The majority of Romanian Cultural Institutes abroad are members of the European National Institutes for Culture network or EUNIC.
EUNIC is a European partnership of national cultural institutes, which invests in trans-national cultural projects. At present, EUNIC comprises thirty organisations from twenty-five member states of the European Union.
According to its goals and objectives, EUNIC functions on two complementary levels: the first is that of the presidents or directors general of each national institution (heads), and the second that of the branches of the central institutes (clusters), located in various European cities.
The Romanian Cultural Institute has been a member at the institutional level of the EUNIC network since 2007. It was also in 2007 that the majority of the Romanian Cultural Institutes abroad (Berlin, Brussels, Budapest, Lisbon, London, New York, Stockholm, Vienna, Warsaw) joined the EUNIC network. Currently, the president of the Romanian Cultural Institute, Mr Horia-Roman Patapievici, is vice-president of this institutional partnership, and in 2010 he will take up the post of president of EUNIC, with a mandate of twelve months.
Bucharest
In March 2008, the Romanian Cultural Institute in Bucharest set up the Bucharest EUNIC cluster, made up of the British Council, Bukaresti Magyar Kulturális Intézet, Česke Centrum, Délégation Wallonie-Bruxelles, Goethe-Institut Bukarest, Institut Français de Bucarest, Istituto Italiano di Cultura „Vito Grasso“, Instytut Polski w Bukareszcie, Instituto Cervantes and Austrian Cultural Forum. The first elected president of this cluster was Monika Stĕpanova, director of the Czech Centre and the vice-president Jaroslaw Godun, director of the Polish Institute. In 2009, the EUNIC Bucharest cluster adopted the Night of the Cultural Institutes project, now in its third year, which was held on 26 June. The key concepts this year were related to the cultural circuit and playing host to other institutes’ themed events.
Berlin
The "Titu Maiorescu" Romanian Cultural Institute in Berlin was a founder member of the first association of European cultural institutes in Berlin, which operated under the name Gemeinschaft der europäischen Kulturinstitute (GEK) until 2007, when it became the EUNIC Berlin cluster, which was founded as a result of the establishment of the EUNIC European network in the same year. In June 2008, EUNIC Berlin initiated and organised a meeting of EUNIC Heads, as well as the first EUNIC Summer School. It was on this occasion that the president of the Romanian Cultural Institute was elected to the position of vice-president of the EUNIC European network. In 2008, the joint events organised by EUNIC Berlin aimed to develop linguistic and literary projects in relation to the creative industries. There were a number of complex events organised in partnership with the Central European Bank in Frankfurt am Main, as well as events connected to the pan-European AlterEgo project, which is funded by the European Union.
In March 2009 EUNIC Berlin organised a literature forum, entitled “Minor Languages, Major Literatures”, at the Leipzig Book Fair, with the participation of the Romanian Cultural Institute in Berlin. The forum has consolidated its format over the years and has its own stand, where there are readings, dialogues between authors from different countries, round-table discussions—this year on the issues connected to the Balkans—and informal meetings between authors, publishers, translators, and the reading public. The forum also published a brochure. Romanian writers Ion Manolescu and Dan Lungu gave readings between 12 and 14 March 2009. The event was chaired by Iulia Dondorici, who has translated Ion Manolescu’s work into German, and the readings in German were given by Nadine Lipp. Likewise, as an extension of the forum, there was also a reading at the LiteraturWerkstatt Berlin, on 17 March, with the participation of Dan Lungu and Jan Cornelius, the German translator of the novel Sînt o babă comunistă! (I’m a Communist Biddy!).
Brussels
The Romanian Information Centre in Brussels (RICB) has been a full member of EUNIC Brussels since July 2007. In 2008, the RICB and its team took part in or co-ordinated a number of permanent working groups within the framework of the cluster. The RICB director, Mr Andrei Ţărnea, is a member of the executive board of the pan-European AlterEgo project, which is funded by the European Commission. The RICB director represented EUNIC at numerous meetings held by the European Commission and/or the Council of Europe, and in the second half of 2009 he took over the presidency of the EUNIC Brussels cluster. The RICB co-organised and participated in seven EUNIC projects, including two international conferences developed in partnership with European institutions. In 2009, the RICB co-ordinated the Focus ’89 project, dedicated to the twentieth anniversary of the collapse of the communist regimes in Eastern Europe—a project created by EUNIC Brussels together with the European Union’s Economic and Social Committee.
