NTB Conferences

On Sunday, November 6th, 2011, starting with 11:00, at The Amphitheatre Hall from The National Theatre of Bucharest there will be held the conference A day of your life on the time of King Carol I, by Adrian Majuru. Tickets can be found at the price of 23 lei or 10 lei. About Adrian Majuru Adrian Majuru is a researcher at the Municipal Museum of Bucharest and the author of multiple books about Bucharest, like:  Bucharest the city of outskirts or the suburb as a way of living (Bucureştiul mahalalelor sau periferia ca mod de existenţă, Compania 2003), Bucharest. The story of a human geography (Bucureşti. Povestea unei geografii umane, Institutul Cultural Român, 2008) or Bucharest. Diurnal and Nocturnal (Bucureşti. Diurn şi Nocturn, Curtea Veche, 2009). He is also interested in the urban underground area. Among other publications we can mention: Childhood for the Romanians (Copilăria la români Compania, 2006), The Minovici Family - spiritual universe (Familia Minovici - univers spiritual, Institul Cultural Român 2007),  Wallachian destiny in pictures and 101 texts (Destin valah în ilustraţii şi 101 texticuleţe, Paralela 45, 2009). At the present he is coordinating the series: "Urban anthropology" and "The fantastic library" at the Oscar Print Publishing house.                About the conference "Destiny is the place and moment of your birth". Some call this chance. Let us descend into this free will maze and imagine what it would have been like a day of our life a hundred years ago, during the reign of King Carol I. Of course that there can be many details regarding our position in this story: high society or middle class; guest of honor or master of ceremonies. However we suggest the position of a random onlooker who enjoys the privilege of living beside a family a hundred years ago. We are left with the traces of this lost world that we can follow and the atmosphere where we can get into. We have the pictures but mostly we have the ability to travel, to understand and accept the reality of a comparison. Our meeting offers you the opportunity to step across such a threshold, not at all imaginary even though the appearances say something else. I invite you to join me into the story of a question: "what it would have been like to live a day in 1900?" A possible answer was given by the German writer Ernst Junger: "Know the boundaries where illusion and reality can replace each other!" The journey will be accompanied by the music of cellist Adrian Naidin.   Author: Adrian Majuru Translated by: Oana Marina Silişte MA Student, MTTLC, University of Bucharest

On Sunday, October 23th, starting with 11 a.m., at The Black Box from NTB there will be held the conference entitled: Elegant pomp and Occidental democracy in the Romanian apparel from the 19th century by Adrian-Silvan Ionescu. Tickets can be found at the price of 23 lei or 10 lei. About Adrian-Silvan Ionescu Born in 1952, he studied at the Nicolae Tonitza Fine Arts High School and afterwards at the Nicolae Grigorescu Institute of Fine Arts, the History and Art Theory department, which he graduated in 1975. He worked as a museographer at the National Art Museum and then at the Municipal Museum Bucharest where he even was an assistant director (1990 - 1993), afterwards he was a cultural counsel of the Cultural Inspectorate from the Bucharest Municipality (1994 - 1995). He dedicated himself to research and, from 1995 to 2011, he was a scientific researcher I at the Nicolae Iorga History Institute. From the 1st of May 2011 he is director at the George Oprescu Art History Institute. PHD in historical science (1997). In 1996 he started to teach. At present he is an associate professor at the National Arts University, where he holds photography and film history lectures, as well as a master's degree course. He is an art critique and historian with a long activity as a plastic historiographer and exhibition organizer. He published 12 books and edited other four. For his work he was awarded with the Romanian Academy's Prize (1992), The Union of Plastic Artists for Critique ‘s Prize (2002) and the ‘Simion Mehedinţi' (2003), ‘Nicolae Bălcescu' (2008), ‘I.C. Filitti' (2009) and ‘George Oprescu' (2010) prizes from the ‘Historic Shop' Cultural Foundation. He is knight of the Cultural Merit Order (2004) and of King Mihai I medal for Loyalty (2010).   About the conference ‘The Romanian States, situated at the border between the Occident and the Orient, have been under a strong influence from both sides. They could be felt the strongest at the beginning of the 19th century. The struggle between the status of the fanariot ruler's pompous garbs and the lack of status, the naturalization and the standardization of the ‘democratic garment' - the tailcoat or the black frock coat (also popularly called ‘German clothes') give measure to the major changes from the urban Romanian society. The conference proposes to describe, in detail, the garb of the high society as well as that of the common people during an entire century, from the modernization to the assimilation in the great European fashion trend.' Adrian-Silvan Ionescu   Translated by: Izabella Feher MTTLC, Bucharest University

