Bucharest, October 22, 2024. Although it has captured the entire Western world, Halloween, with its practices and customs, also finds echoes in the impressive Romanian folklore, where legends and popular beliefs abound with scary creatures and characters.
Ancient traditions and customs, nights with a full moon, fantastic creatures of the dark, creepy legends – all these make up the ingredients of a first exhibition dedicated to the imaginary bestiary in Romanian culture: Vampires and werewolves, curator: Cristian Vechiu. The exhibition can be seen at Art Safari between October 31 and November 17, 2024, at the Dacia-Romania Palace, on Lipscani 18-20.
“The experience proposed by this Art Safari brand exhibition represents an immersion in the Romanian imaginary, sometimes through the reinterpretation or integration of elements established as pop culture. The Vampires and Werewolves exhibition focuses – as the name suggests – on some of the most captivating figures of the fantastic macabre. From historical chronicles unfavorable to the controversial ruler Vlad the Impaler (which inspired the creation of the vampire character in Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula) to popular lore about werewolves and undead (those zombies of local folklore), supernatural creatures have captivated the collective imagination for centuries and they marked the emergence of popular beliefs and practices whose traces still persist in the native rural space”, says Cristian Vechiu, curator of the exhibition.
The exhibition offers visitors the opportunity to explore these creatures of the macabre fantastic, not only through the lens of fiction (where we find various representations: Mihai Eminescu’s poem, Ghoststhe poem Ghosts
of George Coșbuc, Saint Andrew’s nightby Vasile Alecsandri, short story asceticism of Vasile Voiculescu or Miss Christinaby Mircea Eliade), but also through the lens of visual arts (whether we are talking about popular, modern or contemporary art).
We find popular objects (such as melița and ragila) from the collection of the National Museum of the Romanian Peasant, traditional masks (the so-called “devil masks”) from the collection of the National Museum of the “Dimitrie Gusti” Village, stuffed animals from the heritage of the National Museum of Natural History. Grigore Antipa”, illustrations, modern references from cinematography, history and literature and works signed by established artists, such as Corneliu Baba, Tara von Neudorf, Roman Tolici, Ioana Bătrânu and others.
Beyond the usual Western clichés with which vampires are associated and, consequently, the Romanian space, the exhibition comes to show the public the different poses of some creatures that are really specific to Romanian traditional culture. Vampires and werewolves thus proves to be a good pretext to (re)discover the origins of these creatures, but also how they continue to give birth to stories and challenge the imagination (from the spectacular animated-s inspired by the image of the vampire in the new film adaptation of the classic Nosferatudirected by Robert Eggers). Every corner of the exhibition will inspire fear and fascination, evoking aspects of Romanian folklore, sprinkled with gothic and horror images.
Art Safari is also running two special Halloween events: a general public event featuring guided tours of all exhibitions, music and prosecco on Thursday 31 October from 8pm-11pm, and another event exclusively for students , on November 1, between 20:00 and 23:00.
About Art Safari: The annual organizer of the Bucharest Art Pavilion – the largest conglomerate of art exhibitions in Romania – now in its 15th edition, carries out, in partnership with Romanian and international art museums and private collectors, extensive retrospective exhibitions that aim to recover heritage values. With a strong educational side, its mission is to bring art closer to the public and educate new generations by organizing art workshops for children, guided tours and contemporary art exhibitions in unconventional spaces, such as Henri Coandă Airport or the Bucharest metro . Art Safari is a strategic national cultural project and is carried out in partnership with the Bucharest City Museum. In the 14 editions so far, it has recorded approx. 570,000 visitors. More details: artsafari.ro.
Press contact: Cristina Lica, Communication Director, 0740.051.749, [email protected]