Budapest
The Romanian Cultural Institute in Budapest has been a member of EUNIC Hungary since 2007. Its success in forming partnerships with prestigious Hungarian and European institutions led to the director of RCI Budapest, Mrs Brînduşa Armanca, being appointed vice-president of EUNIC Hungary at the end of 2008. In 2009, EUNIC Budapest organised EUNIC Open Night – Night of the Cultural Institutes. As part of the event, which took place on 8 May 2009, to mark Europe Day, the Romanian Cultural Institute in Budapest organised a “Jazz Locomotive” concert with Mircea Tiberian and a showing of the film Asphalt Tango, as part of the institute’s FilmKlub project.
Rome and Venice
On 1 April 2008, a EUNIC cluster was established in Milan. It was founded by the following institutions: the Austrian Culture Forum, the French Cultural Centre, the Goethe Institute, and the Cervantes Institute. Besides the four founder members, there are now a number of observer members: the Swiss Institute in Rome and its branch in Milan, the Polish Consulate General in Milan, the British Council, the Consulate General of the Low Countries, and, since 19 November 2009, the Romanian Institute of Culture and Humanistic Research in Venice.
The Accademia di Romania is part of the Unione Internazionale degli Istituti di Archeologia, Storia e Storia dell’Arte in Rome, which brings together thirty-four cultural institutes. The director of the Accademia di Romania is a member of the union’s Comitato di presidenza.
Lisbon
The Romanian Cultural Institute in Lisbon has been a member of the EUNIC Portugal cluster since January 2007. Since then, RCI Lisbon has taken part in all the EUNIC projects implemented at the local level, including a European festival of on-line radiophonic art, and projects in the fields of linguistics and bringing European culture to wider audiences.
The most important EUNIC event of 2009 was Dia Europeu das Línguas/ European Languages Day, for which the Romanian Cultural Institute in Lisbon organised free mini-courses in Romanian and published a Romanian-language-learning brochure, Viajar em Romeno, which was enthusiastically received by both EUNIC members and course participants.
London
In 2008 and 2009, the Romanian Cultural Institute in London held the presidency of EUNIC London. The EUNIC London cluster projects focussed on the creative industries, in particular: contemporary dance (creations by Maria Baroncea and Eduard Gabia) and film (productions by Alexandru Solomon and Corinne Ibram). In the UK, the pan-European “AlterEgo” project was co-ordinated by RCI London: the EUNIC London website was conceived and implemented by the RCI London team, who permanently update it with news and projects.
EUNIC London had an eventful cultural year in 2009. In June, there was a conference entitled “Solidarity/solidarities Children of Revolution, 1989-2009”. The conference celebrated the twentieth anniversary of the democratic transformation of Europe and was hosted by the School of Slavonic and East European Studies. Another cultural event unfolded in September in the form of an exhibition, with the title In Praise of Shadows. Twenty European designers took part in the exhibition, presenting their vision of the electrical-energy-based economy. The exhibition was an occasion to look at light and darkness through different eyes. With the support of the Romanian Cultural Institute in London, designer Radu Comşa participated with the work IceAge Chair.
The most important event of the year for EUNIC London was European Literature Night, organised by the British Bookshop, at which writers from the Czech Republic, Italy, France, Hungary, Poland and Romania took part. Romanian writer Mircea Cărtărescu was introduced by actress Anamaria Marinca, who read excerpts from his collection of short stories Why We Love Women.
Madrid
In October of 2008, the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue, the Romanian Cultural Institute in Madrid concretised the de facto foundation of EUNIC España. The director of RCI Madrid, Horia Barna, was elected vice-president of the cluster.
New York
The Romanian Cultural Institute in New York (RCINY) is active within the EUNIC New York cluster, whose charter was signed at the beginning of 2008 by the majority of European institutes/consulates in New York. The cluster is particularly active in organising regular members’ meetings and providing information and proposals for shared projects. In 2008, the RCINY contributed to the organisation of two major events. East Coast Artists was a project initiated by the Consulate General of Slovenia, as part of the Slovenian presidency of the European Union, and included a symposium, a series of workshops held in U.S. universities, and research, presented in a book published by the Sternberg Press (Berlin and New York).
