The Romanian Phenomenon: Architecture, Roma Issues, Theatre and Culture-Makers

Earth Architecture, Roma Issues, Theatre Making, Cultural Managers

this November at the Ratiu Foundation/Romanian Cultural Centre in London

This November, The Ratiu Foundation / Romanian Cultural Centre in London presents a series of events meant to stimulate discussion and foster a better understanding of the “Romanian phenomenon”, taking place on 8, 15, and 25 November 2010.

Culture Power is a programme initiated by the Ratiu Foundation, consisting of a number of presentations and constructive dialogue with an invited audience.

Our guests include an architect and a social activist concerned with Roma issues, a theatre critic who will reveal the world of some of the best Romanian theatre makers, and five young cultural managers on a formative trip to London.

Author and historian Dr Mike Phillips OBE will act throughout as the moderator of the events.

The Ratiu Foundation / Romanian Culture Centre also supports the Romanian Cultural Managers’ Trip to London (21-28 November), as well as the presence of the Romanian documentary film ‘The Autobiography of Nicolae Ceausescu’ within the Sheffield International Documentary Film Festival (on 4 November), and the Romanian presence in the exhibition ‘No New Thing Under the Sun’, at the Royal Academy of Arts (21 October 2010-9 January 2011).

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Monday 8 November 2010 – Culture Power Presentation

From Urban Hovels to Earth Luxury Architecture. An Emerging Controversy? a presentation by Catalin Berescu and Florin Botonogu

Hosted by Dr Mike Phillips OBE, British novelist, historian and curator. Followed by Q&A session
19.00-21.00, The Ratiu Foundation / Romanian Cultural Centre, Manchester Square, 18 Fitzhardinge Street, London W1H 6EQ; Tel. 020 7486 0295, ext 108; e-mail: bookings@romanianculturalcentre.org.uk Entry is free but booking is essential.

“Rural Romania used to be the paradise of earth architecture. But mud bricks, rammed earth or reed roofs are now quickly disappearing in order to give place to strong concrete blocks, omnipresent gypsum boards, bituminous roofs and plastic windows. Our presentation will introduce the work of a group with an urban intellectual background and no fear of the rural life, which since 2006 has produced a series of buildings and experiments as an attempt to re-appropriate traditional construction techniques.

Our first exercise started under the strong impression of that year’s floods, and after the completion of a study at national level on the poor neighbourhoods inhabited by the Roma in Romania. Since then, we’ve had the opportunity to visit legal and illegal camps in France, Italy, Greece, Serbia, India and the UK and our attempt is to connect all this knowledge with the problems raised by the evictions of Roma camps in France, and also to the new housing policies proposed by EU. The two speakers will present their contributions to the recently released volume Mapping the Invisible (Blackdog, 2010), a study on Roma housing conditions in Europe.” (Catalin Berescu and Florin Botonogu)

Catalin Berescu studied architecture and urbanism at Ion Mincu University in Bucharest. He worked as an editor for several architectural journals, did artistic interventions in public space and teaches about new media & architecture, as well as other theoretical issues. His main research and intervention field is extreme poverty housing and housing discrimination. He is also an adobe buildings enthusiast.

Florin Botonogu works for the Policy Centre for Roma and Minorities in Bucharest and has a wide experience in issues concerning disadvantaged groups and minorities. He holds a Master Degree in European Social Policies and worked for UNDP in the areas of poverty and vulnerable groups, contributing to studies and projects on housing and Roma related issues.

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Monday 15 November 2010 – Culture Power Presentation

The Space is the Message: a View of Romanian Theatre Today, a presentation by Octavian Saiu

Hosted by Dr Mike Phillips OBE, British novelist, historian and curator. Followed by Q&A session and the launch of the book ‘In Search of Lost Space’ by Octavian Saiu (UNATC Press, Bucharest 2010).
19.00-21.00, The Ratiu Foundation / Romanian Cultural Centre, Manchester Square, 18 Fitzhardinge Street, London W1H 6EQ; Tel. 020 7486 0295, ext 108; e-mail: bookings@romanianculturalcentre.org.uk Entry is free but booking is essential.

“As an art always in search of its own identity, theatre reflects itself in the space in which it comes into being. At the point of major re-evaluations – of traditions, of innovations, and, equally important, of failures of the world’s stage – the problematic of space becomes a fundamental criterion. The new space of the global age has radical consequences for the visual culture of contemporary spectacle or for the selection of the repertoire. In the Romanian context, through stage directors such as Silviu Purcarete, Victor Ioan Frunza, or the younger and more rebellious Radu Afrim, and, in a broader international context, through directors like Robert Wilson or Robert Lepage, the mutations in the theatrical mentality become – in an organic and apparently irreversible manner – challenges of the theatrical space. For these director-creators, the necessity to renew the space has become a leading aesthetic principle.

