Muzykalia w zbiorach Państwowego Muzeum Auschwitz-Birkenau

Author(s): Hubert Szczęśniak / Language(s): Polish Issue: 01 (32)/2017

The article presents the conclusion of the research conducted by the author in the collection of the State Museum of Auschwitz-Birkenau, former German Nazi concentration and extermination camp. The sources are fully featured and described for the first time. The article focuses on showing a complicated post-war history of the camp items connected with music (musical instruments, printings, manuscripts, handwritten copies of instrumental books), which are auxiliary sources to reconstruct the repertoire of chapels in KL Auschwitz-Birkenau. The main aim of the article is to also discuss the preserved repertoire. In the last chapter, the author presents a short characteristics of original works composed by musicians and composers in slavery with a short analysis of all of them. Presented musical printings are a reflection of tastes of the German public in the 1930s as well as an example of ridiculous anthropological establishments of Nazi music scientists and no ability to implement it on listeners practice. In addition, the work contains annexes: musical instruments, original works composed during camp existence, and musical printings – a list of music materials which survived in the collection of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum.

На бойното поле на символите: безследно изчезналите в Косово между паметта и историята (Част 1)

Author(s): Dimitar Atanasov / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 2/2018

The paper is the first part of a research, dedicated to the problem of how national identity of Kosovo is forged. It is analysed from the point of view of a particular case study – the missing persons and how their character is represented in the public discourses of Prishtina, Belgrad, and how the international community is involved.The problem of national identity building is considered in its complexity, taking into account numerous rival projects. The museum exhibition, dedicated to missing persons and cultural heritage artifacts could be regarded as case study.All the actors on the terrain apply their own ideological strategies, which could be identified in the concept of the “Missing” exhibition: how the personal memory is being domesticated and turned into history of the nation, how the transition from text to action was carried out, how memory, oblivion and history were (ab-)used as social building ideological toolkits. Particular attention was paid to the problem of the conceptualization of the recent past: how it was interpreted and attributed signs of prestige by the social actors involved in accordance to the interests of each of them.The ethnic conflict paradigm as a key concept widely used in contemporary humanities for explaining the Kosovo case as well as the disintegration of Yugoslavia is put under question. The history of the Museum of Kosovo is also involved, the debate between Belgrade and Prishtina for returning 1247 initially taken artifacts transported to Gračanica monastery and then to Belgrade in 1998 along with the withdrawal of the Yugoslav administration of the region is traced in its history and ideology, establishing references to the Kosovo myth, based on the folklore epics which were first published by Vik Karadžić in the 1820s and later became a canonized version of late medieval Serbian history.

Периодика 2018

Author(s): Emiliya Voleva / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 37/2018

Научни форуми 2018

Author(s): Nikola Kazanski / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 37/2018

Data about scientific events in the field of the humanities in Bulgaria in 2018.

Elka Bakalova. The Cult of Relics and Miracle-Working Icons. Traditions and Modernity. Sofia: Prof. Marin Drinov Publishing House of BAS, 2016. 194 p., with illustrations

Author(s): Ivanka Gergova / Language(s): English Issue: Special 2/2020

Book review

Гробът на Хаджи Димитър e под връх Хаджи Димитър в Стара планина

Author(s): Vera Boneva / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 1/2022

The article presents archival materials and other historical sources which keep primary information about the death and funeral of the famous Bulgarian rebel leader Hadzhi Dimitar Asenov (1840 – 1868) who originates from the town of Sliven. The widely accepted thesis that Hadzhi Dimitar was deadly shot during the Buzludzha battle (18th July 1868) and was buried at the place of the battle has been proven once again by bringing new motives and logical arguments. The funeral of the famous revolutionary on the Buzludzha peak (named in 1942 Hadzhi Dimitar peak) has been confirmed with memorial and archaeological pieces of evidence. Both re-burials of the fallen heroes (1898 and 1961) provide additional data in that direction. Despite scientific argumentation of the said thesis, the article also interprets some uncertain and contradictory evidence about the eventual death of Hadzhi Dimitar on the Kadrafil peak, located in the Sredna gora mountain – 50 km away from Bualudzha peak in the Stara planina mountain. Neither factual nor logical arguments of this legend withstand scientific criticism. Nevertheless, they are persistently popularized by local patriots, originating mainly from the village Svezhen (formerly called Ajar – until 1934). Furthermore, supporters of the so called Adjar's legend are trying to give national status of their unscientific claims about the death and burial of the famous revolutionary leader Hadzhi Dimitar Asenov. Their unjustified actions are conceptualized in the scientific context of the cultural memory theory. The dispute between the scientific version and the Adjar's legend is explained by the different approaches of historical science and cultural memory toward a single fact from the past – the last moments of a national hero's life. The professional historiography works with objective facts, scientific methods and logical arguments. Cultural memory attracts convenient hypotheses, mythological plots and unprovable local memories.

