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2001A rumor turn into reality (we need a museum… but not there… notbuilt in secrecy… without debates, without aproject…the methods remind me ofcommunism… who’s afraid of dialogue andwhy?)

Artelier Magazine, no. 7/2001Magda Cârneci (art historian) spreads aquestionnaire about a possible Museum ofContemporary Art (but no location was specified)

Questionnaire1. What decade of the 20th century should amuseum of contemporary art’s exhibiting beginwith?2. What directions and trends shouldn’t missfrom such an exhibiting? What fields, genres,technics?3. How could be the relation between nationaland international in such a museum?4. How do you see the subjacent cultural policyof such a museum? Only public? Only private?Both public and private? Both national andinternational? A policy involving art critics,curators, juries both from Romania and fromimportant biennials and international events? 5. What national and international authorities orinstitutions could contribute to the creation of aviable project for a museum of contemporaryart?/ What Romanian and foreign names?6. Is there a museum of contemporary art inEurope or elsewhere that you especiallyappreciate?7. Other suggestions?In the Artelier magazine – surprise... you canfind opinions about the National Museum ofContemporary Art (MNAC) located in thePalace of Parliament... (?)„A chat almost serious about a work in progressMNAC at its very beginning between MihaiOroveanu director MNAC, Ruxandra Balacichief curator MNAC, Irina Cios director CIACand Adela Vaetis art critic editor Artelier”MO (...) considering the time pressures due tothe phasing of the financial investments in thisconstruction, it was impossible to set up a

competition, as it would have been natural, andwe made a projects’selection. From threeproposals, the jury chose the most realisticformula,which has nothing eccentric in it. Wechose a formula with ”large spaces, a lot oftechniques, high speed”. In the army I learnt thatthese are the characteristics of the modern war.(A competition? I think this is about anarchitecture competition)MO We must get down some ceilings, break andremove some walls, build stairs and entriesbetween floors, project again the climatic, theheating and the lighting systems. That meansmore than 12,000 sqm.RB I would have preferred to call Gehry to makea funny intervention at the front side.AV But after all, what do you aim at? There willbe a collection? Will the acquisitions be madefrom the beginning or everything will be set up onthe fly?MO Of course there will be a collection, I hopewe start making acquisitions, because we heardsome promises.IC unti l now we have a building underconstruction, which must be finished. What shallwe do afterwards?MO We’ll certainly have diff icult ies at thebeginning – one of the reasons is the lack ofartists’ civil practice. There are people who,from the first, refuse to exhibit their works inthis museum because of its location.(we were friendly pointing out that acceptingthat place was compromising for thecontemporary art, for the culture in general…we decided never to exhibit there…)RB It’s clear, if we have problems with our artists(yes, we were friends…) - do you have in mind those artists who refuse toexhibit in House of the People for politicalreasons, but they easily exhibited in LudwigMuseum in Budapest, the ex-residence ofMuseum of the Communist Party?), we wouldbetter turn to Chapmans, to other gentlemenand ladies. (!!!) (for some years, Ludwig Museum inBudapest functioned in the former Museum ofCommunist Party former Royal Palace… shallI add this isn’t a similar situation?) MO We made a flow chart proposal. There will befour departments: one for curatoring andresearch, one for on-line and off-line research,one for education and international relations andone for economy. We’ll have a consultative board(independent specialists) and an internationalone. IC Theoretically, everything is separated from thepolitical part (?)MO Practically too, not only theoretically. Wealso intend to organize some small commercialactivities, shop-galleries, coffee bars. These”recreation” areas could become another reasonfor which the parliamentarians frequent themuseum. (?)2001

30 July, Cotidianul (the daily newspaper)(…) a piece of news from Mediafax transmittedthe decision of Prof. Dr. R`zvan Theodorescu,the Minister of Culture, in which he named MihaiOroveanu director of MNAC (…)

(the rumors proved to be true) MO - ”according to the decision of the primeminister (...) a wing from Palace of Parliament ismade available at the future museum’s disposal

(...) We’l l choose the dialogue with theprofessionals (...) (?) (I wasn’t invited to any dialogue...)The spine of this museum will be an activeelectronic documentation service, with data basis ready to be accessed and even exposedby specific means (center for art analysis as model...?)(…) We intend to recruit (and to train) youngprofessionals for the museum’s structures (…) The museum will also administer the currentspaces of the ONDEA National Office forExhibitions (?)