On Sunday, October 9th, starting with 11 a.m., at The Black Box from NTB there will be held the conference entitled: The matter out of which life is made. About waiting by Carmen Muşat. Tickets can be found at the price of 23 lei or 10 lei. About Carmen Muşat Carmen Muşat is an essayist, literary critic and associate Professor at the Literary Theory Department from the University of Bucharest. In 2000 she got her PhD in Letters at the University of Bucharest. In 2000 she becomes the editor in chief of the cultural magazine Observator cultural. She is a member of the Romanian Association of General and Comparative Literature and of the Romanian PEN Club. She is a founding member of the Center of Excellence for the Study of Image (CESI), of the Center of Excellence for the Study of Cultural Identity and of the Center for Interdisciplinary studies „Tudor Vianu". Published books: The interwar Romanian novel (Romanul românesc interbelic, Humanitas, 1998; second edition, Humanitas Educaţional, 2004); Perspectives on the postmodern Romanian novel and other theoretical fictions (Perspective asupra romanului românesc postmodern şi alte ficţiuni teoretice, Paralela 45, 1998); Strategies of subversion (Strategiile subversiunii). Description and narration in the postmodern Romanian prose (Paralela 45, 2002; Cartea Românească Publishing house, 2008), The Canon and Tarot (Canonul şi tarotul, Curtea Veche Publishing house, 2006). In 2009 she published the anthology Beyond literature (Dincolo de literatură), at Hasefer Publishing house, commented by Lucian Raicu. She wrote the foreword for some volumes by Gabriela Adameşteanu, Mircea Cărtărescu, Gheorghe Crăciun, Péter Nádas, Ioana Em. Petrescu and Liviu Ornea. Articles and studies published in magazines: Observator cultural, Lettre Internationale, Revista 22, Euphorion, Euresis. Cahiers roumains  d'etudes littéraires, Élet És Irodalom (Ungaria), Romania Culturale Oggi (Italia).   About the conference "This waiting would probably be the most appropriate equivalent for ‘existence'. The waiting is not just a temporary stage of our existence, it is the essence itself of our human condition, it is not an accident but the substance itself of our life. From the moment we are born till the end of our lives, we are always waiting something or someone: starting with common situations - like that of waiting to have our coffee brought in a bar - and ending with key moments like the confirmation of a diagnostic or the result of an exam, we are waiting for an event to happen. Because it connects the anteriority to the posteriority, the waiting can be perceived only in time; it is determined by and included in time. Because of that the waiting sets the narration, its structure is essentially narrative and the suspense is an implicit element of the waiting. Comprising in itself the temporality, the presence and the absence, the waiting establishes a relationship with The Other, but also with different faces of the same person, during a period of time. The existential void that we sometimes feel deeper generates a tensioned state of waiting. We are always waiting for something to happen to fill in the void, to fulfil a dream; you are waiting for someone that is still missing, whose presence reveals vulnerability, weakness, loneliness. The human being is becoming and the waiting is the realizing of this becoming. The child is waiting to become mature - "When I grow up..." - the girl is waiting to become a woman, the insecure adolescent is waiting to become a man, the sick is waiting to be healthy (waiting as a form of hope), the death sentenced man is waiting the annulment of his verdict or its execution - among so many types of waiting the distance is between hope and despair (or resignation). Everything is measured by the accelerated or extremely slow rhythm of the waiting  The universal literature is full of characters for whom the waiting is a defining attitude. From Penelopa to Emma Bovary, from Ivan Ilici to Vladimir and Estragon, from Giovanni Drogo to the inhabitants of the fort strictly ruled by Joll, who is waiting for the outside barbarians, without realizing that these are only inside them, the figures and shapes of waiting are as numerous as they are different." Carmen Muşat   Translated by: Oana Marina Silişte MA Student, MTTLC, University of Bucharest

