Romani Online in UK

'The Lost World Of Old Europe' Exhibition At The Ashmolean Museum In Oxford (All Day)
THE LOST WORLD OF OLD EUROPE
The Danube Valley, 5000 – 3500 BC
supported by the Leon Levy foundation

20 May – 15 August 2010, Temporary Exhibition Galleries, Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology, University of Oxford, Beaumont Street, Oxford OX1 2PH

Tel. 01865 278 000 • Tickets: £6.00 / £4.00 concession • www.ashmolean.org

A series of related events and offers will be organised in conjunction with the Ratiu Foundation / Romanian Cultural Centre. Details to follow soon.

With major loans from Romania, Bulgaria and Moldova, ‘The Lost World of Old Europe’, the new exhibition at the Ashmolean, presents more than 250 artefacts recovered by archaeologists from the settlements and cemeteries of ‘Old Europe’. This remarkable exhibition of gold, pottery and archaeological finds from the prehistoric civilisation of the Danube Valley, in southeast Europe, is presented in Britain for the first time.

Highlights of the exhibition include the ‘Thinker’ and Female Figurine from Cernavoda, as well as many ceramic and metallurgical pieces from the Cucuteni culture in Romania.

Before the invention of writing and the first cities of Mesopotamia and Egypt were established in 4500 BC, ‘Old Europe’ was among the most technologically advanced and sophisticated places in the world. Highlights of the exhibition include the earliest major assemblage of gold artefacts to be found in the world from the Varna cemetery, Bulgaria, along with elaborate female figurines, stunning painted pottery and metalwork.

Although archaeological work has taken place in the region since the end of the 19th century, there is little awareness of the wealth of its prehistoric cultural heritage due to the confines of the late 20th century ‘Cold War’. Today with new studies and international exhibitions, recognition of the early prehistory of south-eastern Europe enters a new exciting era.

The exhibition has been organised by the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World at New York University (ISAW) in collaboration with the National History Museum of Romania, Bucharest, and with the participation of the Varna Regional Museum of History, Bulgaria and the National Museum of Archaeology and History of Moldova, Chisinau; and has been made possible by the Leon Levy Foundation.

Image above: Female Figurine, fired clay. Cucuteni, Draguseni, 4050 – 3900 BC, Botosani County Museum, Romania. Courtesy of the Ashmolean.

Romanian Curator Mihnea Mircan At The David Roberts Art Foundation, London (09:00 - 10:00)
The Ratiu Foundation / Romanian Cultural Centre in London would like to invite you to the exhibition

CURATORS’ SERIES #3 HISTORY OF ART, THE

a project curated by MIHNEA MIRCAN

for THE DAVID ROBERTS ART FOUNDATION

7 May to 10 July 2010, David Roberts Art Foundation, 111 Great Titchfield Street, London W1W 6RY; www.davidrobertsartfoundation.com
Opening times: Tuesday to Friday 10.00 – 18.00; Saturday 11.00 – 16.00. Nearest tube: Oxford Circus / Great Portland Street. Opening reception: 6 May 2010, from 18.30.

Mihnea Mircan is the third guest curator in the Curators’ Series invited by The David Roberts Art Foundation. Mircan’s group exhibition ‘History of Art, the’, looks at how contemporary artists navigate art history, and groups works that lay out the rules of their future interpretation or negotiate their inscription in an art history to come.

The exhibition brings together practices that explore the symbolic transactions, institutional protocols and historiographic disconnections between contemporary art and the discourse of art history. The works in the exhibition range from sculpture and installation to photography and video, and include new pieces especially commissioned by the David Roberts Art Foundation. The exhibition features works by Agency, Nina Beier and Marie Lund, Pavel Buchler, Etienne Chambaud, Luc Deleu, Alison Gerber, Hilario Isola and Matteo Norzi, Ian Law, Alon Levin, Jill Magid, Benoit Maire, Navid Nuur, Jonas Staal and Mladen Stilinovic.

The curator invites us to ask the questions: How will contemporary art works be recuperated, as indispensable to an understanding of our present artistic moment? How can they ensure their own relevance to art history and question its capacity to imagine the future? From the point of view of what they will mean, how and to whom, can works of art administrate themselves – and therefore become quasi-institutions?

Romanian born Mihnea Mircan (b. 1976) curated the exhibition ‘Sublime Objects’ and the ‘Under Destruction’ series of interventions at the National Museum of Contemporary Art (MNAC) in Bucharest, Romania, as well as mid-career surveys of artists such as Jaan Toomik and Sean Snyder. He was the curator of ‘Low-Budget Monuments’, the Romanian Pavilion at the 52nd Venice Biennial (2007). His latest project is the exhibition ‘Since we last spoke about monuments’ at Stroom Den Haag. He contributes regularly to international publications, having recently written for monographs of Plamen Dejanoff, Mircea Cantor and Deimantas Narkevicius. ‘History of Art, the’ is his first exhibition in London.

Mihnea Mircan is editing a publication, titled ‘The Impresent’, to accompany the exhibition, sponsored by Abake.

The exhibition is supported by the National Lottery through Arts Council England, the Mondriaan Foundation, Amsterdam, and the Ratiu Foundation. The David Roberts Art Foundation would also like to thank the Romanian Cultural Institute in London for their support and assistance. The David Roberts Art Foundation is proudly supported by the Edinburgh House Estates group of companies.

Image above: Pavel Buchler, Bulgarian Group Portrait, 1999-2010. Courtesy of the artist.

