<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
The National Museum of
\nContemporary Art in Bucharest has never ceased to be close to people in many
\nways, and we’ve grown accustomed to that. This time, one of the museum’s new
\nprojects drew our attention. It is themed Art through correspondence.
\nThe project seeks to create a genuine bond between seniors, children and
\ncontemporary art. Initially, the project has been implemented through a string
\nof pilot activities that took off in January this year but which are
\nnonetheless part of a long-term undertaking. The eventual aim of the project is
\nbringing together, through correspondence, the children and the elderly, also
\ncreating emotional ties between people of those age brackets as well as a bond
\nof a different order, between those people and contemporary art, at a time when
\nthe feeling of loneliness takes its toll on people’s psyche, especially in the
\nisolated communities. M\u0103lina Ionescu is the head of the National Museum of
\nContemporary Art’s education section. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Malina Ionescu:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
It is
\na model of working together that in recent years has been used on a large
\nscale, abroad. And because we, at the museum, through our ‘Community Art’ program, have been trying to
\nrelate to school communities in a broader sense and we have also been trying to
\nreach out to the school communities that do not have the possibility to come to
\nus, be they underprivileged communities or communities lying outside Bucharest,
\nand then we thought that, because we know the children with Teach for Romania or
\nthe elderly people with the Seneca Anticafe, the museum would be a proper bond
\nwhen it comes to having the two relate to one another. We have been doing that
\nthrough correspondence, sadly, because this is the context that we’ve got and
\nbecause the direct contact with the museum, but also between the two groups of
\nbeneficiaries, is, as we speak, impossible.<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
For a six-month timespan,
\nthe project seeks to form senior-junior teams that on a monthly basis will
\nconvey their thoughts through letters turned works of contemporary art.
\nChildren have learned notions of contemporary art, based on which they created
\nthematic letters as part of a workshop Malina Ionescu gave on Zoom. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Malina Ionescu:<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
For the time being, I’ve only had one
\nworkshop with the children, and I also
\nhad one presentation of the whole project for the seniors. The suggestion has
\nbeen made, that of the correspondence, to the children as well as to the
\nseniors, it was presented to them as an opportunity to befriend correspondents
\nbelonging to age brackets that could be very familiar to them, nephews, for the
\nelderly, and grandparents, for the children. They placed themselves in such positions,
\nof grandparents and nephews and of course, that of distance friends. The
\nproject began with the children, we’ve had the initial workshop where we span
\nthe yarn of what having a correspondence meant, in general, since the concept
\nis quite unfamiliar, given that, almost all correspondence and communication
\nare digital, we also spoke about how a letter can in fact become a work of art,
\nin its own right, but also through the process of posting it as the letters are
\nto be received by the senior. The project is still in its early days.<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The project’s pilot stage brings
\ntogether 30 lonely grandparents in Giurgiu county, currently on a program
\nlabelled Our grandparents, there are 30 schoolchildren aged 12 and 13, from the
\nHerasti and Izvoarele villages, Giurgiu county, who are registered with two
\nschools that have been included in the Teach for Romania project. <\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The parties involved have
\ngot enthused in the beginning. However, nobody knows what turn the
\ncorrespondence project is going to take. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Malina Ionescu:<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The
\nfirst suggestion was to view correspondence as a form of art, rather than view it
\nas a form of communication. Of course, the challenge we’ve had was twofold,
\nsince for the children, communication itself was something unusual, under that
\nform, the written one, a physical one, that is, while for the elderly, it was
\nnot, whereas the fact that we have come
\nup with an approach that was slightly off-the-beaten-track as regards what a
\nletter and an envelope meant and the idea of posting it, that was a primary contact
\nwith what mail-art meant, the letter which itself can turn into a form of
\nartistic expression, when we relate to the graphic and the visual sign as if
\nthey were an image and not just an ordinary form of the written text, capable of
\nconveying the content alone and when the text and the form to go with it become
\njust as important as the message itself, through drawings, through
\ninterventions. What they in fact did was to view the page and the envelope as
\npages on which they could draw and paint. We presented children with various
\nmeans of playing, with the envelope and with the letter, with the message, and
\nwe made available for them all sorts of colors and pencils and ink, enabling
\nthem to go beyond the letter where all that matters is what you convey through
\nwords alone.<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Malina Ionescu tells us what is expected from the next step to be taken
\nas part of the project.<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
We hope the
\nelderly will be quite responsive as well and, when it comes to the next
\nletters, they will answer too and will be encouraged to go beyond the
\ncorrespondence proper with a child and what they would like to convey to that
\nchild and
\nuse that medium as a form of
\npersonal expression, since that’s what it’s all about after all. And what we
\nmost want is that, in the next stage of the project, when it is possible, we should
\nbring the children and the elderly together at the museum, for a couple of
\nworkshops and visiting sessions so that certain bonds may become stronger, between
\nthem, but also between them and the museum.<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Each of the coming months
\nwill see a workshop for children being held on Zoom. Children will create all
\nsorts of materials and will write letters that will be sent to the seniors
\ntogether with the usual food parcel Seneca sends them every month. The exchange
\nof letters will be made possible through the Seneca volunteers and through
\nTeach for Romania. <\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
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