(and Dalles Hall…? We were publicly announcing ourdizzydence (dizzy because of the context)2001Mircea George CârsteaPalace of Parliament will exorcise itselfthrough MNACGardianul - the 20th of May ”Yesterday, Ministry of Culture and ReligiousAffairs organized a meeting in the residence ofthe future MNAC... 25 billion lei were spent – 13billions for works’acquisition... less than 10

c a s e s t u d yMAC in Bucharest Romania is MNAC locatedin the Parliament Palace (?) incredible!!!

Dana & Adrian N`stase

R`zvan Theodorescu& Mihai Oroveanu

National Theatre

3/4 Floor Gallery

Dalles Hall

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million dollars... mister Spirescu, architect – thewinner of Ministry of Culture and ReligiousAffairs’ competition” 2002the 21st of November , round table organized byBritish Council, CIAC (ex Soros Centre forContemporary Art), AICA-ro (Art Crit ics’International Association) in suport of MNACGuests – Mihai Oroveanu, Ruxandra Balaci,Aurora Dediu, Alina {erban, Romelo Pervolovici,Maria Manolescu, Oana T`nase, NicolaeCom`nescu (?)2002November (on nettime-ro)Mihnea Mircan (young art historian at MNAC)–Mr. Perjovschi, MNAC enriches its collection (inofficial statements, sometimes they havecollection, sometimes they don’t) and invitesyou to propose works for acquisition – via e-mail,in no later than 2 days...(are they trying to buyDan’s silence?)Dan Perjovschi - ”Dear Mr. Mircan, 1. I’m adeclared critic of this institution – so I will neverpropose and sell it anything 2. (...) you have noidea about what is happening in thecontemporary art ( i f you knew, you wouldpropose exactly these works that suit your vision,but probably the vision is missing)3. you have no idea about what acquisitionsmean (anyway, do not ask JPGs)MM - Dear Mr. Perjovschi, of course, your criticalposition towards MNAC is well-known, as you didyour best to express it (...) DP - (...) anyway, because we both live (you - atax collector, me - a tax payer) under theincidence of the transparency law, I posted yourmessage on nettime-ro so that all contemporaryartists find they can send JPGs proposals .MM – ”Your gesture (the Museum offer posted onnetttime-ro) disqualifies you as an interlocutor.”February (on nettime-ro)Dan Perjovschi - ”We don’t recognizeMNAC’s authority, we are not at all willing tobe its partners and we refuse any implicationof our names in this scheme... if till now thecontemporary state art was inexistent, now ithas six residences... sweet illusion...”Vladimir Bulat... I keep on asking myself: whoneeds this museum?2002 Vladimir BulatAbout the National Museum of ContemporaryArt and mostly about its non-existence At the middle of the last decade, the Sloveniantheorist Renata Salecl wrote a substantial textabout the building in the centre of the capital ofCeau[escu’s huge palace, scary and empty atthat time. Its massiveness – impressive throughproportions and eclectic forms – reminded of thatperiod when the ”mastodon” gave off fright andmystery at the same time among the tourists andlocal people. For many this was a contemporaryembodiment of Draculaland. However, after ashort time, the Romanian Parliament moved hereand soon after the political power from thatmoment posing as ”Mecena” of thecontemporary arts opened the ConstantinBrâncu[i art gallery. Adrian N`stase, then thespeaker of the Parliament, declared that he paysspecial attention to the local artistic scene,stating that he is a careful collector (in fact anowner) of Romanian art as well. (...) Now, beingPrime Minister, N`stase manipulates with easethis idea which naturally has already started tomaterialize. His dream begins to shape and aspace for this museum is allocated in the backwing of the Parliament. Why here? Not with thevery intention to control thoroughly the situation?The fitting out and the turning of the huge roomsinto exhibition spaces have started, while thedebates about its necessity and function did notcease, but on the contrary have intensified.Could the Museum of Contemporary Art reallymaintain its autonomy, being a subsidizedstructure of the state, and moreover sharing thesame building as that of the Parliament as well

as having an ”appointed” director? (...) For me,the intrusion of the polit ical power in thecontemporary art field seems cynical to say theleast. The state does not have any plan orcoherent cultural policy. (...) To launch theContemporary Art Museum, to create a collectionto show the world that here everything is normalalthough this normality is very illusory. (…)Internally the dinosaurs of the communist eracontinue to dominate the entire artistic spectrumand the young have reserved for them only acaricatural and marginal role. Here it is moreshameful and embarrassing to be acontemporary artist than a prostitute! (…) Moscow ART Magazine, no. 47, December2002, English translation – Simona Nastac).