City Skills For Life: Romanian Project At The London Festival Of Architecture 2010 (09:00 - 10:00)

City Skills for Life calls in a team of architects, designers and video artists whose work celebrates the paradoxical nature of Bucharest: a welcoming urban chaos which moves forward as (un)planned. The individual projects document the psychological contract between the city and its dwellers, contrasting it with London. They aim to show how the 'unstructured structure' of the urban environment can in fact be welcoming - and possibly addictive : its organic growth provides bizarre but very substantial life-energy and skills.

Monday 21 June, 7pm @ ICR London
Lecture, exhibition opening & screening

Two architects look at Bucharest's infamous building - Ceausescu's People's Palace - and attempt to unfold its grim history.

Augustin Ioan's lecture Resisting Interpretations: The House of the People's Dead Duck gives the political and sociological reading of the mega-building which occupies the imagination of all Romanians.

Anda Stefan's exhibition of large-size photography takes us in the belly of the building, showing previously unseen spaces of surreal architectural achievement and neglect.

Eugen Ciocan's documentary explores the uncanny ways in which people find gratification in living in Bucharest, whereas Dorin Stefan's 6' cine-verite piece captures 3 simultaneous layers of Bucharest (pavement; built space; skyline) in a labyrinth of the would-be forest not-surrounding the Peoples' Palace.

19 June - 4 July
Outdoor installation: Bermondsey Square & Golden Square, London

Carmen Secareanu's outdoor installation Welcoming Fields of huge, white, wind-flowers creates a cooling field in the city, an invitation for people to enjoy the light breeze, to stop in the shade and maybe write their thoughts on the petals. The Romanian project at the London Festival of Architecture is curated by Gabriela Massaci.

When: Exhibition: 21 June - 3 July | Mon - Sat | 12-6 pm. Outdoor installation: 19 June - 4 July
Where: Romanian Cultural Institute, Bermondsey Square & Golden Square, London
Free entrance.

Ileana Pintilie @ Attic Arts (09:00 - 10:00)

Ileana Pintilie is an art critic and curator, professor at the Arts University in Timisoara, Romania. Her books include Actionism in Romania During the Communist Era and the volume Mitteleuropäische Paradigmen in Südosteuropa. Ein Beitrag zur Kultur der Deutschen im Banat (with Roxana Nubert). She has also published a number of articles and essays on contemporary art in Romania and abroad in international catalogues and volumes. In 1994 Pintilie won a National Award for Art Criticism. She is a contributing editor of ARTMargins. She organised and curated the performance art festival Zona in Timisoara, as well as many solo and group exhibitions in Romania and abroad.

During the residency Ileana Pintilie will investigate artistic and philosophical concepts in Paul Neagu's work, researching the archives of the Paul Neagu Estate in London and the Tate Collection.

When: 7 June - 5 August 2010;
Where: Romanian Cultural Institute London.

Exhibition: Toma Arnautoiu And The Anti-Communist Resistance In Romania (09:00 - 10:00)
6 July to 1 August 2010, at The Ratiu Foundation / Romanian Cultural Centre, Manchester Square, 18 Fitzhardinge Street, London W1H 6EQ; Tel. 020 7486 0295 ext. 108;
e-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . Free admission. Opening times: Mon-Fri, 12.00-18.00. Booking essential, by phone or e-mail. Please mention the name of the event in the subject line. Private View on Tuesday 6 July 2010.
The public will have the chance to see for the first time in Britain images and documents coming straight from the archives of the feared Securitate, the Romanian secret police, about the anti-communist resistance group led by Toma Arnautoiu. After the fall of the communist regime in December 1989, these archives have been kept shut for a long time, with limited access, until the establishment of a special commission to oversee it, in 1999.
Armed resistance to communism in Romania is little known, even in Romania, and this exhibition gives the lie to the propaganda myth that communism was embraced with joy by everybody in Eastern Europe.
Details on www.romanianculturalcentre.org.uk

Culture Power: Toma Arnautoiu And The Anti-Communist Resistance In Romania, A Presentation By Ioana (19:00 - 20:00)
Tuesday 6 July 2010, 19.00, at The Ratiu Foundation / Romanian Cultural Centre, Manchester Square, 18 Fitzhardinge Street, London W1H 6EQ; Tel. 020 7486 0295 ext. 108;
e-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ; Entry is free but booking is essential, by phone or e-mail. Please mention the name of the event in the subject line.
Hosted by British author, historian and curator, Dr Mike Phillips OBE.
This is the story of Toma Arnautoiu and of one of the most long-lived anti-communist partisan groups in Eastern Europe. The group was started in 1949 and for almost ten years it gave the Securitate (the Romanian secret police) and its leaders huge headaches. This is a story that almost nobody knew in Romania, and is told by Toma’s daughter, Ioana Voicu-Arnautoiu – who found out her true identity only in 1990, after the communist regime was deposed – and through original documents from the archives of the Securitate. Ioana published part of the story on www.tomaarnautoiu.ro
The talk will be accompanied by the screening of a short introductory film by Monica Tanase and an exhibition of photographs and documents from the Securitate archives about Toma Arnautoiu and his resistance group.
A Q&A session with with Ioana Voicu-Arnautoiu and Christian Mititelu will take place after the presentation, chaired by Dr Mike Phillips.
Details on www.romanianculturalcentre.org.uk

'The Lost World Of Old Europe' Exhibition At The Ashmolean Museum In Oxford (All Day)
THE LOST WORLD OF OLD EUROPE
The Danube Valley, 5000 – 3500 BC
supported by the Leon Levy foundation

20 May – 15 August 2010, Temporary Exhibition Galleries, Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology, University of Oxford, Beaumont Street, Oxford OX1 2PH

Tel. 01865 278 000 • Tickets: £6.00 / £4.00 concession • www.ashmolean.org

A series of related events and offers will be organised in conjunction with the Ratiu Foundation / Romanian Cultural Centre. Details to follow soon.