The principal EUNIC New York project of 2009 was the Islam in Europe symposium, organised by European institutes and consulates in New York in partnership with the New York Public Library (New York, 9-11 June). The symposium was part of a broader festival entitled Muslim Voices: Arts & Ideas (5-14 June 2009), co-organised by three prestigious organisations: the Asia Society, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, and the New York University Centre for Dialogue. The symposium discussed the experience of Muslim communities in Europe and the often tense inter-cultural cohabitation of Muslims within various European countries. It was organised in the form of a series of performance dialogues (“cognitive theatre”) between participants from all the European partner countries, together with a series of American participants from highly different backgrounds—artists, writers, diplomats, researchers, etc.
Likewise, within the framework of the EUNIC platform, the Romanian Cultural Institute in New York also took part in and co-organised a round table discussion entitled 1989/2009: Achievements and Challenges for Civil Society in Central and Eastern Europe, which tackled the complex subject of civil society in post-communist Europe: the different approaches of each individual country, the shared strategies and endeavours to democratise the public space. The event also brought into discussion the continuing importance and responsibility of figures from civil society in Central and Eastern Europe. The participants were Martin Palous, the Ambassador of the Czech Republic to the United Nations; Emil Briz, Director of the Department of Cultural Policy of the Austrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs; and Romanian playwright Saviana Stănescu. The round table discussion was chaired by Corina Şuteu, director of the Romanian Cultural Institute in New York, and was organised in partnership with the Austrian Cultural Forum in New York and the Mission of the Czech Republic to the United Nations (7 October, 6:30 p.m., Austrian Cultural Forum, New York).
Paris
The Romanian Cultural Institute in Paris has proposed the creation of a EUNIC Paris cluster within the framework of FICEP (the Forum of Foreign Cultural Institutes and Centres in Paris). FICEP has operated since 2004 and brings together forty-four accredited international cultural centres/institutes in Paris. The formation of a EUNIC Paris cluster, which brings together only European centres/institutes, was debated at a working meeting of EUNIC in the French capital in November 2008 and in working groups of FICEP, but a final decision is yet to be taken.
Prague
The EUNIC Prague cluster came into being at the initiative of the Romanian Cultural Institute in Prague. The director of RCI Prague Mr Mircea Dan Duţă has been president of the EUNIC Prague cluster since March 2008. The following projects have been implemented within the framework of the EUNIC Prague cluster: AlterEgo, European Film Days, European Languages Day, Prague International Poetry Days, and the Ordinary Lives and Between the Lines exhibitions. In 2009, the cluster created a project named Generation ’89, dedicated to young people born in the year of the anticommunist revolutions in Central and Eastern Europe, as well as to their parents. The Warsaw, Budapest, Bratislava, Bucharest, London, Lisbon, Brussels Rome and Stockholm clusters are due to participate in the project. Generation ’89 is intended to mark the twentieth anniversary of the fall of the Iron Curtain.
The most significant EUNIC Prague event of the year took place in May and was called Literature Night. As part of this project, in the Maisel Synagogue in Prague, actor Jiří Ornest read an excerpt from the novel The Hooligan’s Return by Norman Manea (recently translated into Czech by Jiří Našinec) once every thirty minutes, from six o’clock in the evening until eleven o’clock at night. Literature Night is an event organised by the EUNIC Prague cluster and opened the 2009 World of the Book International Fair in the Czech capital. Literature Night took place at various venues in the historic centre of Prague, with public readings from the literatures of the participating countries.
Other events organised within the framework of EUNIC Prague in 2009 included:
• European Day of Languages (24 September 2009). Organised by the EUNIC Prague cluster, European Day of Languages unfolded at the headquarters of each of the participating institutes: the British Council, Goethe Institute, Institut Français, Austrian Forum, Italian Institute of Culture, Bulgarian Cultural Institute, Czech Centre, Hungarian Cultural Centre, Polish Institute, Slovak Institute, and Romanian Cultural Institute. Each institute opened its doors to visitors between twelve o’ clock and six o’clock in the afternoon.