200222 Magazine, 07 2002Dan PerjovschiDracu land The best place for Dracula Park is the House ofthe People (already built, in bad taste and full ofstrong sensations, there is no need to cutprotected trees and we wouldn’t make fun of aUNESCO sit). Also (as a part of thematicdirection), I propose that CNSAS (NationalCouncil for the Study of the Communist SecretService Archive) move there completely, with allits documents – dozens of kilometers (fromRomanian Intelligence Service and Ministry ofNational Defence) -, which presidentialcounsellor Talpes promised while feeling NATO’sbreath on his nape. You do realise that theproblem of space and rent will disappear and allerrors and exasperating procedures of CNSASwill be part of horror scripts. Attorneys would playthe guides of some dreadful case studies, likeVântu, BRS (Romanian Bank of Discount),”Armagedon” or, some day, other surprise madeby N`stase.You will scarcely believe your eyes!

2003 Civil society’s protest – a human chainaround Palace of Parliament – a protestagainst blocking the access to CommunistSecret Service (Securitate) documents.

2003 CIAC, AICA Romanian section, the 19th ofFebruary, meeting in support of MNACGuest Mihai Oroveanu (?)

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2003JuneClaire BishopRomania Report“I’ve just spent a week in Romania with studentsfrom the Royal College of Art’s Curating course (…) Nicolae Ceau[escu’s dictatorship seriouslyeroded Romanian morale, and the so-calleddemocracy that has replaced it has left many ofthe corruptold organizational structures intact(…) The opening of the National Museum ofContemporary Art in Ceau[escu’s Palace nextyear (…) Lia is violently opposed to the newmuseum of contemporary art in Ceau[escu’sPalace, because the building also houses theParliament, and is therefore a too loaded andcompromising site in which to present art.Moreover, it’s costing 12 million dollars to convertthe Palace’s 1980’s baroque plasterwork into a“white cube”, i t would be cheaper to buildsomething new from scratch. Because theydisagree so strongly with this space, Lia and Danrefer to themselves as “Dizzydents”, they aredissident, but they no longer have a clear enemy(as it was possible under communism). For methis epithet telling this lack of clear target is whatwe all confront today in the west, the art world isbound up with corporate sponsorship andgovernment funding, hierarchies, favoritism andnetworks (...) (Lia began making performances inthe 1980’s, but it was not until the countryopened up to the West in 1990 that she learntthat performance art had a long history. Heranger and frustration at this denied historyprompted her to research with a vengeance. Shebegan to create an archive of information – aboutart terminology, art institutions, installations andperformances – and to disseminate it in the formof a small newspaper, Zoom. Gradually thisnewspaper has become her artwork - but itseducational and political impetus remains asurgent as ever (…).One can sympathise with the PerjovschiDizzydents, since by western standards thesituation is fucked up in the extreme, the Ministryof Culture has a stranglehold on funding and ispouring it into a preposterously oversizedmuseum whose director has no clear vision (…).The day’s events leave me feeling battered overthe head, less Dizzydent that just plain dizzy.(…)Ultimately the change must come from educationand information, which is why Lia’s archiveproject and the Periferic Biennial are soimportant (…) After Bucharest I travelled to theVenice Biennale, where I found the Romanianpavilion presenting new media work – thisseemed to be a puzzling choice - not because itseemed to say nothing about the culturalsituation there - although perhaps this was thepoint....the display was a wasted opportunity. Ifthe Romanian government could only accept thatthe nation’s most interesting art comes frommore inventive minds working with lessextravagant media, it will realize that it is sittingon a cultural goldmine.”2003Perjovschi Dan on nettime-ro, Acquisitions ofcontemporary art, source: Evenimentul zilei,Sunday, the 23rd of February, 2003 – the last 2years...The highest sums reached and exceeded400 million lei, about 11,500 dollars (Romanianmedium income per month 100 euro – 3 million

