Romania's Camin Cultural: between political programme and cultural appropriation from 1955 to the present day

导读：在1989年12月之前的50年间，罗马尼亚几乎每个城市、城镇和村庄都配备了一个文化中心，称为Camin culture或Casa de Cultura。这些术语可以翻译为文化的家园或文化的房屋。成千上万这样的机构的建设实现了共产主义的乌托邦梦想，即创造一个每个人都可以参与和被调查的公共场所。这个基于实践的研究计划有两个互补的元素：罗马尼亚Camin文化的历史和人类学比较分析，为提案的论文元素进行，以及通过与过去和现在的Camin文化用户合作和重演的过程中开发的实践部分的实验纪录片。研究背景和问题：我的目标是确定并呈现这些中心目前运作的多样化、相互冲突的方式；关注内部微进程和社区使用。比较的观点将分析在前东欧集团和更广泛的欧洲背景下类似机构的转变。我的研究问题是：-文化之家的日常社会和文化实践与共产主义时代的中央政策议程有何不同，在政治上有何挑战？-这些地方在不同多民族社区的社会背景下是如何分配的？-在当代罗马尼亚对社会参与艺术的兴趣日益浓厚的背景下，与整个欧洲日益私有化的当代艺术和文化机构所提供的参与文化活动的模式相比，国有的文化之家是否代表了一种明显不同的模式？-在实验电影的框架内，重演和表演访谈的策略如何使我们理解不断变化的文化策略和对不同文化表达的重视？这项研究建议着眼于文化之家如何不仅是传播官方文化的目的地，最常见的是以直言不讳的意识形态和宣传方式，而且是通过鼓励联系和参与戏剧、视觉艺术、音乐和手工艺等活动来“激活”人口创造性的地方。研究方法：在过去的20年里，我一直活跃于各种场合，包括学术机构、另类画廊、博物馆、艺术双年展、电影节、医院和多功能社区中心。这个建议扩展和发展了我的方法论和艺术重点，即文化话语的去中心化和在既定价值体系内创造性多样性的可持续性。民族志、历史和艺术研究方法将结合定量、定性和沉浸式人类学艺术策略，包括：重点是档案研究、视觉和文本分析、广泛的实地工作，高度强调在罗马尼亚（我能说流利的罗马尼亚语）与Caminul文化的前任/现任参与者进行的记录访谈，以确定当地居民实际上是如何记住和感知当地文化之家的历史和功能的。电影制作过程将结合重演、模拟试镜和电影录影带的元素。电影策略挑战了纪录片传统，通过引入表演和个人代理，在“苏联殖民”时期大量服务于宣传功能。参与者将重新演绎个人故事；背诵官方文件、新闻报道和官方档案中的声明。我的意图是创建一个谈判的舞台/论坛，参与者在其中解释原始材料；选择有用和相关的内容，同时破译宣传的修辞。

Introduction: Throughout a 50-year period, prior to December 1989, almost every city, town and village in Romania was furnished with a cultural centre, called Camin Cultural or Casa de Cultura. These terms can be translated as homely places for culture or houses for culture. The construction of thousands of such institutions materialized the utopian dream of communism to create a communal place where everyone could be both engaged and surveyed. This practice-based research proposal has two complementary elements: an historical and anthropological comparative analysis of Romanian Camin Cultural, carried out for the dissertation element of the proposal, and an experimental documentary film for the practice component developed through a process of collaboration and reenactment with past and present-day Camin Cultural users. Research background and questions: My goal is to identify and present the diverse, conflicting, ways in which these centres currently operate; focusing on internal micro-processes and community usage. A comparative perspective will analyse the transformation of similar institutions within the former Eastern Bloc and wider European context. My research questions are: - How did everyday social and cultural practices in Casa de Cultura differ from, and politically challenge, a centralised policy agenda during the communist era? - How were these places appropriated in the social context of different multi-ethnic communities?- In the context of a growing interest in socially engaged art in contemporary Romania do state owned Casa de Cultura represent a distinctly different model of participation in cultural activities than that provided by increasingly privatized contemporary art and cultural institutions throughout Europe?- Within the framework of an experimental film, how do strategies of reenactment and performative interviews enable us to make sense of shifting cultural strategies and the value placed upon diverse cultural expressions?This research proposal looks at how Houses of Culture were not only destinations for disseminating official culture, most often in bluntly ideological and propagandistic ways, but also places where the population was 'activated' creatively through encouraging contact and participation in activities such as theatre, visual arts, music and crafts. Research methodologies: For the past 20 years I have been active in various contexts, including academic institutions, alternative galleries, museums, art biennials, film festivals, hospitals and multipurpose community centres. This proposal extends and develops my methodological and artistic focus on the de-centralisation of cultural discourse and the sustainability of creative diversity within a system of established values.The ethnographic, historical, and artistic research methodology will combine quantitative, qualitative and immersive anthropological-artistic strategies including: focused archival research, visual and textual analysis, extensive field work, placing a high emphasis upon documented interviews in Romania (I speak fluent Romanian) with former/present participants in Caminul Cultural to identify how local residents actually remember and perceive the history and function of their local House of Culture.The filmmaking process will combine reenactment, simulated auditions and elements of cinéma vérité. The filmic strategy challenges a documentarist tradition that heavily served propagandistic functions under 'Soviet Colonisation' through introducing performativity and individual agency. Participants will reenact personal stories; recite from official documents, press articles and statements from official archives. My intention is to create a stage/forum of negotiation wherein participants are interpreting source materials; selecting what is useful and relevant whilst deciphering the rhetoric of propaganda.