“Straturi si substraturi” is an exhibition-event with an ethnographic theme, based on a recent discovery, in the patrimonial fund of MNȚR, of the album “Izvoade strămoșești” by Mărgărita Miller-Vergy, with sewing samples.
For 117 years, this special cultural asset, which contains 52 plates, was not researched and presented to the public. Now, we have the chance to try to restore the memory as part of an early history of Romanian decorative art.
The proposal that the curator of the exhibition makes is also an opportunity to restore a creative correspondence between the sewing art of those times and the current one. This brings to the fore and presents to the public the effort of collecting motifs, by the students of the “Elena Cuza” Normal School, under the guidance of Mărgărita Miller-Vergy from the beginning of the 20th century – the one who has the merit of starting the theoretical studies on Romanian folk art.
Structured as a set of activities, the exhibition starts from the series of questions that the author asked herself at the beginning of the century. 20th century: “if there is a Romanian decorative art?” (and continues today) “if so, how was she influenced?”
Each section in the exhibition represents an interrogation between tradition/traditional and the present, where concern for the preservation and conservation of cultural assets has influenced, virtually eliminating research and the use of these motifs. It is proposed, with this statement of reasons, a new look at research methods and, thus, during the period of this exhibition, a creativity workshop coordinated by the plastic artist Ana Petrovici-Popescu will be organized.
The organizers invite the audience to rediscover the past and redefine the art of folk decoration together for the joy of discovery.
Curator: Adriana Dragomir, MNȚR museographer
The exhibition can be visited at Sala Noua Galerie, until August 7, 2024, from Wednesday to Sunday, between 10.00 and 18.00.
Source: MNȚR