lei). Total acquisitions budget more than 24billion lei. Acquisition board: Mihai Oroveanu,Irina Cios, Roxana Trestioreanu, MirelaD`uceanu, Adrian Gu]`, Gheorghe Vida, RaduIonescu, Ioan Opri[, Irina Arabagiu. (many ofthem don’t belong there...)2003 22 Magazine, Dan Perjovschi, vis à vis Intellectuals in powerPSD followed its official politics by recruitingsome high reputation intellectuals to stay close toP`unescu. The strategy is simple when you haveunder control all the financial and informationalresources, restrict the nongovernmental field,soften the law where it’s necessary, acquit thoseyou want from taxes, give prizes over prizes,send inspectors when and where you feel like,build national institutions and foundations ofpublic interest, give scholarship and namecultural attachés, condition sponsorship andacquisitions, use the public money as if theywere yours, cut ribbons and make collections,control the press and the TV shows, orders,medals, manuals and subventions.With their back against the wall and poor, theycome to you all by themselves.Some counsellors, some directors. 2004 22 Magazine Dan Perjovschi House of People should be the NationalOrthodox CathedralIt would be closer to the place blessed by Popeand Allhappy Teoctist, it would be already built,equally big and uggly, and the protests all aroundParliament would be avoided in the future. Thechurch would be reborn on its initial place, whereother churches had been destroyed withAllhappy Teoctist approval; the art museum fromwithin would find its public and, instead ofspending billions on our tricolour flag torn by thewind, on the top of the building we would put across, once for all.

2004On Monday, the President Ion Iliescu and thePrime Minister Adrian N`stase, together withsome of the government’s members, werepresent at the official inauguration of thefuture MNAC’s residence, which is to be openfor the public this autumn. (...) MNAC placed on a 16,000 sqm surface(ROMPRESS). Ion Iliescu: ”a programme ofaction and coherent strategy on a national scale,coordinated by Ministry of Culture, Ministry ofEducation, Romanian Academy, other publicinstitutions, creative associations, society’selements, NGOs.”...(the NGOs led by PSD members becameFoundations whose budget is provided by thestate...)2004The National Competition of Contemporary FineArts for Young Artists –Young Art On Friday, at Apollo Gallery, in the presence ofthe Prime Minister Adrian N`stase (there is nocultural event without the Prime Minister A.N.)2004Tuesday, June 1st, Evenimentul ZileiCosmin TupaMNAC opened as it happened during Cea[c`(Ceau[escu)’s epoch.

PSD hurried to open an unfinished building,with empty walls MNAC in Palace of Parliament caused a lot ofdebates ever since the spring of 2001, when thedecision to create this institution was made...right in the middle of the electoral campaign(during the local elections)... Even in thissituation, the Prime Minister N`stase wanted toshow that he knew all about everything and heasked the Chamber of Deputies’ president tocede the ground in front of the museum in orderto build there, in the open, a cultural centre whichshould develop around the museum’s entrance...Adrian N`stase - ”In this way, appear thepremises of a positive promotion of our country”(the museum – visiting card of the power...)

2004Raluca VoineaRomanian curators love palaces

The National Museum of Contemporary Art inRomania was founded through a decision of theGovernment, at the initiative of the former PrimeMinister, Adrian Nastase, as part of his ambitiousplan of patronage. The museum is housed in one of the wings of thePalace of Parliament. The building, also knownas the Republic’s House, the House of thePeople or Ceausescu’s Palace, is famous forbeing the 2nd largest building in the world, anarchitectural monstrosity and a symbol oftyranny. Its construction started in 1984 and itwas never finished, the long channels builtunderneath it still look as if they were haunted byterrorists, the huge park surrounding it is stillpartly desert. In 1994, at the initiative of the sameAdrian Nastase, the headquarters of theChamber of Deputies was re-located in one ofthe Palace’s wings (the Senate joined it in 2004).The word used then as well as when MNAC wascreated was “exorcism”. MNAC opened in 2004,20 years after the building was started, and onemonth before the parliamentary and presidentialelections took place in Romania. The empty-walls spaces of the museum had beeninaugurated in June 2004, for the press. On the9th of June, on Europe’s Day, the building wasonce again exorcised by a huge show offireworks – to clear this building of its pastgradually became as expensive as it was itsconstruction

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Claire Bishop & students atRoyal College at caa

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