Caterina Preda -
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About
    About me
    CV
Publications
    Books & chapters in books
    Special issues of journals
    Academic Articles
    Conference papers
    Other
Courses
Reasearch / Projects
    Art and Politics in Modern Dictatorships in SA & EE
    Artistul de stat
    Roma OVT
    GRSAP
    Artist collectives
    Transregional remembrance of dictatorships
Media
Blog
Caterina Preda -
  • About
    • About me
    • CV
  • Publications
    • Books & chapters in books
    • Special issues of journals
    • Academic Articles
    • Conference papers
    • Other
  • Courses
  • Reasearch / Projects
    • Art and Politics in Modern Dictatorships in SA & EE
    • Artistul de stat
    • Roma OVT
    • GRSAP
    • Artist collectives
    • Transregional remembrance of dictatorships
  • Media
  • Blog
Art and politics

De la artistul de stat la artistul dependent de stat Uniunea Artistilor Plastici din Romania (1950-2010) Filiala Bucuresti//From the “state artist” to the artist dependent on the state: the Union of Visual Artists (of Romania) (1950-2010) – the Bucharest branch

October 15, 2015 by cpreda No Comments

The project proposes to write a monographic study of the Union of Visual Artists of Romania (UAP) in the period 1950-2010 in the absence of a landmark study of one of the most important communist and postcommunist organizations that administers, controls and represents visual artists. The period of analysis includes both the communist regime, as well as the first 20 years of the democratic regime (1950-2010) so as to be able to capture in detail the transformation it suffered as a consequence. The project advances an analysis at several levels of this organization: an institutional sociologic approach, an analysis in terms of members and leading teams (elites), a research of the legal statutes that UAP went through and the definition of the artist, the relation with the communist and democratic state through a case study – that of producer of public monuments in Bucharest. The analysis of the relation with the Romanian state will include several types of interactions between the state and the artists through the investigation of archive documents unexploited until now (UAP, CNSAS, ANR, etc.), of interviews with those that governed the UAP and through the use of the methods specific to the analysis of the interdisciplinary field of art and politics. The project will disseminate its results through an international conference, a database with the UAP members, an index of the monuments realized by the UAP in Bucharest, as well as the publication of a monograph of UAP, of a volume including the presentations at the international conference, and a volume with archive unpublished documents.
Proiectul propune crearea unei monografii a Uniunii Artiștilor Plastici din România  (în perioada 1950-2010) în absența unui studiu de referință al uneia dintre cele mai importante instituții comuniste și postcomuniste care administrează, controlează, și reprezintă artiștii plastici. Perioada aleasă pentru studiu cuprinde atât regimul comunist, cât și primii 20 de ani ai regimului democratic (1950-2010) pentru a putea surpinde în detaliu transformările suferite de aceasta. Proiectul propune o analiză la mai multe niveluri a acestei organizații: o sociologie instituțională, o analiză în termeni de membri și echipe de conducere, o cercetare a statutelor legale pe care le experimentează UAP și a definiției artistului, a relației cu statul comunist și democratic și prin intermediul unui studiu de caz – cel al executării de monumente de for public în București. Analiza relației cu statul român va include diferitele tipuri de interacțiuni dintre stat și artiști prin intermediul cercetării documentelor de arhive neexploatate până acum (UAP, CNSAS, ANR, etc.), a unor interviuri cu responsabili UAP și prin utilizrea metodelor de analiză specifice câmpului interdisciplinar de artă și politică. Proiectul va disemina rezultatele printr-o conferință internațională, o bază de date cu membrii UAP, un index al monumentelor realizate de UAP București, precum și prin publicarea unei monografii a UAP, a unui volum cu prezentările din cadrul conferinței și a unui volum cu documente inedite de arhivă.

