ICR head on efforts to promote Romanian values online, optimistic about return to live events in fall

Acting president of the Romanian Cultural Institute (ICR) Mirel Talos is optimistic that the events scheduled for this fall will be organised live, remarking the Institute's capacity to adapt during the pandemic and diversify the online promotion of Romanian intellectual values. "All of a sudden the ICR could no longer participate in traditional events such as the book fairs in London, Paris, Turin or Madrid, because they were canceled, depriving us of extremely effective platforms for promoting the Romanian book. The same with the Venice Biennale - canceled, concerts, performances of theater troupes, individual or group plastic art exhibitions, literary events were put on hold in all ICR representation offices," Talos told AGERPRES. He assured however that ICR continues to fulfill its mission of "worldwide promoter par excellence of Romanian culture and civilization, after a chapter concluded in Brussels through EUROPALIA Romania". *** The project that presents remarkable Romanian personalities in the volume "100 Romanian Innovators", put out by the ICR Publishing House, is among the first globally promoted online projects. "For the promotion we use previous ICR projects, materials of the creative unions and our own productions. An example is the 'Artist Workshop' cycle, which will be carried out by the Institute in partnership with the 'I.L. Caragiale' National University of Theatre and Film - UNATC. For the online promotion in this period we cooperate with institutions such as Romania's National Museum of Art, the National Museum of Romanian Literature or the Romanian Academy," Talos said. *** ICR's activity to promote and render visible Romanian values in Italy unfolds through projects carried out within the Accademia di Romania in Rome and the Romanian Institute of Culture and Humanistic Research in Venice; "I Mercoledi Letterari" and "I Mercoledi Musicale" are the most noteworthy projects of the two institutions, which get the Italian public acquainted with works of Romanian writers recently translated into Italian and with young Romanian musicians. *** ICR New York stays tightly connected with all the colleagues in the network of the Romanian Cultural Institute in order to support the massive transition from the physical to the virtual space. Moreover, ICR New York's strategy relies on exclusive and original content developed in partnerships, which can be seen only on ICR's social platforms. "Art Fights Corona. Artists React to the Pandemic" is one of the ICR New York virtual space projects that explores how creativity and creation are influenced by the pandemic, says Mirel Talos. *** Through the work of ICR Madrid, Spain discovers every day the online content proposed by Romanian cultural institutions, whether this is the Enescu Festival (recordings with the Spanish pianist Josu de Solaun, winner of the George Enescu International Competition), theater plays or virtual tours of museums in Romania. The literature project is another success of ICR Madrid; it features Romanian and Spanish translators, as Romanian literature is highly appreciated in Spain, as well as the Romanian films, says the ICR acting president. *** The Romanian Cultural Institute in Chisinau too has focused its attention on event cycles such as the online transposition of exhibitions over time, such as the Bessarabian Generation of the Greater Union. "The Culture Hour", another ICR Chisinau project hosted twice a week - on Wednesdays and Saturdays - by Radio Jurnal FM, presents the activity of Romanian cultural institutes abroad at the section "ICR in the World". *** During this period ICR Prague unfolds the project "Romanian Stories and Tales for Children", which brings the Romanian literature for children to the attention of the Czech public. Famous actress Michaela Tomešová reads a Romanian fairy tale in Czech every Thursday. *** The most important online project - judging by the impact on the public - carried out by the ICR Stockholm office in collaboration with a Romanian-Swedish travel agency, is the series of online lectures # calatorimdeacasa (#resahemifrĺn) about Romanian tourist and cultural destinations. *** "An Online Lyrical Journey. Today's Romanian Poetry" is a project hosted by the Facebook and Instagram platforms of ICR Lisbon, which features fragments of contemporary Romanian poetry in the interpretation of prestigious personalities from Portugal, including Manuel Fonseca (writer and director of the Guerra e Paz Publishing House), Rui Zink (writer, university lecturer) and Vitor Sousa (poet). *** ICR Paris organized on May 9 a special project devoted to writer and philosopher Lucian Blaga - an interview with Blaga's French translator, poet Jean Poncet, about the four Blaga volumes put out so far by the Jacques André Publishing House, as well as the reading of several translated poems. *** The Bucharest - Brussels visual correspondence between artists Mihai Zgondoiu and Claudia Radulescu proved to be the most impactful project run by ICR Brussels in the Benelux area. Mihai Zgondoiu and Claudia Radulescu engage through drawing in a unique digital dialogue between Bucharest and Brussels. *** On May 9, ICR Istanbul hosted on its Facebook page the online opening of the photo exhibition "European Markets and Their Stories". *** ICR Berlin asked the Romanian artists who live in this city how the restrictions affect their daily life and to what extent they manage to carry on with their work. The resulting materials are broadcast as a biweekly series, on Wednesdays and Fridays from 18:00 hrs, on ICR Berlin's Facebook page and on its website. The first interview was broadcast on April 29, having visual artist Ileana Pascalau as a guest. *** ICR London presents daily, live on Facebook, interviews with artists who earned recognition for their outstanding work in music, film, theater, literature or visual arts; they share with the audiences what they do, how they feel, what their thoughts are during this hostile/unfavorable period. Among the guests of this series were soprano Nelly Miricioiu, theater director Vasile Nedelcu, director Radu Muntean, ballerina Francesca Velicu. *** ICR Tel Aviv organizes the "Romanian Café" on its Facebook page and on its own Youtube channel. Conducted in the form of live streaming discussions in either English or Hebrew, the project has so far had as guests architect Augustin Ioan, storyteller, author and director Yossi Alfi, composer Doron Kaufman, stage director Alexander Hausvater, actress Maia Morgenstern and the Bucharest Klezmer Band. *** The "Book of the Week" is a project of ICR Warsaw promoting the latest Romanian volumes translated in Poland, which aims to inform the Polish audiences about new appearances, at a time when classical literary events are impossible to perform in public. AGERPRES (RO - author: Daniel Popescu, editor: Andreea Rotaru; EN - author: Simona Klodnischi, editor: Rodica State)