BisCult

🏛️ Next Saturday, we will hold the continuation of the poetry workshop we ran in October as part of the activities developed by the ESC BisCult project (2024-RO01-ESC51-VTJ-000214404): "Between History and Poetry: The Poetic Text as a Reflection of a Time."

📚 This time, we will continue exploring the history of Romania and Europe through a selection of literary texts. Specifically, we will read and discuss poems by a group of twentieth-century and contemporary authors: Gellu Naum, Maria Banuș, Lucian Blaga, Nichita Stănescu, and Herta Müller.

✍🏻 As in the previous workshop, we will connect the texts with other artistic disciplines and carry out a series of creative exercises that will allow us to gain a deeper understanding of the poems and their historical context.

📲 If you are interested in the activity, feel free to register using the QR code provided on the poster.

🌿 We look forward to seeing you there!

📅 13/12/2025
🕒 11:00-13:00
📍 National History Museum of Romania

✨ On behalf of the whole ESC Biscult team, we are excited to invite you to our upcoming workshop on December 6th! Together, we'll dive into the evolution of Romanian music going from the early 20th century to today, and explore how sounds, beliefs, and artistic visions have shifted across generations.

💬 This workshop is all about conversation, curiosity, and creativity. Through interactive activities and interpretation exercises inspired by historical and artistic insight, we'll build a space for sharing perspective and learning from one another.

📲 Interested in joining us? Simply scan the QR code and fill out the short form.

We can't wait to experience this journey with you! 🎼🌻

📍 National History Museum of Romania
🗓️ 6/12/2025
🕒 11:00-13:00

📚 As part of the ESC project’s commitment to educational outreach, we are hosting a series of workshops that examine the history of Romania through the lens of culture.

☕️ The first of these workshops will focus on the relationship between poetry and history. During this session, we will read works by several prominent 19th-century Romanian authors (Eminescu, Caragiale, Alecsandri, Macedonski, and Coșbuc) and discuss their connections to historical events, providing a deeper understanding of both the literary texts and related works of art from other disciplines.

✍🏻 The session will be conducted in English, though we will be working with Romanian texts, as well as English translations, which will be provided in a small handout distributed to participants. Additionally, the workshop will include a creative writing component, where we will engage in exercises designed to help us better understand the formal mechanisms of the poems we read together. The language for the creative writing exercise will be open, and we welcome the use of multiple languages.

✨ We hope to see you there!

💭 Today we present two objects from the Treasure collection: the Neolithic figures known as The Thinker and The Sitting Woman.

🏺 Made of terracotta, these sculptures date back to around 5000 BC. They were discovered in Cernavodă (Constanța) in 1956 and were later reconstructed. They are believed to belong to the Hamangia culture and were probably part of a funerary inventory.

🏛️ Today, they are among the most iconic pieces in the Museum, with one of them featured in the institution's logo.

🏛️✨ Every morning, we are lucky to think of and develop cultural activities for the community of Bucharest at the National Museum of History. The location of this institution is in the Postal Palace, a building inaugurated in 1900 for the Romanian Post Office. Designed by architect Alexandru Săvulescu, it is in the neoclassical style and features a portico with ten Doric columns that currently welcomes visitors to the museum.

🎻🎶 George Enescu (1881-1955) was a Romanian composer, violinist, pianist, and conductor. He is considered one of the most important musicians in the country. Showing outstanding musical talent from an early age, he began studying at the Vienna Conservatory at the age of seven, becoming the youngest person ever admitted. He continued his studies in Paris, where he composed his first mature work: Romanian Poem (1898). Later on, influenced by Romanian folklore, he wrote the Romanian Rhapsodies (1901-1902), another of his most notable pieces. In the 1920s and 1930s, he worked as a conductor for various American and European orchestras —New York, Paris— and in 1932, he was named a member of the Romanian Academy.

🏛️🎨 Enescu’s importance in Romanian culture is undeniable, as evidenced by the existence of a museum dedicated to him and the George Enescu International Festival, which continues to be celebrated today with various events in cities across Romania —Bucharest, Brașov, Constanța. His presence can also be traced in other arts, such as in a painting by artist Corneliu Baba (1906-1997), which bears the musician’s name, features his portrait, and is housed in another Bucharest museum, the Museum of Collections. At the National Museum of History, one of Enescu’s violins is preserved —an object presented in the Masterpieces exhibition.

Our visit to the Village Museum in 35 mm. 📷🎞️

🛡️ In the reliefs of Trajan's Column, we can observe the scene in which the Dacian king Decebalus decides to take his own life in the face of the imminent triumph of the Roman troops, who end up annexing Dacia to the Roman Empire after two military campaigns (101-102 and 105-106). In the words of the Roman historian Dio Cassius: "Decebalus, when his capital and all his territory had been occupied and he was himself in danger of being captured, committed su***de; and his head was brought to Rome. In this way Dacia became subject to the Romans, and Trajan founded cities there" (Roman History, 68, 14, 3).

🪽 The following scenes from the replica of Trajan’s Column present a series of motifs linked to deities and ritual practices. The first two images depict an allegorical representation of Victory alongside a display of war b***y. In the third, the god Jupiter intervenes on behalf of the Romans, actively participating in the battle by casting a thunderbolt. The fourth scene illustrates a Latin sacrificial ceremony in which Trajan assumes the role of priest. The final image features a draco, a religious and martial emblem that serves as a distinguishing symbol of the Dacian people on the Column.

🏛️ At the National History Museum of Romania, you can find a full-scale replica of Trajan's Column, a monument erected in Rome (113 AD) to celebrate the Roman emperor's victory over the Dacians. The replica was made between 1934 and 1940 by craftsmen from the Vatican City. Due to World War II and political changes in Romania, its construction was delayed, and it finally arrived in Bucharest in 1967.

On this warm August afternoon, we bring you a snowy scene by Romanian painter Ștefan Luchian (1868-1916), specifically his work Convoy at Plevna, part of the MNIR Masterpieces collection. In this painting, we see a subject that Luchian explored on several occasions: the Romanian War of Independence (1877-1878). Following in the footsteps of predecessors like Nicolae Grigorescu, the artist continues to develop a realist aesthetic to express his concerns about Romanian history. In particular, we observe the image of a group of armed soldiers crossing a winter landscape as they lead supply wagons pulled by oxen. 🌨️🐂