With major loans from Romania, Bulgaria and Moldova, ‘The Lost World of Old Europe’, the new exhibition at the Ashmolean, presents more than 250 artefacts recovered by archaeologists from the settlements and cemeteries of ‘Old Europe’. This remarkable exhibition of gold, pottery and archaeological finds from the prehistoric civilisation of the Danube Valley, in southeast Europe, is presented in Britain for the first time.

Highlights of the exhibition include the ‘Thinker’ and Female Figurine from Cernavoda, as well as many ceramic and metallurgical pieces from the Cucuteni culture in Romania.

Before the invention of writing and the first cities of Mesopotamia and Egypt were established in 4500 BC, ‘Old Europe’ was among the most technologically advanced and sophisticated places in the world. Highlights of the exhibition include the earliest major assemblage of gold artefacts to be found in the world from the Varna cemetery, Bulgaria, along with elaborate female figurines, stunning painted pottery and metalwork.

Although archaeological work has taken place in the region since the end of the 19th century, there is little awareness of the wealth of its prehistoric cultural heritage due to the confines of the late 20th century ‘Cold War’. Today with new studies and international exhibitions, recognition of the early prehistory of south-eastern Europe enters a new exciting era.

The exhibition has been organised by the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World at New York University (ISAW) in collaboration with the National History Museum of Romania, Bucharest, and with the participation of the Varna Regional Museum of History, Bulgaria and the National Museum of Archaeology and History of Moldova, Chisinau; and has been made possible by the Leon Levy Foundation.

Image above: Female Figurine, fired clay. Cucuteni, Draguseni, 4050 – 3900 BC, Botosani County Museum, Romania. Courtesy of the Ashmolean.

Invitation To Composers: As You Like It (20:00 - 22:00)

Invitation to Composers is a unique, two-year project, funded by the European Cultural Fund, that encourages modern-day composers to write new works, inspired by celebrated musical ideas of the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries and enhanced by cultural elements from the composers' own indigenous heritage.

The Institute is happy to support this ground-breaking international project, with events in the United Kingdom, France and Romania.
Full details about the project at: www.invitationtocomposers.co.uk.

The second event will be a concert given by the London Schubert Players Septet with four World Premieres, inspired by Saint-Saëns' Septet Op. 65 in E flat.

With the participation of the London Schubert Players, pianist Anda Anastasescu and guest pianists Eralys Fernandez (Cuba) and Lachezar Stankov (Bulgaria).

London Schubert Players Septet
Anda Anastasescu - Piano
Huw Morgan - Trumpet
Darragh Morgan - First Violin
Lisa Oberg - Second Violin
Ricardo Zwietisch - Viola
Nikolay Ginov - Cello
Mihai Cretu - Double Bass

Programme
Saint-Saëns: Septet Op. 65 in E flat
Lucian Zbarcea: A Lover's Promise (World Première)
Ivan Božicevic: Marittimo (World Première)
Uberto Pieroni: Foglie d'autumno (World Première)
Rodney Waschka II: Winter Concerto (World Première)

Click here for the full programme and biographies.

The project is organised in partnership with

When: Thursday 8 July 2010, 8pm;
Where: Romanian Cultural Institute London.

Free entrance.

Romanian Curator Mihnea Mircan At The David Roberts Art Foundation, London (09:00 - 10:00)
The Ratiu Foundation / Romanian Cultural Centre in London would like to invite you to the exhibition

CURATORS’ SERIES #3 HISTORY OF ART, THE

a project curated by MIHNEA MIRCAN

for THE DAVID ROBERTS ART FOUNDATION

7 May to 10 July 2010, David Roberts Art Foundation, 111 Great Titchfield Street, London W1W 6RY; www.davidrobertsartfoundation.com
Opening times: Tuesday to Friday 10.00 – 18.00; Saturday 11.00 – 16.00. Nearest tube: Oxford Circus / Great Portland Street. Opening reception: 6 May 2010, from 18.30.

Mihnea Mircan is the third guest curator in the Curators’ Series invited by The David Roberts Art Foundation. Mircan’s group exhibition ‘History of Art, the’, looks at how contemporary artists navigate art history, and groups works that lay out the rules of their future interpretation or negotiate their inscription in an art history to come.

The exhibition brings together practices that explore the symbolic transactions, institutional protocols and historiographic disconnections between contemporary art and the discourse of art history. The works in the exhibition range from sculpture and installation to photography and video, and include new pieces especially commissioned by the David Roberts Art Foundation. The exhibition features works by Agency, Nina Beier and Marie Lund, Pavel Buchler, Etienne Chambaud, Luc Deleu, Alison Gerber, Hilario Isola and Matteo Norzi, Ian Law, Alon Levin, Jill Magid, Benoit Maire, Navid Nuur, Jonas Staal and Mladen Stilinovic.

The curator invites us to ask the questions: How will contemporary art works be recuperated, as indispensable to an understanding of our present artistic moment? How can they ensure their own relevance to art history and question its capacity to imagine the future? From the point of view of what they will mean, how and to whom, can works of art administrate themselves – and therefore become quasi-institutions?

Romanian born Mihnea Mircan (b. 1976) curated the exhibition ‘Sublime Objects’ and the ‘Under Destruction’ series of interventions at the National Museum of Contemporary Art (MNAC) in Bucharest, Romania, as well as mid-career surveys of artists such as Jaan Toomik and Sean Snyder. He was the curator of ‘Low-Budget Monuments’, the Romanian Pavilion at the 52nd Venice Biennial (2007). His latest project is the exhibition ‘Since we last spoke about monuments’ at Stroom Den Haag. He contributes regularly to international publications, having recently written for monographs of Plamen Dejanoff, Mircea Cantor and Deimantas Narkevicius. ‘History of Art, the’ is his first exhibition in London.