• New Waves. New Ways (19 – 25 October 2009). The first New Waves, New Ways festival set out to bring to Czech audiences films from the “small” countries of Europe, lesser-known productions of the European film industry. The participating countries at the inaugural festival were Slovenia, Estonia, Serbia, Latvia, Bulgaria, Lithuania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, and Romania. The festival is an initiative of the Romanian Cultural Institute in Prague, under the auspices of EUNIC Prague.
Stockholm
The Romanian Cultural Institute in Stockholm is an active member of the EUNIC cluster set up in the Swedish capital in 2007. In 2008, the institute was particularly visible within the Network Effect project conducted by the British Council in nine European cities and documented in a special publication. In April 2009, EUNIC Stockholm, in partnership with Kulturhuset Stockholm presented REX - Recent Experimental Short Films, an international programme of European short films. The majority of the films were screened as part of international film festivals and some of them won prizes such as the Golden Bear or the César. A number of the films make use of experimental techniques, while others change the way we see the world. The Romanian film A Good Day for the Beach by director Bogdan Mustaţă was featured at the event. A Good Day for the Beach is the story of three juvenile delinquents who escape from a prison for minors, kidnap a prostitute and a van driver and run riot with them on a deserted beach. The protagonists were played by Florin Sinescu, Okan Kaya and George Hoffman, three young amateur actors chosen for the parts in auditions at borstals around Romania. In 2008, the film won the Golden Bear for Best Short Film at the Berlin Film Festival.
Tel Aviv
The Romanian Cultural Institute in Tel Aviv is currently in talks with other foreign cultural centres present in Israel (Austria, Hungary, the Czech Republic) with a view to the formation of a cluster.
Warsaw
The Romanian Cultrual Institute in Warsaw has implemented a number of major projects in the Polish capital within the framework of the EUNIC network: the Metropoetry campaign, the Co-Existence in Europe conference, and an evening of readings by Florin Iaru-Casimiro de Brito.
Translators’ Evening is a major new programme of EUNIC Warsaw, initiated by the Danish Cultural Institute, in which the Romanian Cultural Institute in Warsaw is one of the principal partners, alongside the Austrian Forum, Goethe Institute, Bulgarian Cultural Institute, Greek Embassy, Hungarian Cultural Institute, Dutch Embassy, Comões Institute, Swedish Embassy, Slovak Institute, British Council, and Cervantes Institute.
The evening that opened the event took place at the Cervantes Institute in Warsaw on 26 February and featured Ewa Szyler (Greek literature), Marta Machowska (Portuguese literature), Joanna Cymberkiewicz (Danish literature) and Katarzyna Guzewicz (Spanish literature). Representing Romanian literature at the event was Radosław Biniarz, a graduate in Romanian Studies from Poznan University, a former scholarship student of the Romanian Cultural Institute’s young translators programme, and one of the most promising Polish translators from Romanian. Radek read an excerpt from “Women Fellow Travellers: The Female Experience under Communism” by Radu Pavel Gheo and Dan Lungu.
The second Translators’ Evening took place in Warsaw, at the Austrian Forum, on 24 March, and featured translators from the host institute, the British Council, Pro Helvetia, the Slovak Institute, the Goethe Institute, and the Romanian Cultural Institute. On this occasion Romanian literature was represented by Dorota Sobiak, a graduate of Romanian Studies from the University of Cracow, a former scholarship student of the Romanian Cultural Institute’s programme for young translators, and one of the most promising Polish translators from Romanian.
The programme initiated in February 2009 continued on 29 September at the Danish Institute in Warsaw. The event was dedicated to poetry and featured translators from the host institute, the British Council, Pro Helvetia, the Goethe Institute, the Camões Institute, and the Romanian Cultural Institute. Romanian poetry in translation was represented by Joanna Kornaś-Warwas, a graduate in Romanian Studies from the University of Cracow, a former scholarship student of the Romanian Cultural Institute’s programme for young translators, and one of the most promising Polish translators from Romanian.
Vienna
The Romanian Cultural Institute in Vienna is a member of the EUNIC Austria cluster and is actively involved in the implementation of the AlterEgo project.
