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Newsletter |
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ISSUE # 2.1 |
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Weekly Newsletter |
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Wednesday, September 17, 2008 |
Dear friends,
The Romanian Club at Columbia University is happy to welcome you back. The board members would first of all like to thank you for being part of our group. We are working hard to make this year even more exciting than the last one, and we hope you will join us for our events. Among the highlights in the works are:
. A special screening of Nae Caranfil's "The Rest is Silence"
. The annual conference featuring yet another group of distinguished speakers
. "4, 3, 2" at Columbia , followed by a debate about Romania 's image abroad
. A joint spring festival in collaboration with other Eastern European groups at Columbia University
You can stay in contact with us and updated on all of our activities as well as other Romania related events in New York through the weekly newsletter, which we will release every Monday.
Thank you again for your interest and we are looking forward to have you join us for future events.
Regards,
The Romanian Club Board!
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2.
Roundtable on The Ghetto Trial of Northern Transylvania |
What: Lecture
When: Wednesday, 24 September 2008, 7:00pm
Where: Room 1219 International Affairs Building ( 420 W 118th St , New York City
12th Floor, MC 3345)
Note: FREE ADMISSION; RSVP at icrny@icrny.org or 212-687-0180
Nowhere in Nazi-dominated Europe was the war against the Jews waged as swiftly and cruelly as in the northeastern part of wartime Hungary , including Northern Transylvania . Between May 15 and June 9, 1944, approximately 100,000 North Transylvanian Jews were deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau, where most of them were murdered after their arrival. The details of this murderous campaign were revealed in the documents used during war crimes trials held in Cluj in 1946. The materials of the trial were meticulously investigated by Oliver Lustig, himself a survivor of the Holocaust and a chronicler of the tragedy that had befallen the Jews of Hungary during the Nazi era. His two-volume documentary work - The Ghetto Trial of Northern Transylvania - is an invaluable work of great historical importance, shedding light on one of the most horrific chapters of the Holocaust: the destruction of the Jews in Hungarian-ruled Northern Transylvania on the eve of Allied victory in 1944. It was published in Bucharest in 2007 under the auspices of the Association of the Jewish Victims of the Holocaust in Romania with the support of the Elie Wiesel National Institute for the Study of the Holocaust in Romania .
At the invitation of the Romanian Cultural Institute in New York , Oliver Lustig will reveal details about his work on Wednesday, September 24, 6:00-8:00pm, at the Harriman Institute. He will be joined by Liviu Beris, President of the Association of the Jewish Victims of the Holocaust in Romania , and Randolph Braham, Director of the Rosenthal Institute for Holocaust Studies at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. |
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3.
Appointment with History by Mona Vătămanu and Florin Tudor |
What: Exhibition
When: September 6, 2008 - October 4, 2008
Where: LOMBARD-FREID PROJECTS
531 W 26th St , 2nd fl., NYC
Note: Free Admission
Lombard-Freid Projects is pleased to present Appointment with History, the premier solo show in the United States of Romanian artists Mona Vătămanu and Florin Tudor. This show is of particular relevance in view of the upcoming twentieth anniversary of the Central and Eastern European Revolutions of 1989, which culminated in the overthrow of Soviet-style communist states, not least of which was Romania.
Widely shown in Europe , Vătămanu and Tudor's artistic practice involves bringing history into the present tense, whether in the form of performative reenactment or symbolic recuperation. A deep interest in architecture as a repository of both personal and collective memory and as a mark of communist power underlies many of their projects.
The central component of the show at Lombard-Freid Projects is an installation and accompanying series of paintings entitled Appointment with History/ Communist Manifesto (2007-2008), recently commissioned for the 5th Berlin Biennial. A lectern equipped with a microphone sits before rows of chairs while the Communist Manifesto (1848) is heard in German over a loudspeaker. The audience is invited to contribute by speaking into the microphone, such that their words become entangled with those of the Manifesto. Small paintings depicting demonstrations worldwide, explore connections between different ideologies and historical moments, creating new symbols of disappeared utopias while exposing the scars of communist Romania in the process. Although conceptually rooted in Romanian history, the series was inspired by an anti-capitalist demonstration the artists observed in Basel .
The second gallery will screen The Trial filmed in Bucharest in 2004-2005. The camera traces facades of communist block housing, depressingly unchanged over the past fifteen years, as the transcript from the trial of Communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife, Elena, is read without pause or emotion. The intensity of the film is created by the tension between the dizzying and unceasing movement of the camera and the continuous and expressionless reading of the trial script, recording a very dark episode of modern history. |
4.
Aliens with Extraordinary Skills |
What: Play
When: September 22, 2008 - October 26, 2008
Where: Julia Miles Theater
424 West 55th Street , just west of 9th Avenue . New York
"Aliens With Extraordinary Skills"
by Saviana Stanescu directed by Tea Alagic
Sure, we all need to be loved. But some of us also need a green card.
Internationally-acclaimed Romanian playwright, poet, and journalist Saviana Stanescu brings us a dark comedy about a clown from the unhappiest country in the world, Moldova , who pins her hopes on a US work visa by creating balloon animals. Chased by Homeland Security, a deportation letter deflates her enthusiasm, and a pair of spike heels might be all it takes to burst her American Dream. This world premiere production will be directed by award-winning theater artist and Bosnian émigré Tea Alagic.
September 22-October 26, 2008
Mondays & Tuesdays at 7:00p, Thursdays-Saturdays at 8:00p and Sundays at 3:00p.
Added performances: Sunday, October 12th at 7:00p; and Saturday, October 25th at 3:00p. Julia Miles Theater ( 424 West 55th Street , just west of 9th Avenue . New York )
www.WomensProject.org |
"In much knowledge there is also much grief"
~Queen Maria of Romania (1875-1938) |
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Last Update: Sep 17, 2008
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