Mihnea Mircan is editing a publication, titled ‘The Impresent’, to accompany the exhibition, sponsored by Abake.

The exhibition is supported by the National Lottery through Arts Council England, the Mondriaan Foundation, Amsterdam, and the Ratiu Foundation. The David Roberts Art Foundation would also like to thank the Romanian Cultural Institute in London for their support and assistance. The David Roberts Art Foundation is proudly supported by the Edinburgh House Estates group of companies.

Image above: Pavel Buchler, Bulgarian Group Portrait, 1999-2010. Courtesy of the artist.

X _Street AudioBook Launch (19:00 - 21:00)

Put on the headphones,
tune into the soundtrack,
turn the first page.
Embark on the journey of a minibus heading towards Bethnal Green that gets lost on the way.
Peep into the lives of people as it passes by and
immerse yourself into their bedrooms, kitchens, fridges, pockets and minds.

Blending images with sound, puzzles and text, the audiobook gives a multi-dimensional perspective to different stories that speak about the social impact of the 2012 Olympic redevelopment on the lifestyles of a community just round the corner.

The audiobook is based on X Street, a site-specific performance by réaltympanica which will be performed on 14 & 15 July as part of London Festival of Architecture. More details here.

X_Street [audiobook] was devised, designed and assembled by Romanian artists Zoe Olaru and Ioana Paun together with artists Marcin Dudek, Renata Gaspar, Kevin Molin, Mike Picknett and Robert Redmer.


audiobook sample

Developed by the Romanian Cultural Institute in London through the Attic Arts residency programme.

When: Friday 9 July, 7pm;
Where: Romanian Cultural Institute, 1 Belgrave Square, London SW1X 8PH
Free entrance. Booking essential: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it | 07915326387 | This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it | 02077520134.

Ileana Pintilie @ Attic Arts (09:00 - 10:00)

Ileana Pintilie is an art critic and curator, professor at the Arts University in Timisoara, Romania. Her books include Actionism in Romania During the Communist Era and the volume Mitteleuropäische Paradigmen in Südosteuropa. Ein Beitrag zur Kultur der Deutschen im Banat (with Roxana Nubert). She has also published a number of articles and essays on contemporary art in Romania and abroad in international catalogues and volumes. In 1994 Pintilie won a National Award for Art Criticism. She is a contributing editor of ARTMargins. She organised and curated the performance art festival Zona in Timisoara, as well as many solo and group exhibitions in Romania and abroad.

During the residency Ileana Pintilie will investigate artistic and philosophical concepts in Paul Neagu's work, researching the archives of the Paul Neagu Estate in London and the Tate Collection.

When: 7 June - 5 August 2010;
Where: Romanian Cultural Institute London.

Exhibition: Toma Arnautoiu And The Anti-Communist Resistance In Romania (09:00 - 10:00)
6 July to 1 August 2010, at The Ratiu Foundation / Romanian Cultural Centre, Manchester Square, 18 Fitzhardinge Street, London W1H 6EQ; Tel. 020 7486 0295 ext. 108;
e-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . Free admission. Opening times: Mon-Fri, 12.00-18.00. Booking essential, by phone or e-mail. Please mention the name of the event in the subject line. Private View on Tuesday 6 July 2010.
The public will have the chance to see for the first time in Britain images and documents coming straight from the archives of the feared Securitate, the Romanian secret police, about the anti-communist resistance group led by Toma Arnautoiu. After the fall of the communist regime in December 1989, these archives have been kept shut for a long time, with limited access, until the establishment of a special commission to oversee it, in 1999.
Armed resistance to communism in Romania is little known, even in Romania, and this exhibition gives the lie to the propaganda myth that communism was embraced with joy by everybody in Eastern Europe.
Details on www.romanianculturalcentre.org.uk

Romanian Cinematheque - California Dreamin' (Endless) (19:00 - 21:00)
The Romanian Cultural Institute in London launches a new project: the Romanian Cinematheque - a year-round programme that brings the best Romanian films to London, from iconic Hollywood director Jean Negulesco and the mid '60s cinema-verité master Lucian Pintilie to the 'new wave' of award-winning directors Cristi Puiu, Corneliu Porumboiu and Cristian Mungiu amongst others. Insightful and inclusive, the programme traces back today's spectacular leap onto front-page and red carpets to the time when Romanian directors made astonishing film well-beyond the constraints of a repressive system. If you are passionate about film, join us for the most exciting journey - the Romanian Cinematheque, monthly, at the Romanian Cultural Institute.

Wednesday 17 March, 7pm
The Death of Mr Lazarescu by Cristi Puiu
Romania | 2005 | col | 153min | Cert.15| cast: Ion Fiscuteanu, Luminita Gheorghiu, Gabriel Spahiu

Introduced by Time Out film critic Dave Calhoun
A retired engineer shares his dour Bucharest apartment with three cats. One night he becomes ill and calls an ambulance. No hospital, however, is willing to accept him, and as the night wears on, his condition gets worse. This seemingly bleak scenario, awarded Un Certain Regard at the 2005 Festival de Cannes, depicts a universal theme - death and hospitals - with humanity and dark humor. The terrible, meditative power of Puiu's film is that while we, the viewer, are all-knowing from the off, Mr Lazarescu himself knows nothing of his impending fate. He dies, delirious and muttering about his family, headaches and painkillers, in the company not even of strangers but alone on a hospital trolley, naked and his head shaved ready for surgery. No hails of bullets, weepy farewells, hysterical resuscitation efforts or soppy flashbacks for Puiu; this is death as cinema rarely does it - credibly. Dave Calhoun
Inspired by real events, its appeal is the clever way it involves the viewer emotionally, keeping him breathless in a race against the clock.
Alex Leo Serban

