The artist Tudor Chirilă criticized the Ministry of Culture after it was proposed that the actors present the weekly work schedule, prepare individual activity reports and sign the attendance sheet, as part of a pilot program inspired by a directive of the Court of Accounts.
He states that “you cannot compare museographers with actors, instrumentalists with librarians, dancers with cultural managers and apply templates in which no one fits.”
“Sure, time-keeping has always existed according to the Labor Code, but you expect from a minister of culture the regulation of the specifics of the artist profession, not the regimentation in the existing legislative aberrations.
A simple example is that many times, even if an actor wanted to, he would have nothing to look for in a theater just to act as a bridge”. he sent it on Facebook.
Tudor Chirilă explains that in a theater, not all actors play in every production and that some may have fewer roles or none, but still receive higher salaries for other reasons, such as having a doctorate.
“We at the Comedy Theater have three halls, let’s say they are repeated simultaneously in all three (it wouldn’t be possible because the City Hall doesn’t give us money for such an abundance) and these three productions have casts that don’t cover the entire theater collective, what do the others do, they come to the theater to sit in booths or offices?
Are they perfecting themselves professionally, waiting patiently for their next role somewhere in a hallway, from 9 to 17? If this measure wants to prove that some (actors) work more and others less, it is useless and illogical, we already know that.
I work in a theater where a colleague who hasn’t played 10% of what I’ve been lucky enough to play, earns better than me because he has a doctorate. This has been happening for over 15 years. How will it change the situation if he comes to stage every day, but he won’t go on stage because the directors always choose a different cast?”, it specifies.
“The Minister of Culture has demonstrated that he does not know much about copyright law either”
Tudor Chirilă states that the real problem is not the undeserved salary of some actors or the winning of some contests by those who have not acted for years, but the lack of a real understanding of the acting profession.
He points out that the frustration of the actors towards the misunderstanding of their job by the Ministry of Culture should also be felt by the minister himself.
“This pilot aberration with the norming is not the first obvious stupidity. The Minister of Culture demonstrated that he does not know much about copyright law, he does not know the categories of rights and relies excessively on advisors or various workers from the Ministry of Culture whose observations he takes as the letter of a new law that he cannot understand”. says Tudor Chirilă.
He also expressed his opinion in relation to the organization of theater manager contests.
“Demeter Andras is not good at transparent contests either. In seven months after taking over the mandate, he was not able to organize a contest at the National Theatre, moreover, he managed to annoy everyone, by proposing that a candidate for the position of manager should have worked at least ten years in a state institution.
Therefore, it is not the management project that matters, but the seniority in the system. And it sounds a bit like dedication, doesn’t it? I do not expect the Minister of Culture to resign. His path through cultural institutions (TVR, Public Radio, Ministry of Culture) speaks for itself. Fudulia does not involve introspection or self-analysis”.
Tudor Chirilă criticizes the fact that Romanian culture is not a priority neither for the government nor for the parties that declare themselves sovereign or nationalist.
He shows the hypocrisy of those who do not protest concrete situations, such as the transfer of the Ministry of Culture to the UDMR, the lack of a manager at the National Theater or the politicization of the administration of cultural heritage, although they declare themselves protectors of the national identity.
“So, I don’t expect Demeter András István to resign. Nor do I expect Bolojan to ask her, because if Marinescu and Predoiu are in the government Andrasz seems to be frequent.
But that doesn’t mean that I don’t see, after the mandate he had, that the minister of culture is not only inept, but also lacking in good or constructive intentions.
P.S. Just as I don’t expect Ciprian Ciucu to organize a contest in the theaters of Bucharest. Although he promised. Culture, we agreed, is not a priority. It will become, when it will no longer be at all.”
The answer of the Minister of Culture
The Minister of Culture, Demeter András, replied that “from 2023 the Court of Accounts notified the Ministry, until 2025 there were consultations on the issue, and this year a working group of designated/volunteer representatives from among the guilds was formed, which elaborated a document, an attempt at SELF-regulation: INSTRUCTIONS – in response to the IMPERATIVE request of the Court of Accounts”.
According to the minister, there is a 30-day testing period, only in the institutions subordinate to the Ministry of Culture, “the results will be analyzed and, depending on these results, a decision will be made.
“There are several possibilities: either certain aspects are modified/improved and the instructions become norms, or they are found to be perfectly applicable and become norms, or they are found not to work and they are completely abandoned.”
He also gave “a “plastic” example: it’s a bit like rehearsals: a brilliant theoretical proposal doesn’t work on stage, or an apparently uninspired idea turns out, unexpectedly, to be very useful in practice. Yes, against the background of the failure of all regulatory attempts, from top to bottom, we tried the opposite.”
“Through this proposal for self-regulation of the domain. Precisely in consideration of the situations described by you in the introductory-honest part of your post. Otherwise: glad that you are monitoring my activity!”.
