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THE ESTATE OF THE LIVING

July-November 2018

Iași-Gherla-Bonțida-Scornicești-Lupeni-București-Vienna

The Estate of the Living is a project that combines different practices of the written culture (poetry, political essay, public reading) with cultural interventions characteristic of contemporary arts (performative workshop, public discussion, performance or lecture performance) and is organized both in towns and villages (Scornicești, Lupeni, Gherla, Bonţida), as well as in larger cities in Romania (Iaşi, Bucharest) or abroad (Vienna).
The project’s aim is to organize public readings and interactive discussions, as well as coordinate a series of writing workshops in marginal geographic areas with a strong historical and / or cultural significance (Scornicesti, Gherla penitentiary, Valea Jiului - Lupeni).
The coordination of the readings and workshops is done by the writer and theoretician Ovid Pop in collaboration with local and international artists and activists.

The Estate of the Living deals with basic social and cultural processes that shape the global capitalist culture today: "Opening up to the West has fueled old self-colonization complexes with new modern contents. The middle class, unstable and vulnerable to the fluctuations of the global capital, is the main vehicle of this vision. At the same time, it is the only public for the Romanian contemporary literature. Nationally, literature in neoliberalism finds itself in a communication dead end - to whom does one speak? is the question that comes up. Internationally, subaltern global literature runs against the imperatives that make up the artistic hierarchy. The cul-de-sac that the global literary periphery has to overcome has to do with representation: how does one move away from the consumer status in the modernity? How does one make literary modernity? How does one keep the difference through language without falling into parochial forms of culture or in cliché? What or whom does one represent "abroad"? The project The Estate of the Living doesn’t look so much for answers to these questions, as it explores forms of expression through language and literary organization practices from which these answers arise. "(Ovid Pop)

In addition, the project proposes the editing and publication of a volume of texts closely related to the locations visited and the themes approached at the workshops.
"The volume The Estate of the Living is addressed to various groups: pupils, pupils from rural areas, people with formal education, detainees, critical organizations in Romania, regional / international public. The intent is that, by using the privileges of formal education, we make it possible to articulate through language experiences that are traditionally rendered unreadable. The language therefore modulates in different forms of understanding and sensitivity. There is a variety of language regimes and literary genres in this book." (Ovid Pop)

Author: Ovid Pop
Design: Andrei Timofte
Project manager: Delia Bulgaru
Curators: Livia Pancu & Florin Bobu


The project The Estate of the Living is organized by tranzit.ro/ Iași and co-funded by the Administration of the National Cultural Fund. This project does not necessarily represent the position of The Administration of the National Cultural Fund. AFCN is not responsible for the content of the project or how project results can be used. These are entirely the responsibility of the beneficiary of the funding.