April - July Programme
Thu 15 April, 7.00pm: Reenactment
România | 1968 | b&w | 100min | dir. Lucian Pintilie| cast: George Constantin, Emil Botta, George Mihaita, Vladimir Gaitan, Ernest Maftei, Ileana Popovici, Nicky Wolcz, Stefan Moisescu

Thu 27 May, 7.00pm: Philanthropy
Romania - France | 2002 | 110min | dir. Nae Caranfil | cast: Mircea Diaconu, Gheorghe Dinica, Mara Nicolescu, Florin Zamfirescu, Marius Florea Vizante, Florin Calinescu

Tue 15 June, 7.00pm: A Girl's Tear
Romania | 1980 | 83min | dir: Iosif Demian | cast: Anton Aftenie, Dorel Visan, George Bussun, George Negoescu, Luiza Orosz, Costel Radulescu, Horia Baciu, Dragos Paslaru

Tue 13 July, 7.00pm: California Dreamin' (Endless) Romania | 2007 | 155min | dir. Cristian Nemescu | cast: Armand Assante, Razvan Vasilescu, Jamie Elman, Maria Dinulescu


CNCRomanian Cinematheque is a partnership project with the National Centre for Cinematography in Romania (CNC).
All films have English subtitles.

When: 17 March 2010, 7.00 pm;
Where: Romanian Cultural Institute London.
Free entrance. To attend please email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or call 0207 752 0134.
Early booking recommended.

'The Lost World Of Old Europe' Exhibition At The Ashmolean Museum In Oxford (All Day)
THE LOST WORLD OF OLD EUROPE
The Danube Valley, 5000 – 3500 BC
supported by the Leon Levy foundation

20 May – 15 August 2010, Temporary Exhibition Galleries, Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology, University of Oxford, Beaumont Street, Oxford OX1 2PH

Tel. 01865 278 000 • Tickets: £6.00 / £4.00 concession • www.ashmolean.org

A series of related events and offers will be organised in conjunction with the Ratiu Foundation / Romanian Cultural Centre. Details to follow soon.

With major loans from Romania, Bulgaria and Moldova, ‘The Lost World of Old Europe’, the new exhibition at the Ashmolean, presents more than 250 artefacts recovered by archaeologists from the settlements and cemeteries of ‘Old Europe’. This remarkable exhibition of gold, pottery and archaeological finds from the prehistoric civilisation of the Danube Valley, in southeast Europe, is presented in Britain for the first time.

Highlights of the exhibition include the ‘Thinker’ and Female Figurine from Cernavoda, as well as many ceramic and metallurgical pieces from the Cucuteni culture in Romania.

Before the invention of writing and the first cities of Mesopotamia and Egypt were established in 4500 BC, ‘Old Europe’ was among the most technologically advanced and sophisticated places in the world. Highlights of the exhibition include the earliest major assemblage of gold artefacts to be found in the world from the Varna cemetery, Bulgaria, along with elaborate female figurines, stunning painted pottery and metalwork.

Although archaeological work has taken place in the region since the end of the 19th century, there is little awareness of the wealth of its prehistoric cultural heritage due to the confines of the late 20th century ‘Cold War’. Today with new studies and international exhibitions, recognition of the early prehistory of south-eastern Europe enters a new exciting era.

The exhibition has been organised by the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World at New York University (ISAW) in collaboration with the National History Museum of Romania, Bucharest, and with the participation of the Varna Regional Museum of History, Bulgaria and the National Museum of Archaeology and History of Moldova, Chisinau; and has been made possible by the Leon Levy Foundation.

Image above: Female Figurine, fired clay. Cucuteni, Draguseni, 4050 – 3900 BC, Botosani County Museum, Romania. Courtesy of the Ashmolean.

Romanian Curator Mihnea Mircan At The David Roberts Art Foundation, London (09:00 - 10:00)
The Ratiu Foundation / Romanian Cultural Centre in London would like to invite you to the exhibition

CURATORS’ SERIES #3 HISTORY OF ART, THE

a project curated by MIHNEA MIRCAN

for THE DAVID ROBERTS ART FOUNDATION

7 May to 10 July 2010, David Roberts Art Foundation, 111 Great Titchfield Street, London W1W 6RY; www.davidrobertsartfoundation.com
Opening times: Tuesday to Friday 10.00 – 18.00; Saturday 11.00 – 16.00. Nearest tube: Oxford Circus / Great Portland Street. Opening reception: 6 May 2010, from 18.30.

Mihnea Mircan is the third guest curator in the Curators’ Series invited by The David Roberts Art Foundation. Mircan’s group exhibition ‘History of Art, the’, looks at how contemporary artists navigate art history, and groups works that lay out the rules of their future interpretation or negotiate their inscription in an art history to come.

The exhibition brings together practices that explore the symbolic transactions, institutional protocols and historiographic disconnections between contemporary art and the discourse of art history. The works in the exhibition range from sculpture and installation to photography and video, and include new pieces especially commissioned by the David Roberts Art Foundation. The exhibition features works by Agency, Nina Beier and Marie Lund, Pavel Buchler, Etienne Chambaud, Luc Deleu, Alison Gerber, Hilario Isola and Matteo Norzi, Ian Law, Alon Levin, Jill Magid, Benoit Maire, Navid Nuur, Jonas Staal and Mladen Stilinovic.

The curator invites us to ask the questions: How will contemporary art works be recuperated, as indispensable to an understanding of our present artistic moment? How can they ensure their own relevance to art history and question its capacity to imagine the future? From the point of view of what they will mean, how and to whom, can works of art administrate themselves – and therefore become quasi-institutions?

