IN-PERSON: Prague – Section A

Abstract

After the World War II, with the Soviet Union’s support, in Romania was installed a communist government. The effects of these regime have been so profound and widespread, that many areas remain underexplored and consequently little-known or misunderstood, such as contemporary jewellery. This paper will start a discussion on cultural amnesia, recovering the memory of forgotten artists and the healing function of heritage around one of the most iconic event for European Contemporary Jewellery which took place at Jablonec in 1968, during Prague Spring, when Czechoslovakian Artists organized the first International Silver Jewellery Symposium, and jewellery artists from Eastern and Western Europe alike were invite. The brief illusion of artistic normality ended brutally a day after the symposium ended when the Russian troops entered Prague. The Romanian artist who I am going to introduce through this paper is Florica Farcasu, born in 1909, member of Romanian Union of Plastic Artists, who participated at Jablonec’68. Munich Design Museum organized an anniversary exhibition and published a book on Jablonec’68 fifty years after, in 2018 and this is how I find out about her existence even though she was considered at the time as the pioneer of Romanian contemporary jewellery. She was a political prisoner from 1946 to 1956, and starting with the ‘60s thaw she became a constant presence of decorative arts exhibitions and art publications, however only for few years. By the early 1970s she has been already completely forgotten; her death year remains unknown. There is a pressing need to recover the memory of the forgotten artists in relation with other cases of cultural amnesia, a moral need, at both personal and society levels, however the research within the closed and secretive society’s history is a difficult and slow process.