[...]
EUNIC is a European partnership of national cultural institutes, which invests in trans-national cultural projects. At present, EUNIC comprises thirty organisations from twenty-five member states of the European Union.
According to its goals and objectives, EUNIC functions on two complementary levels: the first is that of the presidents or directors general of each national institution (heads), and the second that of the branches of the central institutes (clusters), located in various European cities.
The Romanian Cultural Institute has been a member at the institutional level of the EUNIC network since 2007. It was also in 2007 that the majority of the Romanian Cultural Institutes abroad (Berlin, Brussels, Budapest, Lisbon, London, New York, Stockholm, Vienna, Warsaw) joined the EUNIC network. Currently, the president of the Romanian Cultural Institute, Mr Horia-Roman Patapievici, is vice-president of this institutional partnership, and in 2010 he will take up the post of president of EUNIC, with a mandate of twelve months.
Bucharest
In March 2008, the Romanian Cultural Institute in Bucharest set up the Bucharest EUNIC cluster, made up of the British Council, Bukaresti Magyar Kulturális Intézet, Česke Centrum, Délégation Wallonie-Bruxelles, Goethe-Institut Bukarest, Institut Français de Bucarest, Istituto Italiano di Cultura „Vito Grasso“, Instytut Polski w Bukareszcie, Instituto Cervantes and Austrian Cultural Forum. The first elected president of this cluster was Monika Stĕpanova, director of the Czech Centre and the vice-president Jaroslaw Godun, director of the Polish Institute. In 2009, the EUNIC Bucharest cluster adopted the Night of the Cultural Institutes project, now in its third year, which was held on 26 June. The key concepts this year were related to the cultural circuit and playing host to other institutes’ themed events.
Berlin
The "Titu Maiorescu" Romanian Cultural Institute in Berlin was a founder member of the first association of European cultural institutes in Berlin, which operated under the name Gemeinschaft der europäischen Kulturinstitute (GEK) until 2007, when it became the EUNIC Berlin cluster, which was founded as a result of the establishment of the EUNIC European network in the same year. In June 2008, EUNIC Berlin initiated and organised a meeting of EUNIC Heads, as well as the first EUNIC Summer School. It was on this occasion that the president of the Romanian Cultural Institute was elected to the position of vice-president of the EUNIC European network. In 2008, the joint events organised by EUNIC Berlin aimed to develop linguistic and literary projects in relation to the creative industries. There were a number of complex events organised in partnership with the Central European Bank in Frankfurt am Main, as well as events connected to the pan-European AlterEgo project, which is funded by the European Union.
In March 2009 EUNIC Berlin organised a literature forum, entitled “Minor Languages, Major Literatures”, at the Leipzig Book Fair, with the participation of the Romanian Cultural Institute in Berlin. The forum has consolidated its format over the years and has its own stand, where there are readings, dialogues between authors from different countries, round-table discussions—this year on the issues connected to the Balkans—and informal meetings between authors, publishers, translators, and the reading public. The forum also published a brochure. Romanian writers Ion Manolescu and Dan Lungu gave readings between 12 and 14 March 2009. The event was chaired by Iulia Dondorici, who has translated Ion Manolescu’s work into German, and the readings in German were given by Nadine Lipp. Likewise, as an extension of the forum, there was also a reading at the LiteraturWerkstatt Berlin, on 17 March, with the participation of Dan Lungu and Jan Cornelius, the German translator of the novel Sînt o babă comunistă! (I’m a Communist Biddy!).
Brussels
The Romanian Information Centre in Brussels (RICB) has been a full member of EUNIC Brussels since July 2007. In 2008, the RICB and its team took part in or co-ordinated a number of permanent working groups within the framework of the cluster. The RICB director, Mr Andrei Ţărnea, is a member of the executive board of the pan-European AlterEgo project, which is funded by the European Commission. The RICB director represented EUNIC at numerous meetings held by the European Commission and/or the Council of Europe, and in the second half of 2009 he took over the presidency of the EUNIC Brussels cluster. The RICB co-organised and participated in seven EUNIC projects, including two international conferences developed in partnership with European institutions. In 2009, the RICB co-ordinated the Focus ’89 project, dedicated to the twentieth anniversary of the collapse of the communist regimes in Eastern Europe—a project created by EUNIC Brussels together with the European Union’s Economic and Social Committee.