Romanian born Mihnea Mircan (b. 1976) curated the exhibition ‘Sublime Objects’ and the ‘Under Destruction’ series of interventions at the National Museum of Contemporary Art (MNAC) in Bucharest, Romania, as well as mid-career surveys of artists such as Jaan Toomik and Sean Snyder. He was the curator of ‘Low-Budget Monuments’, the Romanian Pavilion at the 52nd Venice Biennial (2007). His latest project is the exhibition ‘Since we last spoke about monuments’ at Stroom Den Haag. He contributes regularly to international publications, having recently written for monographs of Plamen Dejanoff, Mircea Cantor and Deimantas Narkevicius. ‘History of Art, the’ is his first exhibition in London.

Mihnea Mircan is editing a publication, titled ‘The Impresent’, to accompany the exhibition, sponsored by Abake.

The exhibition is supported by the National Lottery through Arts Council England, the Mondriaan Foundation, Amsterdam, and the Ratiu Foundation. The David Roberts Art Foundation would also like to thank the Romanian Cultural Institute in London for their support and assistance. The David Roberts Art Foundation is proudly supported by the Edinburgh House Estates group of companies.

Image above: Pavel Buchler, Bulgarian Group Portrait, 1999-2010. Courtesy of the artist.

Ileana Pintilie @ Attic Arts (09:00 - 10:00)

Ileana Pintilie is an art critic and curator, professor at the Arts University in Timisoara, Romania. Her books include Actionism in Romania During the Communist Era and the volume Mitteleuropäische Paradigmen in Südosteuropa. Ein Beitrag zur Kultur der Deutschen im Banat (with Roxana Nubert). She has also published a number of articles and essays on contemporary art in Romania and abroad in international catalogues and volumes. In 1994 Pintilie won a National Award for Art Criticism. She is a contributing editor of ARTMargins. She organised and curated the performance art festival Zona in Timisoara, as well as many solo and group exhibitions in Romania and abroad.

During the residency Ileana Pintilie will investigate artistic and philosophical concepts in Paul Neagu's work, researching the archives of the Paul Neagu Estate in London and the Tate Collection.

When: 7 June - 5 August 2010;
Where: Romanian Cultural Institute London.

Exhibition: Toma Arnautoiu And The Anti-Communist Resistance In Romania (09:00 - 10:00)
6 July to 1 August 2010, at The Ratiu Foundation / Romanian Cultural Centre, Manchester Square, 18 Fitzhardinge Street, London W1H 6EQ; Tel. 020 7486 0295 ext. 108;
e-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . Free admission. Opening times: Mon-Fri, 12.00-18.00. Booking essential, by phone or e-mail. Please mention the name of the event in the subject line. Private View on Tuesday 6 July 2010.
The public will have the chance to see for the first time in Britain images and documents coming straight from the archives of the feared Securitate, the Romanian secret police, about the anti-communist resistance group led by Toma Arnautoiu. After the fall of the communist regime in December 1989, these archives have been kept shut for a long time, with limited access, until the establishment of a special commission to oversee it, in 1999.
Armed resistance to communism in Romania is little known, even in Romania, and this exhibition gives the lie to the propaganda myth that communism was embraced with joy by everybody in Eastern Europe.
Details on www.romanianculturalcentre.org.uk

'The Lost World Of Old Europe' Exhibition At The Ashmolean Museum In Oxford (All Day)
THE LOST WORLD OF OLD EUROPE
The Danube Valley, 5000 – 3500 BC
supported by the Leon Levy foundation

20 May – 15 August 2010, Temporary Exhibition Galleries, Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology, University of Oxford, Beaumont Street, Oxford OX1 2PH

Tel. 01865 278 000 • Tickets: £6.00 / £4.00 concession • www.ashmolean.org

A series of related events and offers will be organised in conjunction with the Ratiu Foundation / Romanian Cultural Centre. Details to follow soon.

With major loans from Romania, Bulgaria and Moldova, ‘The Lost World of Old Europe’, the new exhibition at the Ashmolean, presents more than 250 artefacts recovered by archaeologists from the settlements and cemeteries of ‘Old Europe’. This remarkable exhibition of gold, pottery and archaeological finds from the prehistoric civilisation of the Danube Valley, in southeast Europe, is presented in Britain for the first time.

Highlights of the exhibition include the ‘Thinker’ and Female Figurine from Cernavoda, as well as many ceramic and metallurgical pieces from the Cucuteni culture in Romania.

Before the invention of writing and the first cities of Mesopotamia and Egypt were established in 4500 BC, ‘Old Europe’ was among the most technologically advanced and sophisticated places in the world. Highlights of the exhibition include the earliest major assemblage of gold artefacts to be found in the world from the Varna cemetery, Bulgaria, along with elaborate female figurines, stunning painted pottery and metalwork.

Although archaeological work has taken place in the region since the end of the 19th century, there is little awareness of the wealth of its prehistoric cultural heritage due to the confines of the late 20th century ‘Cold War’. Today with new studies and international exhibitions, recognition of the early prehistory of south-eastern Europe enters a new exciting era.

The exhibition has been organised by the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World at New York University (ISAW) in collaboration with the National History Museum of Romania, Bucharest, and with the participation of the Varna Regional Museum of History, Bulgaria and the National Museum of Archaeology and History of Moldova, Chisinau; and has been made possible by the Leon Levy Foundation.

Image above: Female Figurine, fired clay. Cucuteni, Draguseni, 4050 – 3900 BC, Botosani County Museum, Romania. Courtesy of the Ashmolean.