On Sunday, September 25th, starting with 11 a.m., at The Black Box from NTB there will be held the first conference of the new season: "Chances lost, chances grasped" by Nicolae Raţiu. Tickets can be found at the price of 23 lei or 10 lei. About Nicolae Raţiu Nicolae Raţiu is a business man and a philanthropist. He is the General Director of the Regent House Properties Ltd (Properties of the royal house) and of other companies from Great Britain, France and Romania with an important portfolio in the Real Estate field and also that of the furniture manufacturing and printing. Although he was born in Davos, Switzerland and educated in Great Britain and USA, Nicolae Raţiu's roots are deeply Romanian, being the youngest son of the great patriot Ion Raţiu - ex-vice-president of PNŢCD and runner for the Romanian presidential election. Nicolae Raţiu is also the President of the Raţiu Foundation, organization established in 1979 in London by Ion and Elisabeth Raţiu. The foundation offers annual study scholarships and financial support for projects from various fields. Nicolae Raţiu is interested in humanitarian actions and so he is part of the Board members of several charity organizations from Romania and Great Britain: The Romanian Cultural Centre in London, The Pro Patrimonio Foundation, The Relief Fund for Romania Foundation and The Radiological Research Trust. About the conference "Naturally that Ion Raţiu was disappointed when his candidacy in presidential elections did not succeed. Naturally that he was disappointed when his house was rubbed and burned down by the miners in 1990.  Naturally that he was disappointed when his own party refused to support his second candidacy for president.  Nevertheless, his patriotism always came first. Ion Raţiu refused to leave the country even though there were many - actually too many - who wished it. He refused to abandon politics, the financial world or the media. If my father ever learned a lesson during exile, that was not to give up fighting, not to disappoint people and to keep on working.                                 It is true that Raţiu has lost many battles but history shows us that he has won the war. There were many who said that because of the communist heritage, the Romanian civil society does not have a chance to develop. Nevertheless, many of today's youth are involved in non-governmental organizations, activating in the field of Ecology, in keeping the patrimony, human rights and equal chances. Romania is a member of the European Union and NATO: the country has returned to its natural path. Ion Raţiu did his part of sowing the seeds of the future. It's a shame that in some cases only now does Romania reap the benefits. Maybe than, immediately after the revolution, the time was not right but I am grateful to my father for having kept on fighting and never turning his back to his people and country. I am grateful because after fifty years of exile he has dedicated his final ten years, spent in Romania, still to the present and future of his country. I like to believe that no matter where he may be, my father smiles now, knowing that his heritage is being perpetuated and that Romanian people do remember him dearly as ‘the best president that Romania did not have' ". (Nicolae Raţiu)

On Sunday, June 5th, at 12 o'clock in the NTB's Black Box, Ion Mircea will hold a conference on the subject: On Caressing. A Short Incursion into the Metaphysics of Touching. About the Conference The purely aristocratic feeling that the man of touch experiences has its roots in a hidden coat of arms, one that offers man a rare privilege: being part not of a military order, but of an order with purpose. The man of touch belongs to an order, but not an ordinary one, an order of love: Ordo amoris.A citizen of love, he understands that he could not have been thrown into destiny just like a die at the game table in a casino. There is no hazard in a divinity ordered world, if we admit that existance itself is not the product of pure hazard. It would be completely illogical to attribute universal existance to hazard; scientists have undoubtedly