Highlights of 2018

A look back at the most important moments in our show in 2018

Ana-Maria Cononovici, 08.01.2019, 13:26

The beginning of a year makes the perfect occasion to have a
look at the highlights of the year that passed. In 2018 we alternatively covered
projects in the artistic field, remarkable achievements of present-day ‘heroes’
as well as curiosities and interesting facts from various domains.

A project that arrested our
attention at the beginning of last year was the first Theatre with assistive listening
facilities for hearing impaired people. Gong, a theatre for children and youth
based in Sibiu, central Romania became the first such theatre fitted with assistive
listening facilities for the hearing impaired. Then we covered the ‘Fire Art
Days’, in an attempt to offer those interested a journey into the extraordinary
world of fire arts as portrayed by artists in Bucharest. Last autumn we devoted
our programmes to ‘Art Selfie’ an application that is functioning on Android
and iOS. Gabriela Chiorean, Communication Manager CEE Google told us about Art
Selfie and its impact in Romania.

Art Selfie was initially designed as an entertainment app mainly
targeting those who dabble with art. It enables users to discover the affinities
they may have with various art movements, with fine arts in general. You take a
picture and the app finds the correspondent it may have in the galleries of
Google Arts and culture. The application was launched in January 2018 in
several English-speaking countries but became available to Romanian users last
autumn. We’ve had an extremely positive reaction with 78 million artselfies in
the countries where the application was available. We had the same positive
reaction in Romania as well, which means that we have a good appetite for art
and for learning more about it. Every time we come up with art-related
products, we get a very good feedback from Romania, and that’s very
refreshing.

Another theme we approached in 2018 was that of the present day
heroes, people that live among us and are initiators of extraordinary projects.
For instance, coach Constantin Voicilas confessed that although he couldn’t cut
it as a pugilist, he hoped his trainees would fare better and get the desired
results. And he indeed had a rags-to-riches story as one of his trainees, Steluta
Duta, an orphan who was raised up in foster homes shot to fame as a champion.

Then we would like to mention the
‘Nesupusele’ (the Relentless), a project through which four writers, Adina Rosetti,
Iulia Iordan, Laura Grunberg and Victoria Patrascu managed to publish a book
evoking the personalities of 100 remarkable women who made a difference in the
past century.

Another interesting issue we dealt
with in the past year was the ‘National Theatre for Children’. We talked about
this project with actor Marian Ralea, a.k.a ‘the Magician’ as he played that
part in a very popular TV series for children.

These
theatre performances come as a sequel to a famous interactive children show
entitled Abracadabra, a show that we aired for more than 10 years. I said at
that time that a child shouldn’t be limited to only watching a TV programme or
a theatre performance but participate in it. At the same time we thought that
these interactive performances should be done in a playful manner so that the
little ones may continue their play on the stage. We kicked off the first
season in 2001 on Palm Sunday and I said at that time that we started off on
the right foot as this is a major holiday for the Romanians, which announces
the beginning of spring and all. Now, 18 years on, I can say it proved to be an
inspired project.

And quite a few of the projects we have presented can be labeled
as curiosities. Accordingly, Iasi has a Lunatics’ Club. Fagaras staged a
Charity Competition for bicycles, a group of architects attended the Venice
Biennale, to play as if they were in front of their block of flats, just as we
pointed out when we spoke about the Mnemonics project. The Mnemonics Project,
which represented Romania at the 16th edition of the International
Architecture Exhibition, the Venice Biennale, is a space of childhood where all
middle-aged Romanians can discover themselves. At the National Union Museum in
the Alba Carolina fortress in Alba Iulia, the Pantheon 3D Initiative drew our
attention. The project uses modern technology to create 3D versions of Roman
art works depicting mythological deities and characters, which are part of the
museum collection. Through the modern technology, the visually impaired can
have access to that kind of heritage, thanks to 3D replicas that were created
using a 3D printer.

No less interesting is the
discovery, on the Hateg Country Dynosaurs’ Geopark UNESCO Site, of a new
species of pre-historic mammal, which was contemporary with the small dinosaurs
in Transylvania. The name of the species is Litovoi, and it is 68 million years
old.

So, if you want to hear about more remarkable
initiatives, feel free to accompany us all across the country in 2019 as well.