Budapest
The Romanian Cultural Institute in Budapest has been a member of EUNIC Hungary since 2007. Its success in forming partnerships with prestigious Hungarian and European institutions led to the director of RCI Budapest, Mrs Brînduşa Armanca, being appointed vice-president of EUNIC Hungary at the end of 2008. In 2009, EUNIC Budapest organised EUNIC Open Night – Night of the Cultural Institutes. As part of the event, which took place on 8 May 2009, to mark Europe Day, the Romanian Cultural Institute in Budapest organised a “Jazz Locomotive” concert with Mircea Tiberian and a showing of the film Asphalt Tango, as part of the institute’s FilmKlub project.
Rome and Venice
On 1 April 2008, a EUNIC cluster was established in Milan. It was founded by the following institutions: the Austrian Culture Forum, the French Cultural Centre, the Goethe Institute, and the Cervantes Institute. Besides the four founder members, there are now a number of observer members: the Swiss Institute in Rome and its branch in Milan, the Polish Consulate General in Milan, the British Council, the Consulate General of the Low Countries, and, since 19 November 2009, the Romanian Institute of Culture and Humanistic Research in Venice.
The Accademia di Romania is part of the Unione Internazionale degli Istituti di Archeologia, Storia e Storia dell’Arte in Rome, which brings together thirty-four cultural institutes. The director of the Accademia di Romania is a member of the union’s Comitato di presidenza.
Lisbon
The Romanian Cultural Institute in Lisbon has been a member of the EUNIC Portugal cluster since January 2007. Since then, RCI Lisbon has taken part in all the EUNIC projects implemented at the local level, including a European festival of on-line radiophonic art, and projects in the fields of linguistics and bringing European culture to wider audiences.
The most important EUNIC event of 2009 was Dia Europeu das Línguas/ European Languages Day, for which the Romanian Cultural Institute in Lisbon organised free mini-courses in Romanian and published a Romanian-language-learning brochure, Viajar em Romeno, which was enthusiastically received by both EUNIC members and course participants.
London
In 2008 and 2009, the Romanian Cultural Institute in London held the presidency of EUNIC London. The EUNIC London cluster projects focussed on the creative industries, in particular: contemporary dance (creations by Maria Baroncea and Eduard Gabia) and film (productions by Alexandru Solomon and Corinne Ibram). In the UK, the pan-European “AlterEgo” project was co-ordinated by RCI London: the EUNIC London website was conceived and implemented by the RCI London team, who permanently update it with news and projects.
EUNIC London had an eventful cultural year in 2009. In June, there was a conference entitled “Solidarity/solidarities Children of Revolution, 1989-2009”. The conference celebrated the twentieth anniversary of the democratic transformation of Europe and was hosted by the School of Slavonic and East European Studies. Another cultural event unfolded in September in the form of an exhibition, with the title In Praise of Shadows. Twenty European designers took part in the exhibition, presenting their vision of the electrical-energy-based economy. The exhibition was an occasion to look at light and darkness through different eyes. With the support of the Romanian Cultural Institute in London, designer Radu Comşa participated with the work IceAge Chair.
The most important event of the year for EUNIC London was European Literature Night, organised by the British Bookshop, at which writers from the Czech Republic, Italy, France, Hungary, Poland and Romania took part. Romanian writer Mircea Cărtărescu was introduced by actress Anamaria Marinca, who read excerpts from his collection of short stories Why We Love Women.
Madrid
In October of 2008, the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue, the Romanian Cultural Institute in Madrid concretised the de facto foundation of EUNIC España. The director of RCI Madrid, Horia Barna, was elected vice-president of the cluster.
New York
The Romanian Cultural Institute in New York (RCINY) is active within the EUNIC New York cluster, whose charter was signed at the beginning of 2008 by the majority of European institutes/consulates in New York. The cluster is particularly active in organising regular members’ meetings and providing information and proposals for shared projects. In 2008, the RCINY contributed to the organisation of two major events. East Coast Artists was a project initiated by the Consulate General of Slovenia, as part of the Slovenian presidency of the European Union, and included a symposium, a series of workshops held in U.S. universities, and research, presented in a book published by the Sternberg Press (Berlin and New York).
