Theatre Underground. The Jiu Valley after 1989 is a a project focused on every-day life observation and the critical analysis of the existence of workers’ communities decisively hit by the political changes in the 1990s. The project aims to document the economic situation, the life and work of miners during the post-socialist regime. Theatre Underground proposes a performative reconstruction of the documentary stories that structure the history of Jiu Valley communities, on the edge between survival, migration, extinction and possible reconstruction. Underground is a performative archive of testimonies from disappearing communities. The show aims to revalue the stories, problems and…
In 2007 three artists from Ljubljana changed their names, made themselves new IDs and started to sign their works by using the name of the Slovene Prime-Minister, Janez Janša. The statement accompanying their actions was the following: “We live for the things that we create and, with your permission, we would like to quote from the letter you sent us when we entered the Slovene Democratic Party: ‘The More of Us There Are, the Sooner We Will Reach Our Goal’ ” . The essay “Who’s the Real Prime-Minister?” analyses the legitimizing process carried out by every single individual through what…
by Dragan Batancev The story about extravaganza in Socialist Yugoslavia would not be complete without a chapter on its most popular cinematic genre – the partisan films. It is this kind of films that marked the cinematography of this country and secured its place in film history. Amongst the 200 war films produced in Tito’s Yugoslavia, one holds a distinguished title of the most expensive spectacle: Bitka na Neretvi, aka The Battle of Neretva (1969). This film is unique not only because of the incredible endorsement it received from the political elite during its shooting, but also because of its…
March 4 – March 30 2013, Contemporary Art Space AIURART Organizers: Experimental Project Association, Center for Curricular Development and Gender Studies: FILIA, in partnership with the Contemporary Art Space Aiurart Project coordinators: Oana Băluță și Olivia Nițiș Curator: Olivia Nițiș Artists: Carmen Acsinte, Matei Bejenaru, Simona Dobrescu, Mario Ionescu, Dan Pierșinaru, Renée Renard, Marilena Preda Sânc, Valeriu Șchiau, Patricia Teodorescu. The full depoliticization and increased reductive celebration of women as delicate, decorative and maternal is a comfortable mystification of historical and socio-political significance that the 8th of March has or should have in the collective consciousness. Momentum is a project…
by Miruna Runcan In a dense analysis dedicated to the coming of age of performances constructed as social analyses, theatre critic Miruna Runcan discusses the critical, social and political dimensions of Romanian theatre in recent years by focusing on the relationship between state-funded theatre and independent theatre. In a context where state theatre does not assume any socio-political stance, the independent area becomes the center of political critique. One of the main aspects analyzed by the critic is the actor’s contribution to the work process. The actor “is no longer an interpreter of a given text, but its coauthor, in…
by Mihaela Michailov On September 15 1958, “Fani Tardini” Theatre in Galaţi hosted the premiere of The Barefoot Bride, a play directed by Valeriu Moisescu. The text of the play – written by Sütő András in 1950 – centers on the Soviet-inspired collectivization process which took place in Romania between 1949 and 1962, a process which entailed the agglutination of farmland into collective farms. The Barefoot Bride was staged nine times at the theatre in Galaţi and once in Bucharest during the Decade of the Theatre, after which it was cut. Valeriu Moisescu’s performance included Gheorghiu-Dej’s speech in which he announced the end…