disproved this theory. Their argument runs like this: ‘The age of the universe is infinitely smaller than the time needed for "a hazardously produced order" to emerge'. This means that life could not have emerged through a series of random events' (Friedrich Cramer). From our point of view, evolutionary theories cannot account for the step humankind has taken from touch to caress. We shall say, as a paraphrase to the argument above, that the age of humankind is infinitely smaller than the time needed for the step from touch to caress to produce exclusively through the evolution of our species. Ion Mircea About Ion Mircea         He was born in Sărmaş (Mureş County) on September 1st, 1947. He is one of the founding members of the Echinox group and student cultural magazine (1968). In 1971 he graduated from the Faculty of Philology, Romanian-Italian Department, in Cluj-Napoca. From 1990 to 2000 he was the editor-in-chief of Transilvania Magazine, Secretary of the Association of Writers and President of the Constantin Noica European Center for PoetryCultural Dialogue in Sibiu. He is currently the Director of the Department for Romanians Abroad (Romanian Cultural Institute). and East-West He writes poetry, drama, radiophonic and movie scripts, fiction, essays, literary criticism and translations. He has published poetry volumes: Istm (1971), Tobele fragede (1978), Copacul cu 10.000 de imagini (1984), Piramida împădurită (1989), Poezii, author's antology (1996), Şocul oxigenului (2002), Pororoca (2004). The fairy tale Nu Am Nume sau Pereche în căutarea unei inimi inspired the radiophonic script for Pereche în căutarea unei inimi (dramatization: Claudiu Tiţa, art director: Cristian Munteanu), a National Radiophonic Theatre for Children production (1997).  In 1998, the play Noe care ne străbate memoria e o femeie  received the Best Play of the Year Award from the Romanian Association of Theatre Artists, an award offered by The Princess Margarita of RoumaniaFoundation. The following year, the play was printed at Unitext Publishing House. Ion Mircea is the author of the play Iisus Nazarineanul (art director: Gavriil Pinte), a National Radiophonic Theatre production (2004). He has translated from Italian The Byzantines, an antology of studies on the history of mentalities, coordinated by Guglielmo Cavallo, preface by Claudiu Tiţa(Polirom Publishing House, 2000) and Der Mensch des. 19, coordinated by Ute Frevert and Heinz-Gerhard Haupt (Polirom Publishing House, 2002). For the volume Ocolul României în 80 de poeme, cu un jurnal de bord de Ion Mircea, he signs the antology selection, the critical commentary and the foreword (Fundaţia Pro, 2005) and Nichita Stănescu, InvizibilulSoare, antology, preface and note on the edition by Ion Mircea (Corint, 2007). For the volume Copacul cu 10.000 de imagini the author received the Poetry Award from the Writers' Union of Romania(1984). In the same year, he received the Special Poetry Award from the Luceafărul Magazine, while the Amfiteatru and the Viaţa studenţească Magazines named him ‘the most popular Romanian poet of 1984', after a national survey. The Poezii Antology received the SOROS Award from the Writers' Union of Romania in 1997. Ion Mircea's poems have been awarded many awards and distinctions and have been translated in over 15 languages. The author has been nominated to the Mihai Eminescu National Poetry Prize. In 2004 he received the Order of Cultural Merit, Commander.

Sunday, May 22, 11:00 am, at The Black Box Hall of NTB, Prof. Gheorghe Carageani will hold the conference Aromanians: historical, linguistic, cultural and political landmarks.About the conferenceThe key issues related to Aromanians, the South Danubian branch of the Romanian people and the only survivor of Balkan Romanism, will be summarized in a historical, linguistic, cultural and political approach.The theme is timely as a result of the divergent views expressed recently about the status of the Aromanian language or dialect, whose speakers would ethnically form a distinct nation from the Romanians, and Aromanians would be a national minority in Romania. (Prof. Gheorghe Carageani)About Professor Gheorghe CarageaniHe was born on October10, 1939 in Bucharest, of Macedonian-born parents from Avdela.The surname is actually Caragiani, incorrectly transcribed Carageani on his first Identity Card. He is related to the junimist Ioan Caragiani and, both on his mother's and his father's line, to the Papahagi family.He graduated from the Faculty of Philology ofthe University of Bucharest in 1963. At first he worked as a tutor, then as a teaching assistant in the same department, the Department of Romanian. Starting 1970 he was a substitute lecturer at the University of Studies in Naples "L'Orientale" and it was there that he became a lecturer after passing a test (1973),speaker (1982), professor (1986), until his retirement.  