The Sound Archive's project "Jazz and Social Life under Communism" explores this year the rich history of Romanian jazz during the socialist period. After a documentation of the Sibiu Jazz Festival between 1974-1989 and a recent exhibition dedicated to it in the same city, we now turn our attention to jazz in Timișoara.
What was the jazz scene in Timișoara like in the period before 1990?
What impact did it have on the city's social and cultural life?
What were its international connections?
Through an experience that combines a series of public discussions, documentary materials from personal archives, artworks and installations, the exhibition aims to deepen the cultural and social significance of the jazz movement in Timișoara and the influence of the Sibiu Jazz Festival on the national jazz scene.
Documentary materials from the collections of Ioan Băcălete, Marius Giura and Johnny Bota will be presented in the exhibition built around the stories told by guests at the microphones of the Sound Archive. Jazz x TM x Life 60-70-80 is a work-in-progress event, which will be continuously fed by the interventions that will take place in the exhibition space. The Timișoara landscape will be complemented by a series of visual narratives from the life of the Sibiu Jazz Festival. A video by the musician Lucian Fabro recalling, through an illustrated DIY album, the important moments, a group of emblematic photographs taken by Fred Nuss and reinterpreted by the artist Beatrice Arzoiu, an animation created by the artist Alexandra Zidariu, inspired by an iconic photograph by Horst Buchfelner, and an audio-visual installation by the photographer Zeinab Zimmer are all portals to decipher the central event in Romanian jazz during the communist period, with its ramifications to other local scenes. The work by artist Oana Maria Pop, From East to East, traces the road Sibiu - Timișoara - Zagreb, the place from where the Croatian musician Boško Petrović's TV show started, on the airwaves, to the antennae of the people of Timișoara, through an image that coincides with the shape of a saxophone. Artist Sorina Vazelina presents an art installation dedicated to the jazzman Richard Oschanitzky from Timișoara, in dialog with the works of artist Ionuț Dulămiță, which explores the female contribution to Romanian jazz, with Aura Urziceanu, who was a stage colleague of Oschanitzky during the years of activity of his ensemble, as the central figure.
The events programme:
Opening: Saturday, october 2, 6 pm, Casa Artelor, Studio Hall
DJ set George Staicu (Muzica de Vest) - audition of 60s-70s-80s eastern jazz
Sunday, october 3, 5 pm, Casa Artelor, Studio Hall
Guest: Ioan Băcălete
An emblematic figure of the Timișoara jazz scene, Ioan Băcălete comes to meet the public to talk about his experience as leader of the local jazz club and organizer of the International Jazz Workshop.
Monday, october 14, 6 pm, Casa Artelor, Studio Hall
Guest: Johnny Bota
Musician, teacher and writer, co-founder of the Bega Blues Band, Johnny Bota participates in a public discussion about the history and the avatars of jazz in Banat.
Wednesday, october 16, 7 pm, National Museum of Art, Baroque Hall
Concert Amphitrio - What Freedom Sounds Like
Amphitrio releases his latest album, Timelines, which features eight compositions influenced by the folklore of eight former communist countries (Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria, Serbia, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Poland, Germany, Hungary, Bulgaria, Serbia, Czech Republic, Poland and Germany).
Thursday, october 17, 6 pm, Casa Artelor, Studio Hall
Guest: Marius Giura
President of the Jazz Banat Cultural Foundation and director of the Gărâna Jazz Festival, Marius Giura talks about the evolution of Banat jazz and the dynamics of the local scene in the post-1990 period.
Friday, october 18, 6 pm, Casa Artelor, Sala Studio
Guest: Victor Andrieș
Journalist, radio man and author of a blog dedicated to jazz, Victor Andrieș completes the picture by participating in a discussion about how jazz is making its way onto local independent radio since 1990.
Monday, october 21, 6 pm, Casa Artelor, Studio Hall
Guest: Csaba Kalman
Csabi, as everyone knows him, is a city character. He brings to the exhibition stories of how, through his bootleg recordings, he memorializes and archives an entire local musical universe.
Wednesday, october 23, 6 pm, Pixel TM
Movie screening: CREATIV (directed by Ioana Grigore, 2019), followed by a discussion with Virgil Mihaiu, writer and jazz critic
Admission to the exhibition and events at Casa Artelor and Pixel™ is free.
Tickets for the Amphitrio concert at the National Museum of Art can be found online: https://muzeul-national-de-arta-timisoara.booktes.com or at the museum's box office, Wednesday - Sunday: 10:00 - 18:00.
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Organizer: Centrul Dialectic
Partners: Union of Croatian Composers, Minitremu Association, Jazz Updates, Casa Artelor - Timis County Department for Culture
Media partners: Radio Romania Cultural, Scena 9
The project "Jazz and Social Life in Communism" is developed by Centrul Dialectic and is part of the national cultural program "Timisoara - European Capital of Culture in 2023", financed by the Legacy Timisoara 2023 program, implemented by the Center of Projects of the Municipality of Timisoara with funds allocated from the state budget, through the budget of the Ministry of Culture. Project co-financed by AFCN. The project does not necessarily represent the position of the funders.