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Art and politics

Arte de memorializacion 40 anos despues del golpe de estado

January 9, 2014 by cpreda No Comments

I have written an article that presents the art of memorialization realized by Chilean artists in the context of the 40 years since the coup d’Etat of 11 of September 1973. Art of memorialization questions the advance of the consolidation of democracy and critiques problems that still exist as that of the disappeared. Artists use symbols to investigate what remains of the dictatorial past and we will discuss the case of the disappeared opposing it to other perspectives on the dictatorship. The anniversary of 40 years of the coup of 1973 has provoked an increased interest in the past and multiple artistic interventions were seen (in the streets, in museums, etc.) This article demonstrates how art contributes to the construction of a more inclusive memory of the Chilean dictatorship and you can read it at this here. 

#quererNOver, 10 September 2013, Santiago

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Art and politics

Iron Curtain Graphics

June 1, 2012 by cpreda No Comments
Iron Curtain Graphics is a beautiful volume edited by the Atelierul de Grafica and published by the prestigious publishing house Gestalten. The volume presents communist posters and has four sections: Propaganda, Labour Safety, Culture & Entertainment, Education & Science. I wrote one of the introductory texts called “Invisible daily propaganda. The template for uniform thought” that states how this type of propaganda tool was useless as all the posters and images became invisible for the majority of citizens. The intention of the authors of the project, Ciprian Isac and Carla Duschka, was to safeguard these images from total erasure and oblivion. A series of interesting details came up while writing the text for this book: the details of the communist décor are still present while being invisible. These details of the bygone epoch still present were accompanied by a “double life” people had – an official one and a private, personal one. The involuntary comicality of some of the labour safety enouncements makes propaganda even more ridiculous than it appeared at the time. The aesthetic value of these signs of the still present past is certain and merits to be saved, documented, showed.

The volume can be bought on the website of Gestalten or in Bucharest at the Bookstore Carturesti.

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Art and politics

One too many statues

May 28, 2012 by cpreda No Comments
This is my third post about an unwanted statue. This time things are even more problematic then  before. The latest controversial statue is that of the poet/politician Adrian Paunescu known especially for his praising of Nicolae Ceausescu and the socialist republic; also leader of the Cenaclul Flacara, he was a politician after 1990 as a representative of the socialist party (PSM) and then of the social-democrat party (PDSR/PSD). His most important role after 1990 was as head of the Commission for Culture of the Senate. Thus, his influence in both communist and post-communist culture was quite important.
As his legacy is quite divisive in post-communist Romania why did one of the mayors of Bucharest decide to inaugurate just before local elections his bust? My question being rhetorical I think Paunescu represents for some nostalgic Romanians one of the greatest poets of the XXc, his verses are known by heart and can be heard in very diverse TV shows when the topic discussed concerns “our nation’s great destiny” (this is one of the typical communist phrases of the protochronist period). For others, he represents all the evil the Ceausescu regime created: false values and false idols, accentuated nationalism and arrivisme. Yet, in our city, the first win; every time. Their perspective is officialized by local authorities such as the current mayor Necolai Ontanu. And this is what counts and should concern us all.
The photo belongs to Vlad Petri.
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Art and politics

Naked Traian or yet another failed monument in Bucharest

May 6, 2012 by cpreda No Comments
The most recent monument inaugurated in Bucharest belongs to the sculptor Vasile Gorduz and shows the Roman emperor Traian naked and holding the symbol of the Roman and Dacian fusion (the wolf/snake). This depiction, placed on the steps of the Museum of National History has been greeted by all sorts of jokes and derision as authorities themselves fight each other (the current mayor Oprescu and the director of the museum Oberlander Tarnoveanu). I raised this issue before: why not a more interactive form of decision concerning public monuments? This time the cost of the project is not so enormous as for previous recent monuments but still the issue remains. Why inaugurate (as the mayor Oprescu announced) an entire series of monuments dedicated to the fusion of Romans and Dacians (oh so dear to the protochronism of the 1970s-1980s)? Why “tradition” and our “glorious” history are the only things politicians have in mind when public art is concerned? Contemporary art still seems rather an extraterrestrial form of art for Romanian public authorities.
 The statue has already been ridiculed in social media as the picture shown below testifies
by Julien Britnic (Facebook)
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Art and politics