Since1987 he has been a Romanian language professor at the Faculty of Political Science, University of Rome "La Sapienza".In 1976 he settled in Italy, became a political refugee and then an Italian citizen.He has published dozens of studies, articles, notes and reviews as well as the volumes: La subordinazione circostanziale ipotatticanella frase del dialetto aromeno (macedoromeno) (IUO Napoli, 1982); Aromanian Studies, Invito alla lettura di Sorescu (IUONaples, 1999, Literary Fund Award of the Romanian Writers Union), Studi linguistici sull'aromeno (Clusium, 2002). He translated (in collaboration with his wife, Gabriella Bertini Carageani) and edited the volume M. Sorescu, Poesie d'amore (Dick Peerson, Naples,1987), he edited and prefaced N. Tommaseo, Canti popolari serbo-croati (Sansoni, Firenze, 1992), P. Cornea, Introduzione alla teoria della lettura (Sansoni, Firenze, 1993), N. Steinhardt, Diario della felicità (il Mulino, Bologna, 1996). (Romanian Cultural Foundation, 1999); He has collaborated with the magazines: Revue roumaine de linguistique, Fonetică şi dialectologie, Limbă şi literatură, Luceafărul, România literară, Zborlu a nostru, Aurora, Revista deŞtiinţe Politice şi Relaţii Internaţionale, Lumina, Studiitalo-romeni; Annali dell'Istituto Universitario Orientale - sezioneromanza, International Journal of Rumanian Studies, Medioevoromanzo, Riscontri, Esperienze letterarie, Balkan-Archiv Neue Folge, Storia contemporanea, Annali della Facoltà di Letteree Filosofia - Università degli Studi della Basilicata, Buletinul Bibliotecii Române - Institutul Român din Freiburg i.Br., Letterature di Frontiera - Littératures Frontalières, I Quaderni di Gaia, Rivistaitaliana di letteratura comparata, LiSt - Quaderni di studi linguistici, Romània Orientale, Eurasiatica, Quaderni della Casa Romena diVenezia, Quaderni del Premio Letterario Giuseppe Acerbi, Annuariodell'Istituto Romeno di Cultura e Ricerca Umanistica di Venezia. He has attended over 40 international congresses and symposia with essays and dissertations. He is a member of Italian and international associations, international board member of the journal Fonetică şi dialectologie.                                                               He was decorated with the National Order of Merit and received the rank of Commander.

On Sunday, April 17th, 11.00 AM, at the Studio Hall of the NTB, Liviu Antonesei will hold a conference on Our Daily Press. A Spectral Analysis of the Post-Decembrist Press. About the Conference I will try to subject to analysis the developments of the free press, placing an emphasis on its main historical moments, its strong and weak points according to this periodization, finally attempting to formulate some suggestions to improve quality and consequently, to enhance credibility. About Liviu Antonesei Born on April 25th, 1953, in Vlădeni, Iaşi. Holding a graduate diploma in Psychology and Sociology and a PhD in  Educational Sciences from the University of Iaşi, he is a writer and teaches - Educational Sciences at Al. I. Cuza University in Iaşi. Also, he is the President of the Timpul National Cultural Foundation, editor of the homonymous magazine, head author of columns in Adevărul,  Observator Cultural, www.iasiuniversitar.ro and ‘owner' of the blog http://antonesei.timpul.ro. Author of more than 6000 articles in the  daily and cultural press. He also practiced radio and TV journalism.  He published 11 fiction books (poetry, prose, essays) and five scientific volumes (educational sciences, political sciences, history, sociology and the philosophy of culture). A few volume titles: The Signs of the Times (essay debut, 1988, second edition, 2007), Pharmakon (poetry debut, 1989), On Love. The Anatomy of a Feeling (essay, 2000, second edition 2010), An Introduction in Pedagogy. The Axiological and Transdisciplinary Dimensions of Education (2003), Check Point Charlie (stories, 2003), Polis and paideia. Seven Studies on Education, Culture and Educative Politics. (2005), Hesperia. Seven Discussions on the European Spirit and its Maladies (2006), La Morrison Hotel (stories, 2008). Soon at Polirom: the volume The Innocent and Collateral Victims of a War with Russia that Never Happened.

