European integration at a political and economical level has also facilitated integration at other levels, particularly in the cultural field. Culture, in fact, constitutes an important premise of the European idea concerning unity in diversity. EU member states now have an opportunity to access various cultural programmes that can make this cultural integration a reality.
Five young Romanian artists have travelled to Malta to exhibit their paintings thanks to a project financed by the Romanian Ministry of Culture through the PROMOCULT EU programme. This programme aims to promote the values of contemporary Romanian art by bringing its contribution to the integration of the culture and the values of the national art in the context of the European culture with the help of visual arts.
The exhibition was brought to Malta on the initiative of the deputy mayor of Attard Charló Bonnici,who is also the chairman of the Council’s sub-committee for Culture.
The exhibition in Attard Parish Centre, which has run between 11 August and today to coincide with the feast of Sta Marija, was officially opened by Mgr Charles Vella, spiritual director at San Raffaele Hospital, Milan who is on a short break in Malta.
The artists exhibiting were:
Cristina Ciucu – painter. Generic title of exhibited paintings: Clown.
Maria Axinte – icon manufacturer debutant. Title: Maria.
Doru Luchian – painter. Title: The Big Surfer
Vera Luchian – painter/ photographer. Title: Subjective architecture
Marius Ivanovici – sculpture.
The main target of the project, Believing In The Freedom Of Multiple Choice, is to promote Romanian contemporary visual art by bringing forward young valuable artists – painters, photographers, sculptors, art producers, stage producers – who will shape a unique and expressive message with the help of their original work, the directions of the Romanian contemporary art being in this way intended to be integrated in the big European cultural family.
By putting forward the values of contemporary national art, the project aims at a more active promotion of the diversity of contents and national artistic expressions as an agent of a long-lasting European development, as well as at the improving of access to the acknowledgement of the Romanian cultural values of the international public, through cultural actions and events meant to consolidate the latest process of adhering to the European Union and to lead to the creation of a proper and positive perception of the European nations regarding the social and cultural treasure of Romania.
As part of this project, each of the artists promoted through the project Believing In The Freedom Of Multiple Choice will have the chance to meet several times, either within the group, or with other groups of talented youngsters and will try to share their experience and their working techniques.
From this subjective perception, through an accurate transmission of the artistic message, the next step is to promote each action among the masses with the help of different promotional material, local TV talk shows, press conferences/interviews in local/central newspapers with the promoters of the project, dissemination conferences, public debates in certain cultural centres and locations, prestigious high-schools, universities and so on.
As well as Malta, the current exhibition will also be presented in various European locations of cultural interest namely Italy, The Netherlands and Spain.
It is hoped that through this project there will be a growth of interest in contemporary visual arts and an improved circulation of the ideas brought by artists and Romanian cultural events, either within the European cultural agenda or within a local environment.
Attard local council is planning further collaboration with other European institutions with the aim of organising similar exhibitions and other cultural events in the area, as well as finding opportunities for artists, musicians, actors and singers from Attard to participate in cultural events held in other European countries.