The Photographic Image Between Past and Future

The project The Photographic Image Between Past and Future aims to work with, and bring to public knowledge one of the most important photographic archives in Romania, assembled by the art historian, photographer and former Director of the National Museum of Contemporary Art of Romania from 2001 till 2013, Mihai Oroveanu. This project was partly triggered by the absence of specialized institutions dedicated to photography and the study of image culture in Romania. Even though photography has become a quintessential part of our everyday life, there is still little concern and reflection regarding the role of the image in society as well as its historical evolution.

The project sets out to relocate throughout its duration (June 2020 – November 2021) a large portion of the Mihai Oroveanu Image Collection into the exhibition space of Salonul de proiecte, thus allowing the team to work with it on several levels, and the public to access it on a constant basis and in a consistent manner. Throughout this initiative, Salonul de proiecte will follow professional guidelines to preserve, digitize and publish online a number of archival photographs, while also seeking to use innovative methods of engaging the public in this venture. Furthermore, Salonul de proiecte will organize a series of three thematic exhibitions with original items found in the photographic archive and nine contemporary art interventions, conceived especially for this context by local and international artists.

This project takes place in partnership with Fotogalleriet Oslo, whose role is to provide expertise and to initiate a knowledge transfer process in the fields of curating and photographic archiving. The training sessions will be open to students from the Photography and Video Department and the Faculty of Art History and Theory, UNArte Bucharest. The total budget of the project is 817.277,70 lei (169.285,74 EUR), of which 735.549,93 lei (152.357,17 EUR) represents the non-reimbursable financial support.

Project team:

Ștefan Sava – implementation
Alexandra Croitoru – production director
Magda Radu – artistic director
Anca Oroveanu – scientific consultant
Adriana Dumitran – cataloguing/archiving
Călina Bârzu  – indexing
Larisa Sitar – scanning
Serioja Bocsok – scanning
Vlad Nastasiu, Sebastian Jitianu – database/website
Adina Marincea – communication
Carina Dulea, Alice Feraru – custodian

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 and 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

Partener: Fotogalleriet Oslo