Cultural Bistrita

The country of Bistrita - Nasaud is the birthplace of famous artists and people of culture.

Luana Pleşea, 17.09.2016, 13:30

The county of Bistrita-Nasaud is
the birthplace of famous artists and people of culture. In the field of
theatre, alongside a number of actors performing in theatres all over Romania,
stage director Radu Afrim stands out. Also, in the world of literature,
Bistrita Nasaud has given Romanian culture great poets and writers, such as
Andrei Muresanu, George Cosbuc and Liviu Rebreanu. For almost 12 years now, the
Liviu Rebreanu International Theatre and Literature Festival, named after the
famous writer, has been staged by the George Cosbuc Municipal Cultural Centre
and the Bistrita mayoralty in the month of November. The shows and meetings in
the festival are venued by the Casa cu Lei Galleries, the Synagogue and the
multi-purpose arena in town.

Dorel Cosma, the Director of the George Cosbuc Cultural Centre has
more details:

The festival is aimed
at bringing before the Bistrita audience as many professional theatre ensembles
as possible, as well as quality literature. Theatre plays staged by actors in
Baia Mare, Targu Mures and Bucharest are presented in Bistrita, one every
evening. Before every show, literary meetings between Romanian and foreign
writers are held. We have been very fortunate to have as guests, at the recent
editions, writers from Germany, France, Italy, Greece and Turkey. We receive
their works a month in advance, and we try to have at least one of them
translated by the time they get here. We publish their works in our magazine,
Connections, to make it available to the public. It was great to also have
guests from the US, members of the Romanian Diaspora. Professor Teodor Damian,
the coordinator of the Lumina Lina magazine, is always present at our
cultural events. He was impressed with what he found here, in Bistrita, with
this combination of theatre and literature. Why do I call it combination?
Because after every show, meetings between writers and actors are held, to
discuss the role of literature and theatre in today’s world.

The 12th edition of the Liviu
Rebreanu Festival will also be attended by foreign writers and by Romanian
writers from abroad. Dorel Cosma:

Writers from Turkey
have already confirmed their participation. Teodor Damian, from the US, has said
he would like to come. Mr. Joel Conte, from France, has attended the latest
three editions. He is a prolific contemporary writer, president of the
Francophone Association from Paris. He has several new books and also several
poems dedicated to our town, inspired by his encounter with Bistrita, with the
medieval fortress here, and also with the art of writing in this area. We are still waiting for confirmation from Italy, from Israel.
Israel has been present each year with writers from Haifa and Tel Aviv. We also
expect confirmation from the Romanians from Canada. Last year just as this year
we’ll also have writers from China.

A contemporary writer and a very special person whom Bistrita is
proud of is Ioan Pintea, at present the manager of the George Cosbuc County
Library in Bistriţa
Nasăud. Poet Ioan Pintea studied at the Theology Faculty and was guided on his
way to theology and culture by father Nicolae Steinhardt. Ioan Pintea invites
us to make cultural tourism in the county of Bistriţa Nasăud, the place where Lucian
Blaga started to write Divine differentials and where the father of the
writer, dissident Dorin Tudoran, was born.

The county of Bistriţa
Nasăud is a cultural space par excellence, I would dare say it is first and
foremost a literary space. Probably it’s the miracle of the place. 3 great
Romanian writers Liviu Rebreanu, George Coşbuc and Andrei Mureşanu have in
their works something related to this space. We cannot imagine Rebreanu or
Coşbuc without this space. Even if, at a certain moment, they lived in a
different place, they took the spirit of Bistriţa Nasăud with them. They drew
their inspiration for the themes in their poems and novels from this very area
of Bistriţa Nasăud. Recently we have issued a mini-album entitled Literary
places and monuments in Bistriţa Nasăud county. It is a well-documented
material. We have also sent this mini-album to the tourism centers across the
county. It includes the entire literary map of Bistriţa Nasăud county. People know
about Rebreanu, Coşbuc, Andrei Mureşanu but they may not know about Ion Pop
Reteganul or Veronica Micle, who was born here in Năsăud. She was a poet and
the lover of poet Mihai Eminescu. I also believe few people know that a great
prose writer, Radu Petrescu, lived in Bistriţa Nasăud, more precisely in
Pietriş and Prundul Bârgăului. Also on many occasions
writer Alexandru Odobescu came to visit Sângeorz-Băi. There are many letters
which Alexandru Odobescu sent home from Sângeorz-Băi. Not to mention the Wine
Valley, where the Writers’ House is located and which was visited by all the
great classic and contemporary writers. Consequently, when we talk about
Bistriţa-Năsăud, we talk about great literary personalities that were born here
or that visited these places.