On Sunday, April 10th2011, Dan Perjovschi will hold a lecturecalled I walk around the world drawing it! in the Black Box of the NTBAbout the conferenceDan Perjovschi is a graphicdesigner, performance author and illustrator for Revista22, and he can be considered an accomplished artist. He won numerousscholarships, fellowships and grants for art. He draws and exhibits, combiningdrawing and graffiti into works executed directly on the walls of the museumsand contemporary art centres worldwide. His drawings comment on political,social and cultural issues, influenced by the history, traditions and cultureof the exhibiting places. He received George Maciunas Prize in 2004 and Henkel CEEPrize for Contemporary Drawing in 2002, in Vienna. In fact, he does what he has always wanted: he goes through the world drawingit!His lecture, entitled I walk around the world drawing it! andaccompanied by images, will mark 25 years of art and attitude from the Communistcensorship to the art domain aberrations. "Topics to be reached are: the weaknessof the current art scene, underfinanced, ridiculed (pink pony) and the onlycontemporary art museum trapped in Parliament," announces the artist, inthe prologue of the NTB lecture, truly disappointed at this arc over time "in the 90s we were talkingabout freedom, now we talk about money."AboutDan PerjovschiDan Perjovschi is a Romanian artistwho lives in Bucharest and Sibiu, and exhibits in some of the most important museums and art exhibitions inthe world.He was born in 1961, in Sibiu.He attended the art high school in Sibiuand the Art Academyin Iasi.He won numerous scholarships, fellowships and grantsfor art.He exhibits his works around the world. Dan Perjovskidecorated the walls of famous museums such asthe Tate Modern in London and MoMa in New York and exhibited at Macro Roma, Ludwig Köln,Pompidou Paris, Biennale in Venice,Istanbul, Lyon and Moscow.He received George Maciunas Prize in 2004 and HenkelCEE Prize for Contemporary Drawing in 2002, in Vienna. Perjovschi abandoned the pictorial reflection on thenature (static) immediately after graduation to graphically comment on humannature. His drawings are incisive, inspired from the post-revolutionary attitude pressand incorporating elements of raw art, graffiti and caricature. His monumentalscale works are deleted after the exhibition ends. The performing drawing and theephemeral art get him closer to the world of entertainment.Since 1991, Dan Perjovschi, weekly has been illustrating Revista 22.  There are few people today who still know thatthe current National Theatre graphic LOGO was designed by Dan Perjovschi,immediately after 1989, under the directorship of Andrei Şerban. This LOGO has become again the emblem of the National Theatrewith Ion Caramitru's coming as the head of the institution.

Sunday, March 13th, 11 a.m., at  "The Black Box", NTB, His Excellency Kanji Tsushima will hold a conference on the theme Japan seen by a Japanese Man Educated in Romania. His Excellency Kanji Tsushima, former Japanese Ambassador to Bucharest, has activated in the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs for 43 years, 23 of which were spent with the diplomatic mission in Romania. Kanji Tsushima, who speaks Romanian very well, will divulge to us the way in which a diplomat who has spent most of his life abroad perceives his own country. About E.S. Kanji Tsushima                Born in 1943 in Kyoto, Japan. In 1962 he becomes a student of the Faculty of Management of the Doshisha University in Kyoto. In 1965 he takes his decree in diplomacy and is hired by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In September the same year he is sent to Bucharest to learn Romanian, which he studies, for a year, at the Romanian Language Department for Foreign Students and then, for another two years at the Faculty of History at the University of Bucharest. In July 1968 he completes his first diplomatic mission in Romania. 1968-1973: Desk Officer for the South-Eastern European countries, including Romania, within the East European Section of the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs. 1973-1978: The second diplomatic mission in Romania, period in which he witnesses the 1977 earthquake. 1978: Deputy Manager of the East European Section in Tokyo. In 1979 he accompanies the Crown Prince (current Emperor) on the occasion of His Highness' visit to Romania 1981- 1984: Consul at the Japanese Consulate in New York 1984- 1988: Political and cultural Secretary at the Japanese Embassy in Hungary 1988: The third diplomatic mission at the Japanese Embassy in Bucharest. The revolution from December 1989 caught him working. 1994: Chief of the Security Section of the Japanese Embassies around the world. 1997: Secretary-General at the Foreign Press Center in Tokyo 2001: General Consul of Japan in Porto Alegre, Brazil 2003: Japanese Ambassador to Mozambique 2006: Japanese Ambassador to Bucharest ( the fourth diplomatic mission in Romania) 2008: He retires from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Currently, he is a member of the International Committee of the Kendo Federation in Japan and manager of the Japanese-Romanian Association for Classical Music.