THE PHOTOGRAPHIC IMAGE BETWEEN PAST AND FUTURE. Project finale

29.11.2021

Press conference
Monday, November 29, 2021 / 19.00

Live on Salonul de proiecte’s YouTube channel


Participants: Alexandra Croitoru, Magda Radu, Ștefan Sava

Salonul de proiecte will present the results of its Photographic Image Between Past and Future project, which activated in a unique way one of Romania’s most important photographic collections, assembled by Mihai Oroveanu, art historian, photographer, and director of the National Museum of Contemporary Art from 2001 to 2013. The owner of the Mihai Oroveanu Image Collection is Anca Oroveanu, and the Salonul de proiecte team took on the task of making it accessible, bringing it to the public’s attention, and integrating it into a contemporary cultural discourse that problematises the role of the image in interpreting the past and the present. The project was set underway in June 2020, being financed with the support of EEA Grants 2014 – 2021 within the RO-CULTURE Programme, and comprised a series of public events: three exhibitions, nine artist interventions and presentations, and multiple guided tours aimed at specialists and the wider public, with the total number of visitors exceeding 1,700. In parallel, a series of preservation and research activities unfolded, and a selection of materials from the collection was published online. More than ten thousand images were scanned, of which four thousand can be found in the digital catalogue, accompanied with information that allows interested visitors to navigate the archive more easily. Historical research into the collection led to the production of an online index of photographers and photographic studios active within the territory of what is now Romania from the second half of the nineteenth century to the middle of the twentieth century.

Thanks to the partnership with Fotogalleriet Oslo, the scope of the project was also able to include training sessions given by specialists in photography, which were attended by the project team, as well as by students from the Faculty of Art History and Theory and the Photo-Video Department at the National University of Arts, Bucharest, and from the Centre of Excellence in the Study of the Image at the University of Bucharest. The exchange of ideas and good practices with the partner institution also resulted in a session of presentations and meetings held in Oslo. At the session, the Salonul de proiecte team presented the content of the project and a selection of photographs from the archive to professionals and the general public in Norway. This closing event opened up the project to an international audience and marked the intention to work together with organisations in the same field with a view to envisaging future international structures and integrating the collection into the European cultural circuit. The success of the institutional methodology that the Salonul de proiecte tested over the course of one and a half years proves that the establishment of an institution dedicated to the study and exhibition of photography is needed within the cultural landscape of Bucharest and is also something that a large audience wants.

www.photopastfuture.ro



This project is financed with the support of EEA Grants 2014 – 2021 within the RO-CULTURE Programme



The EEA Grants represent the contribution of Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway towards a green, competitive and inclusive Europe.
There are two overall objectives: reduction of economic and social disparities in Europe, and to strengthen bilateral relations between the donor countries and 15 EU countries in Central and Southern Europe and the Baltics.
The three donor countries cooperate closely with the EU through the Agreement on the European Economic Area (EEA). The donors have provided €3.3 billion through consecutive grant schemes between 1994 and 2014. For the period 2014-2021, the EEA Grants amount to €1.55 billion.
Further information available here: www.eeagrants.org și www.eeagrants.ro


RO-CULTURE is implemented in Romania by the Ministry of Culture through the Project Management Unit. The Programme aims at strengthening social and economic development through cultural cooperation, cultural entrepreneurship and cultural heritage management. The total budget amounts to almost 34 million EUR. For more details: www.ro-cultura.ro