Florin Ungureanu In East Wing Nine: EXHIBITIONISM, The Art Of Display (08:00 - 09:00)
East Wing Nine
EXHIBITIONISM
The Art of Display, at The Courtauld Institute of Art, Somerset House London
http://www.eastwingnine.co.uk , please click and drag the images that appear into to the frame to see more images!

Open to the public first weekend of each month from 23 January 2010 to July 2011.

There are 11 different zones in the show:

1. Introduction
2. Cabinet of Curiosities
3. The Private Collection
4. Distance & Illusion
5. Other Men's Flowers
6. Fragments
7. Pop-up Exhibition
8. Material Boundaries
9. Reproduction
10 Academy Hang: My painting is there!
11. Video

More info on: http://www.courtauld.ac.uk/east_wing/

Romanian Curator Mihnea Mircan At The David Roberts Art Foundation, London (09:00 - 10:00)
The Ratiu Foundation / Romanian Cultural Centre in London would like to invite you to the exhibition

CURATORS’ SERIES #3 HISTORY OF ART, THE

a project curated by MIHNEA MIRCAN

for THE DAVID ROBERTS ART FOUNDATION

7 May to 10 July 2010, David Roberts Art Foundation, 111 Great Titchfield Street, London W1W 6RY; www.davidrobertsartfoundation.com
Opening times: Tuesday to Friday 10.00 – 18.00; Saturday 11.00 – 16.00. Nearest tube: Oxford Circus / Great Portland Street. Opening reception: 6 May 2010, from 18.30.

Mihnea Mircan is the third guest curator in the Curators’ Series invited by The David Roberts Art Foundation. Mircan’s group exhibition ‘History of Art, the’, looks at how contemporary artists navigate art history, and groups works that lay out the rules of their future interpretation or negotiate their inscription in an art history to come.

The exhibition brings together practices that explore the symbolic transactions, institutional protocols and historiographic disconnections between contemporary art and the discourse of art history. The works in the exhibition range from sculpture and installation to photography and video, and include new pieces especially commissioned by the David Roberts Art Foundation. The exhibition features works by Agency, Nina Beier and Marie Lund, Pavel Buchler, Etienne Chambaud, Luc Deleu, Alison Gerber, Hilario Isola and Matteo Norzi, Ian Law, Alon Levin, Jill Magid, Benoit Maire, Navid Nuur, Jonas Staal and Mladen Stilinovic.

The curator invites us to ask the questions: How will contemporary art works be recuperated, as indispensable to an understanding of our present artistic moment? How can they ensure their own relevance to art history and question its capacity to imagine the future? From the point of view of what they will mean, how and to whom, can works of art administrate themselves – and therefore become quasi-institutions?

Romanian born Mihnea Mircan (b. 1976) curated the exhibition ‘Sublime Objects’ and the ‘Under Destruction’ series of interventions at the National Museum of Contemporary Art (MNAC) in Bucharest, Romania, as well as mid-career surveys of artists such as Jaan Toomik and Sean Snyder. He was the curator of ‘Low-Budget Monuments’, the Romanian Pavilion at the 52nd Venice Biennial (2007). His latest project is the exhibition ‘Since we last spoke about monuments’ at Stroom Den Haag. He contributes regularly to international publications, having recently written for monographs of Plamen Dejanoff, Mircea Cantor and Deimantas Narkevicius. ‘History of Art, the’ is his first exhibition in London.

Mihnea Mircan is editing a publication, titled ‘The Impresent’, to accompany the exhibition, sponsored by Abake.

The exhibition is supported by the National Lottery through Arts Council England, the Mondriaan Foundation, Amsterdam, and the Ratiu Foundation. The David Roberts Art Foundation would also like to thank the Romanian Cultural Institute in London for their support and assistance. The David Roberts Art Foundation is proudly supported by the Edinburgh House Estates group of companies.

Image above: Pavel Buchler, Bulgarian Group Portrait, 1999-2010. Courtesy of the artist.

Pottery Workshop With Romanian Master Craftsman At The Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (11:00 - 17:00)

Ileana Pintilie @ Attic Arts (09:00 - 10:00)

Ileana Pintilie is an art critic and curator, professor at the Arts University in Timisoara, Romania. Her books include Actionism in Romania During the Communist Era and the volume Mitteleuropäische Paradigmen in Südosteuropa. Ein Beitrag zur Kultur der Deutschen im Banat (with Roxana Nubert). She has also published a number of articles and essays on contemporary art in Romania and abroad in international catalogues and volumes. In 1994 Pintilie won a National Award for Art Criticism. She is a contributing editor of ARTMargins. She organised and curated the performance art festival Zona in Timisoara, as well as many solo and group exhibitions in Romania and abroad.

During the residency Ileana Pintilie will investigate artistic and philosophical concepts in Paul Neagu's work, researching the archives of the Paul Neagu Estate in London and the Tate Collection.

When: 7 June - 5 August 2010;
Where: Romanian Cultural Institute London.