The principal EUNIC New York project of 2009 was the Islam in Europe symposium, organised by European institutes and consulates in New York in partnership with the New York Public Library (New York, 9-11 June). The symposium was part of a broader festival entitled Muslim Voices: Arts & Ideas (5-14 June 2009), co-organised by three prestigious organisations: the Asia Society, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, and the New York University Centre for Dialogue. The symposium discussed the experience of Muslim communities in Europe and the often tense inter-cultural cohabitation of Muslims within various European countries. It was organised in the form of a series of performance dialogues (“cognitive theatre”) between participants from all the European partner countries, together with a series of American participants from highly different backgrounds—artists, writers, diplomats, researchers, etc.
Likewise, within the framework of the EUNIC platform, the Romanian Cultural Institute in New York also took part in and co-organised a round table discussion entitled 1989/2009: Achievements and Challenges for Civil Society in Central and Eastern Europe, which tackled the complex subject of civil society in post-communist Europe: the different approaches of each individual country, the shared strategies and endeavours to democratise the public space. The event also brought into discussion the continuing importance and responsibility of figures from civil society in Central and Eastern Europe. The participants were Martin Palous, the Ambassador of the Czech Republic to the United Nations; Emil Briz, Director of the Department of Cultural Policy of the Austrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs; and Romanian playwright Saviana Stănescu. The round table discussion was chaired by Corina Şuteu, director of the Romanian Cultural Institute in New York, and was organised in partnership with the Austrian Cultural Forum in New York and the Mission of the Czech Republic to the United Nations (7 October, 6:30 p.m., Austrian Cultural Forum, New York).
Paris
The Romanian Cultural Institute in Paris has proposed the creation of a EUNIC Paris cluster within the framework of FICEP (the Forum of Foreign Cultural Institutes and Centres in Paris). FICEP has operated since 2004 and brings together forty-four accredited international cultural centres/institutes in Paris. The formation of a EUNIC Paris cluster, which brings together only European centres/institutes, was debated at a working meeting of EUNIC in the French capital in November 2008 and in working groups of FICEP, but a final decision is yet to be taken.
Prague
The EUNIC Prague cluster came into being at the initiative of the Romanian Cultural Institute in Prague. The director of RCI Prague Mr Mircea Dan Duţă has been president of the EUNIC Prague cluster since March 2008. The following projects have been implemented within the framework of the EUNIC Prague cluster: AlterEgo, European Film Days, European Languages Day, Prague International Poetry Days, and the Ordinary Lives and Between the Lines exhibitions. In 2009, the cluster created a project named Generation ’89, dedicated to young people born in the year of the anticommunist revolutions in Central and Eastern Europe, as well as to their parents. The Warsaw, Budapest, Bratislava, Bucharest, London, Lisbon, Brussels Rome and Stockholm clusters are due to participate in the project. Generation ’89 is intended to mark the twentieth anniversary of the fall of the Iron Curtain.
The most significant EUNIC Prague event of the year took place in May and was called Literature Night. As part of this project, in the Maisel Synagogue in Prague, actor Jiří Ornest read an excerpt from the novel The Hooligan’s Return by Norman Manea (recently translated into Czech by Jiří Našinec) once every thirty minutes, from six o’clock in the evening until eleven o’clock at night. Literature Night is an event organised by the EUNIC Prague cluster and opened the 2009 World of the Book International Fair in the Czech capital. Literature Night took place at various venues in the historic centre of Prague, with public readings from the literatures of the participating countries.
Other events organised within the framework of EUNIC Prague in 2009 included:
• European Day of Languages (24 September 2009). Organised by the EUNIC Prague cluster, European Day of Languages unfolded at the headquarters of each of the participating institutes: the British Council, Goethe Institute, Institut Français, Austrian Forum, Italian Institute of Culture, Bulgarian Cultural Institute, Czech Centre, Hungarian Cultural Centre, Polish Institute, Slovak Institute, and Romanian Cultural Institute. Each institute opened its doors to visitors between twelve o’ clock and six o’clock in the afternoon.
