Performing Revolution in Central and Eastern Europe

Performing Revolution in Central and Eastern Europe
5 November - 31 March 2009
Romanian Cultural Institute

Below is the information for an upcoming festival in New York. Note the Festival Symposium on Thursday, November 5th, and the NYPL exhibit, Revolutionary Voices: Performing Arts in Central and Eastern Europe in the 1980s, which are of particular interest to the Consortium. We will be organizing an excursion for Consortium members to attend the symposium, and to meet for a discussion/lunch. If you are interested in joining us, please email chreculture [at] gmail [dot] com to let us know.

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Performing Revolution in Central and Eastern Europe
A five-month long festival featuring a wide range of performances, exhibitions, film screenings, and symposia throughout New York City

The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, in association with leading New York City cultural organizations, among which is the Romanian Cultural Institute, presents Performing Revolution in Central and Eastern Europe. This five-month festival focuses on the performing arts as a powerful voice and contributing force in the fall of communism in Central and Eastern Europe. Spearheaded by The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center, which will present a major exhibition on the themes of the festival, Performing Revolution features over 20 events throughout New York City, with a specific focus on performing arts in the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Romania, the Slovak Republic, and Slovenia.

Performing Revolution in Central and Eastern Europe explores the revolutionary mindset of performing artists through theater, music, and dance performances, exhibitions, film screenings, readings, and symposia. While certain festival events illustrate how artistic resistance in the 1980s contributed to the profound political changes in 1989, others comment on the different contexts that continue to characterize revolution in performance today.

The main festival event is the exhibition Revolutionary Voices: Performing Arts in Central & Eastern Europe in the 1980s (November 18, 2009 – March 20, 2010) that examines how performances attempted to break boundaries set by the communist state’s culture politicians, aesthetes, and censors. The exhibition focuses on theater performances, music, and dance events, which through their form and/or content contested the prevailing totalitarian regime and anticipated the forthcoming political/social changes. As the revolution in most countries of the Soviet bloc did not take place in the form of a violent overthrow of power, art was one the main arenas where “the revolutionary” started to happen. The exhibit is curated by Karen Burke, Assistant Chief, Music Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts and Aniko Szucs, Ph.D. Candidate in Performance Studies at New York University.

The Romanian Cultural Institute in New York participates in: Rebel Waltz, a weekend of music featuring underground bands that performed behind the Iron Curtain in the 1980s, which opens Performing Revolution (Nov 6-8); the exhibition Revolutionary Voices: Performing Arts in Central & Eastern Europe in the 1980s; a series of book launches featuring Romanian authors; the festival symposium presented by The Harriman Institute at Columbia University (Nov 5) and will present its Annual Romanian Film Festival at Tribeca Cinemas (Dec 4-6) as part of Performing Revolution.