Exhibition: Toma Arnautoiu And The Anti-Communist Resistance In Romania (09:00 - 10:00)
6 July to 1 August 2010, at The Ratiu Foundation / Romanian Cultural Centre, Manchester Square, 18 Fitzhardinge Street, London W1H 6EQ; Tel. 020 7486 0295 ext. 108;
e-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . Free admission. Opening times: Mon-Fri, 12.00-18.00. Booking essential, by phone or e-mail. Please mention the name of the event in the subject line. Private View on Tuesday 6 July 2010.
The public will have the chance to see for the first time in Britain images and documents coming straight from the archives of the feared Securitate, the Romanian secret police, about the anti-communist resistance group led by Toma Arnautoiu. After the fall of the communist regime in December 1989, these archives have been kept shut for a long time, with limited access, until the establishment of a special commission to oversee it, in 1999.
Armed resistance to communism in Romania is little known, even in Romania, and this exhibition gives the lie to the propaganda myth that communism was embraced with joy by everybody in Eastern Europe.
Details on www.romanianculturalcentre.org.uk

'The Lost World Of Old Europe' Exhibition At The Ashmolean Museum In Oxford (All Day)
THE LOST WORLD OF OLD EUROPE
The Danube Valley, 5000 – 3500 BC
supported by the Leon Levy foundation

20 May – 15 August 2010, Temporary Exhibition Galleries, Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology, University of Oxford, Beaumont Street, Oxford OX1 2PH

Tel. 01865 278 000 • Tickets: £6.00 / £4.00 concession • www.ashmolean.org

A series of related events and offers will be organised in conjunction with the Ratiu Foundation / Romanian Cultural Centre. Details to follow soon.

With major loans from Romania, Bulgaria and Moldova, ‘The Lost World of Old Europe’, the new exhibition at the Ashmolean, presents more than 250 artefacts recovered by archaeologists from the settlements and cemeteries of ‘Old Europe’. This remarkable exhibition of gold, pottery and archaeological finds from the prehistoric civilisation of the Danube Valley, in southeast Europe, is presented in Britain for the first time.

Highlights of the exhibition include the ‘Thinker’ and Female Figurine from Cernavoda, as well as many ceramic and metallurgical pieces from the Cucuteni culture in Romania.

Before the invention of writing and the first cities of Mesopotamia and Egypt were established in 4500 BC, ‘Old Europe’ was among the most technologically advanced and sophisticated places in the world. Highlights of the exhibition include the earliest major assemblage of gold artefacts to be found in the world from the Varna cemetery, Bulgaria, along with elaborate female figurines, stunning painted pottery and metalwork.

Although archaeological work has taken place in the region since the end of the 19th century, there is little awareness of the wealth of its prehistoric cultural heritage due to the confines of the late 20th century ‘Cold War’. Today with new studies and international exhibitions, recognition of the early prehistory of south-eastern Europe enters a new exciting era.

The exhibition has been organised by the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World at New York University (ISAW) in collaboration with the National History Museum of Romania, Bucharest, and with the participation of the Varna Regional Museum of History, Bulgaria and the National Museum of Archaeology and History of Moldova, Chisinau; and has been made possible by the Leon Levy Foundation.

Image above: Female Figurine, fired clay. Cucuteni, Draguseni, 4050 – 3900 BC, Botosani County Museum, Romania. Courtesy of the Ashmolean.

Romanian Curator Mihnea Mircan At The David Roberts Art Foundation, London (09:00 - 10:00)
The Ratiu Foundation / Romanian Cultural Centre in London would like to invite you to the exhibition

CURATORS’ SERIES #3 HISTORY OF ART, THE

a project curated by MIHNEA MIRCAN

for THE DAVID ROBERTS ART FOUNDATION

7 May to 10 July 2010, David Roberts Art Foundation, 111 Great Titchfield Street, London W1W 6RY; www.davidrobertsartfoundation.com
Opening times: Tuesday to Friday 10.00 – 18.00; Saturday 11.00 – 16.00. Nearest tube: Oxford Circus / Great Portland Street. Opening reception: 6 May 2010, from 18.30.

Mihnea Mircan is the third guest curator in the Curators’ Series invited by The David Roberts Art Foundation. Mircan’s group exhibition ‘History of Art, the’, looks at how contemporary artists navigate art history, and groups works that lay out the rules of their future interpretation or negotiate their inscription in an art history to come.

The exhibition brings together practices that explore the symbolic transactions, institutional protocols and historiographic disconnections between contemporary art and the discourse of art history. The works in the exhibition range from sculpture and installation to photography and video, and include new pieces especially commissioned by the David Roberts Art Foundation. The exhibition features works by Agency, Nina Beier and Marie Lund, Pavel Buchler, Etienne Chambaud, Luc Deleu, Alison Gerber, Hilario Isola and Matteo Norzi, Ian Law, Alon Levin, Jill Magid, Benoit Maire, Navid Nuur, Jonas Staal and Mladen Stilinovic.

The curator invites us to ask the questions: How will contemporary art works be recuperated, as indispensable to an understanding of our present artistic moment? How can they ensure their own relevance to art history and question its capacity to imagine the future? From the point of view of what they will mean, how and to whom, can works of art administrate themselves – and therefore become quasi-institutions?

Romanian born Mihnea Mircan (b. 1976) curated the exhibition ‘Sublime Objects’ and the ‘Under Destruction’ series of interventions at the National Museum of Contemporary Art (MNAC) in Bucharest, Romania, as well as mid-career surveys of artists such as Jaan Toomik and Sean Snyder. He was the curator of ‘Low-Budget Monuments’, the Romanian Pavilion at the 52nd Venice Biennial (2007). His latest project is the exhibition ‘Since we last spoke about monuments’ at Stroom Den Haag. He contributes regularly to international publications, having recently written for monographs of Plamen Dejanoff, Mircea Cantor and Deimantas Narkevicius. ‘History of Art, the’ is his first exhibition in London.

Mihnea Mircan is editing a publication, titled ‘The Impresent’, to accompany the exhibition, sponsored by Abake.

The exhibition is supported by the National Lottery through Arts Council England, the Mondriaan Foundation, Amsterdam, and the Ratiu Foundation. The David Roberts Art Foundation would also like to thank the Romanian Cultural Institute in London for their support and assistance. The David Roberts Art Foundation is proudly supported by the Edinburgh House Estates group of companies.

Image above: Pavel Buchler, Bulgarian Group Portrait, 1999-2010. Courtesy of the artist.