Focusing on some of the major works of Purcarete, Frunza and Afrim, this presentation will explore the paradigm of space in contemporary Romanian theatre. It will show that, through their respective spatial universes, these artists project a sense of universality that transcends all the boundaries of the local. Indeed, in their productions, the space is the message.” (Octavian Saiu)

Octavian Saiu has taught theatre and dramatic literature as Associate Professor at the National University of Theatre and Cinematography (NUTC) in Bucharest and as Guest Lecturer at the University of Otago in New Zealand. In 2008-2009, he was Visiting Fellow at the University of London. He holds a PhD in Theatre Studies (NUTC) and one in Comparative Literature (Otago). He has been actively involved in several worldwide theatre events and academic conferences in Romania, Israel, Canada, Brazil, New Zealand, Sweden, Ireland, etc. For three years, he was a presenter for Romanian National Television, coordinating TV shows about theatre, cinema and visual arts. A former co-editor of ‘Theatre Nowadays’ magazine, he is a founding editor of ‘Romanian Studies in Theatre Theory’. He is currently the Vice-President of the Romanian Section of the International Association of Theatre Critics (IATC). He has published three theatre books, one of which received the Critics’ Award in 2010.

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Thursday 25 November 2010 – Culture Power Roundtable

Young Romanian Cultural Managers present their Work

In connection to the Romanian Cultural Managers’ Trip to London (21-28 November), the Ratiu Foundation organises a special Culture Power Roundtable with the participation of Bogdan Georgescu (Bucharest), Irina Malcea (Bucharest), Mirela Nastasache (Bucharest), Andrada Vaida (Timisoara), and Monica Zarna (Arad). The Romanian guests will present their practices, their approaches to cultural management in the current economic conditions, and the Romanian cultural landscape of today.

The Convenor of the Culture Power Series, Dr Mike Phillips OBE, will then chair the speakers and the guests to a discussion on culture, society, social activism, and cultural capital.

Bogdan Georgescu is an artist and social activist, using tools such as community theatre, video composing, event-producing, social intervention, project management. Bogdan is the stream founder for Active Art, the process of revealing the work of art in each of us, transforming everyday life into a collective work of art. Under the initiative of the Generosity Offensive he works as an artist, facilitator and project manager in a creative process based on the collaboration with the community involved, and interdisciplinarity for active art, in projects such as Build your community!, The Countryside Tour community project for creative education in rural areas, The House of People active theatre project in the Maximum Security Prison in Craiova.

Irina Malcea is currently working as a cultural manager for the Visual Arts Department of the Romanian Cultural Institute in Bucharest. For the last three years, she has gained experience in coordinating both local and international events, such as Romanian film festivals, international tours of Romanian theatre plays, two editions of a simultaneous international short film festival, workshops, film projections, debates, etc.

Mirela Nastasache is a cultural manager with an eye for new drama. She studied Theatre and Cultural Management in Bucharest and Paris, and works as a literary councillor at Teatrul Mic (The Small Theatre) where she set up a programme for young Romanian writers and directors. She is also in charge of the Press & PR Department of the Romanian National Theatre Festival.
Currently Mirela is developing a project dedicated to New Writing in Romania – a website meant to promote the new generation of Romanian playwrights.

Andrada Vaida is a freelance cultural manager based in Timisoara (Western Romania). As a Cultural Referee at the German Cultural Centre in Timisoara she co-organized film, visual arts and music events with German and Romanian artists. She worked for a time at the Trans-Media-Akademie Hellerau in Dresden, where she developed the project Send & Receive_media art exchange_RO/DE, and she co-initiated projects with colleagues from Eastern Europe. At the time she collaborates with the Timishort International Film Festival (Timisoara) and other local actors, as well as with inter:est Kulturprojekte (Berlin).

Monica Zarna is one of the producers of the Underground Theatre Festival and the Euromarionete Festival in Arad (Western Romania). She is currently working for the mobility project for cultural workers ‘Bridge between European Cultural Centres’ as the PR and communication coordinator. Her work has been related in various forms with several renowned theatre festivals, such as Avignon OFF, Divadelna Nitra and Nord Wind. Through her studies and work, she has lived in Portugal, Poland, Sweden, Slovakia and Germany.
Her hobbies include watching films, which she sometimes reviews on a Romanian online cultural magazine.

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All events are organised by The Ratiu Foundation / Romanian Cultural Centre in London.
With the support of ProFusion International Creative Consultancy.