WITNESSES XXI – REVISITING THE PAST, 2007-2012
 
WITNESSES XXI – REVISITING THE PAST is a collection of video interviews with artists, art critics and art historians who played a key role on the Romanian art scene before 1989. They answer questions referring to the artistic, politic and social context of those years, to their personal projects and opportunities to exhibit, to censorship and its effects on the artistic creation, to issues related to art education (discussing about teachers who had a major influence in their formation, about their colleagues, about the access and the nature of the sources of information during the 60s, 70s and 80s, etc).

The project is coordinated by Aurora Király, based on a concept developed together with Iosif Király.

The interviews were conducted by four young art critics and curators: Raluca Nestor, Cristiana Radu, Magda Radu, and Oana Tănase.
The questions were answered by: Geta Brătescu, Magda Cârneci, Constantin Flondor, Mircea Florian, Ion Grigorescu, Peter Jacobi, Wanda Mihuleac, Mihai Oroveanu, Alexandra Titu, Gheorghe Vida, Ioana Vlasiu.
Image: Valentin Purza

WITNESSES XXI – REVISITING THE PAST works as a project in-progress. It should be continued and developed with other series of interviews in the future. At this stage the project offers a database with extensive video documentation which we consider very useful for future Romanian and international art historians, young artists, students or journalists interested in doing research for future projects, texts or articles. The documentaries presented in February 2012 at Platforma project space included the edited version, with subtitles in English, with the aim of being promoted also to the international public. ​

Although in the last decade some steps were taken in the process of documenting the important Romanian artists’ work, there are still many things to be done for the recuperation of the recent past of Romanian art. Due to financial constraints, but not only, the extensive studies and exhaustive publications on Romanian modern and contemporary art are still missing. This gap is partially covered by various exhibitions, projects, publications that were produced by different institutions, foundations, artists, art critics and curators in the last years. The present project adds a valuable information resource to the field and its main goal is to recompose the artistic, political, and social context which influenced the Romanian culture in the second half of the 20th century.

The project was showed at PLATFORMA (MNAC-Anexa, Calea Mosilor 62-68, etaj 1, Bucuresti), between 1st – 19th February, 2012. 

A project produced by: Galeria Noua
Supported by funds from: Erste Foundation, AFCN
With the support of: MNAClab
 
Special thanks to: Christine Böhler – Director of Programme Culture, Erste Foundation, Mihai Oroveanu – MNAC general director between 2001-2013, and to the artists Carmen Dobre, Simona Dumitriu, Simona Vilău (subtitles) and Larisa Sitar (video-editing), for their collaboration in this project.