment when programs of the year of Intercultural dialogue were
launched in Romania, one of the national representatives in the EU parliament, Ioan Mircea
Pascu, was expressing his indignation about the programming of ‘California Dreaming’ as part
of the Parliament’s film festival dedicated to this very issue.
The Necessary Awakening
Since the fall of communism sixteen years ago, few issues regarding the development and orientation of European cultural policy have achieved consensus among informed analysts. However, most accept the idea that 1990 marked not only the end of post-WWII division between Eastern and Western Europe, but also a radical, tangible shift in the ways European public administrations approach involvement with cultural affairs.
Not afraid to be an Alien
For having being involved in networking activities for 15 years now, I heard much about the post networking ‘era’ and about the imminent collapse of European networks. Well, that was a wrong hypothesis and it seems even more so if we consider that European cultural networking succeeded in changing, in a radical way since the 80’s, the stiff diplomatic vocabulary and the sometimes too conservatory cooperation practices of cultural and artistic interaction. TransEuropeHalles is, in this respect, a brilliant example of networking reshaping and reinvestment (I do not believe there are even other cultural networks in Europe that had 60 meetings since their foundation).
Challenges of Cultural Cooperation in Southeastern Europe: the Internationalization of Cultural Policies and Practices
The cultural cooperation logic marking the last 14 years in Southeastern Europe (SEE) has to be
regarded from a broad perspective as driven not only by the consequences of the collapse of the
communist institutional order, but also as a result of the general transformations taking place at a
European and international level: the challenges resulting from the liberalization of markets,
globalization processes and technological revolution (new technologies, information support for
knowledge, deepening inequality North/South, the redefinition of the role of culture and the
growing tendency towards transversal governance, replacing the pyramidal paradigm of
authority).
Born in Illyria or “How to build cultural cooperation with (South ) Eastern Europe”
It was two days after the first of May glittering EU enlargement ceremonies
ended. As usual before one of my trips to somewhere in Europe, I was taking the
taxi in Nantes and saying bye-bye in Romanian to my sixteen year old daughter,
who, despite her French schooling, still speaks her mother tongue pretty well.
As I prepared to leave, the young French taxi driver looked on with what I
thought to be the average curiosity that we are now so used to, after ten years of
‘where does your accent come from?’ and, ‘what is your nationality, Madame, if
I am not too indiscreet…?’
The empowerment of civil society agents in new democracies
The notion of civil society and the emergence of an effectively democratic civil sector in post communist countries is in the centre of the present argument.
New cultural policies should be , in former communist countries, designed according first and foremost to the axiomatic lack of democratic behaviour that these societies are showing still now and focus very strongly on the civic empowerment of the individuals that are independent opinion leaders.