From Lenin to Deng Xiaoping: statues in Romania

January 28, 2012 by cpreda No Comments
Who decides in Romania where and whom shall be represented in the public space? This is the question. A recent decision taken by the local administration of the city of Bistrita in the northern part of Romania has puzzled me. They decided to build a statue of Deng Xiaoping in the Independence Square motivating that they received an address from the county’ prefect…

If we take a look at the case of Bucharest we discover that the Bucharest Mayor has a “Scientific Council of the Administration of Monuments” (?!) that decides what personality should be represented. My puzzlement comes after two controversial decisions to (re)build in Bucharest the statue of King Carol (which cost was of 3 million Euro) on its former pre-communist site (realized by sculptor Florin Codre) and to place in front of the Bucharest National Theater (TNB) a equally costly project (worth 800.000 Euros) called “Caragialiana” by Ioan Bolborea and inspired by Romanian playwright I.L. Caragiale. Both projects were questioned by contemporary artists as part of their public interventions. See more about it on their website.

Let’s not forget Bucharest is already scarred by such monuments as the “Memorial of rebirth – Eternal glory to the heroes and to the Romanian revolution of December 1989” (!) by Alexandru Ghildus also known as “the olive” or “the potato” failing to achieve the status of an obelisk the author intended so as to remember the heroes of the Romanian revolution of 1989 in the Revolution Square.

I ask why isn’t a form of public consultation imagined before building such unrepresentative monuments and why isn’t there more transparency in what concerns the selection of personalities to be remembered as well as in what concerns the authors of these projects.

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Art and politics

Art and politics in (post)communism. Special issue of Studia Politica

December 11, 2011 by cpreda No Comments
I have edited a special issue of the journal Studia Politica. Romanian Journal of Political Science with the title Art and politics in (post)communism.


The selection of articles published in this special issue shows the plurality of foci and approaches the study of art and politics entails. The interrogations this special issue addresses situate communist art (visual arts, film) and culture in their connections to politics in the post-communist countries of Central and Eastern Europe. Several reviews of essential texts of art and politics accompany this special issue.



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Art and politics

Propaganda zilnica invizibila. Sablonul gandirii unice

November 28, 2011 by cpreda No Comments
Am scris un text cu acest titlu “Propaganda zilnica invizibila. Sablonul gandirii unice” pentru cel de-al doilea volum din Grafica fara computer editat de niste oameni entuziasti de la Atelierul de Grafica. Ideea acestui nou volum era documentarea tipurilor de scris prezente inca in spatiul nostru public, majoritatea fiind create in perioada regimului comunist. De la firmele pentru magazinele Nufarul, Paine, Alimentara, Cinematograf si asa mai departe, la tabilitele – facute de mana sau produse in serie – de protectia muncii. Se alatura colectiei afisele de propaganda si enunturile politice. Trecutul vinde inca si el este inca accesibil in spatiul nostru public, este inca frecventabil desi incet dispare. Undeva intre nostalgie si necesara colectionare a semnelor trecutului se afla si acest volum.



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Art and politics

Minimal histories (Petite histoire)

July 23, 2011 by cpreda No Comments
I stumbled upon a beautiful book that evokes what I like to call minimal histories, the lost details, the personal memories. Its name is Petite histoire and the project belongs to the Galeria Posibila in Bucharest. The volume reassembles amateur photos taken by anonymous authors but it evokes so many worlds in its pages and holds a distinct poetic feeling.
I love this kind of lost, not so important, even marginal topic. The images are all black and white and seem to be taken at the beginning of the 20th century in Romania.
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Art and politics

Art of memorialization in Romania

April 22, 2011 by cpreda No Comments

I wrote a chapter about this trend of contemporary art in Romania to memorialize communism through different means. You can check it out at this address:
http://unibuc.academia.edu/CaterinaPreda/Papers/538711/Looking_at_the_past_through_an_artistic_lens_art_of_memorialization

Ion Grigorescu, Posthumous dialogue with Ceausescu (2007)
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