• New Waves. New Ways (19 – 25 October 2009). The first New Waves, New Ways festival set out to bring to Czech audiences films from the “small” countries of Europe, lesser-known productions of the European film industry. The participating countries at the inaugural festival were Slovenia, Estonia, Serbia, Latvia, Bulgaria, Lithuania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, and Romania. The festival is an initiative of the Romanian Cultural Institute in Prague, under the auspices of EUNIC Prague.
Stockholm
The Romanian Cultural Institute in Stockholm is an active member of the EUNIC cluster set up in the Swedish capital in 2007. In 2008, the institute was particularly visible within the Network Effect project conducted by the British Council in nine European cities and documented in a special publication. In April 2009, EUNIC Stockholm, in partnership with Kulturhuset Stockholm presented REX - Recent Experimental Short Films, an international programme of European short films. The majority of the films were screened as part of international film festivals and some of them won prizes such as the Golden Bear or the César. A number of the films make use of experimental techniques, while others change the way we see the world. The Romanian film A Good Day for the Beach by director Bogdan Mustaţă was featured at the event. A Good Day for the Beach is the story of three juvenile delinquents who escape from a prison for minors, kidnap a prostitute and a van driver and run riot with them on a deserted beach. The protagonists were played by Florin Sinescu, Okan Kaya and George Hoffman, three young amateur actors chosen for the parts in auditions at borstals around Romania. In 2008, the film won the Golden Bear for Best Short Film at the Berlin Film Festival.
Tel Aviv
The Romanian Cultural Institute in Tel Aviv is currently in talks with other foreign cultural centres present in Israel (Austria, Hungary, the Czech Republic) with a view to the formation of a cluster.
Warsaw
The Romanian Cultrual Institute in Warsaw has implemented a number of major projects in the Polish capital within the framework of the EUNIC network: the Metropoetry campaign, the Co-Existence in Europe conference, and an evening of readings by Florin Iaru-Casimiro de Brito.
Translators’ Evening is a major new programme of EUNIC Warsaw, initiated by the Danish Cultural Institute, in which the Romanian Cultural Institute in Warsaw is one of the principal partners, alongside the Austrian Forum, Goethe Institute, Bulgarian Cultural Institute, Greek Embassy, Hungarian Cultural Institute, Dutch Embassy, Comões Institute, Swedish Embassy, Slovak Institute, British Council, and Cervantes Institute.
The evening that opened the event took place at the Cervantes Institute in Warsaw on 26 February and featured Ewa Szyler (Greek literature), Marta Machowska (Portuguese literature), Joanna Cymberkiewicz (Danish literature) and Katarzyna Guzewicz (Spanish literature). Representing Romanian literature at the event was Radosław Biniarz, a graduate in Romanian Studies from Poznan University, a former scholarship student of the Romanian Cultural Institute’s young translators programme, and one of the most promising Polish translators from Romanian. Radek read an excerpt from “Women Fellow Travellers: The Female Experience under Communism” by Radu Pavel Gheo and Dan Lungu.
The second Translators’ Evening took place in Warsaw, at the Austrian Forum, on 24 March, and featured translators from the host institute, the British Council, Pro Helvetia, the Slovak Institute, the Goethe Institute, and the Romanian Cultural Institute. On this occasion Romanian literature was represented by Dorota Sobiak, a graduate of Romanian Studies from the University of Cracow, a former scholarship student of the Romanian Cultural Institute’s programme for young translators, and one of the most promising Polish translators from Romanian.
The programme initiated in February 2009 continued on 29 September at the Danish Institute in Warsaw. The event was dedicated to poetry and featured translators from the host institute, the British Council, Pro Helvetia, the Goethe Institute, the Camões Institute, and the Romanian Cultural Institute. Romanian poetry in translation was represented by Joanna Kornaś-Warwas, a graduate in Romanian Studies from the University of Cracow, a former scholarship student of the Romanian Cultural Institute’s programme for young translators, and one of the most promising Polish translators from Romanian.
Vienna
The Romanian Cultural Institute in Vienna is a member of the EUNIC Austria cluster and is actively involved in the implementation of the AlterEgo project.
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