Зооморфната маска в зимните маскарадни игри: примерът Турка

Author(s): Emilia Boyadzhieva-Peeva / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 3/2021

The article studies the winter masquerade custom of Turka, as the central object of investigation is its variant from the Romanian village of Cuciulata in Transylvania. In the course of more than a century, the outlook of this mask has remained almost unchanged. The author offers analyses on the altering functions of the mask as an artefact playing the roles of a ritual object and a museum exponent.

Включване на общностите в процеса на опазване и социализация на наследство – правнонормативни документи на водещи международни организации

Author(s): Plamena Zayachka / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 3/2021

This article explores the changing approaches to the preservation and socialization of cultural heritage. The analysis of the normative documents of the leading international organizations in the field of cultural heritage – from the 50s of the twentieth century to the present day – shows a slow transition to the integration of people and communities in the processes of its preservation. This transition has three main phases: from separation of people and communities from the heritage, through awareness and access to it, and finally, to inclusion in the decision-making process concerning cultural heritage protection. The article also examines where Bulgaria is in this process and how these changes in cultural policies affect the mechanisms of protection of our cultural heritage.

Културни наследства и сетивна антропология – бележки от терена

Author(s): Irena Bokova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 4/2021

The article offers observations and preliminary notes from the study of cultural heritages with a focus on sensory images and their perception, expression, and communication. Sensory and visual anthropology are applied as research tools in the context of their complementarity and adequacy in regards with specific spheres of study. The author presents some results of her fieldwork in the form of visual archives and short anthropological films, which give further knowledge of the senses and their instrumentalisation for the generation of meanings and values.

Взаимодействието културно наследство – творчество: как модните дизайнери преоткриват културното наследството като съвременен дизайн

Author(s): Kristina Savova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 4/2021

The aim of the article is to outline and analyse the relationship between fashion and cultural heritage as a source of inspiration for fashion designers. Several examples of French fashion houses are considered, and fashion as art is discussed. In the highly competitive context of modern global fashion and luxury industry, creative practices and processes can be viewed in direct connection with cultural heritage. The interaction between cultural heritage and the creative process is strategic. It works at all levels and includes all components of the production chain, integrating the creation, design, production, and communication. Fashion designers, along with their aesthetic canons, rediscover archetypes, values and imagination, but rethink them in an appropriate, concrete and creative way. The designers offer new visions and meanings, as they experience original processes and approaches. Furthermore, they introduce social, political and cultural issues into the design philosophy, apply new craft skills in the design process or even utilize music and youth culture into the heritage of brands. In this way, cultural heritage is rediscovered as a modern and contemporary design.

Echoes

Author(s): Alice Isabella Sullivan,Vladimir Agrigoroaei,Ileana Sasu,Adinel C. Dincă / Language(s): English Issue: 6/2022

Review of: Faces, icons and books for the soul: Moldavians in Ukraine, Ukrainians in Moldavia. Testimonies of sacred art; 16th-19th centuries, exhibition organized by the Metropolitan Museum of Iași between April 14 and August 14, 2022, to support Ukrainian refugees. Vladimir Ivanovici and Alice Isabella Sullivan (eds), Natural Light in Medieval Churches, Series: East Central and Eastern Europe in the Middle Ages, 450-1450, Volume 88 Leiden and Boston, Brill, 2023 Daniela Marcu Istrate, Church Archaeology in Transylvania. (ca. 950 to ca. 1450), Leiden and Boston, Brill, 2022, 522 p. Daniela Marcu Istrate, Dan Ioan Mureșan and Gabriel Tiberiu Rustoiu (eds), Christianization in Early Medieval Transylvania. The Oldest Church in Transylvania and Its Interpretation, Leiden and Boston, Brill, 2022, 499 p. Mihail K. Qaramah, O istorie a Molitfelnicului Românesc. Evoluția formularelor Sfintelor Taine (sec. xvi-xvii) [A History of the Romanian Euchologion: The Evolution of the formularies of the Sacraments (16th -17th c.)], Alba Iulia, Editura Reîntregirea, 2022, 310 p.

Женско двугласно пеене от село Варвара (Съвременни процеси в традиционната практика)

Author(s): Petyo Krastev / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 3/2022

The article is the result of a field study in 2020 in the village of Varvara, Septemvri municipality, on the current state of women’s folk two-part singing. The ethnomusicological interpretation is made on the basis of a comparative analysis between theoretical studies on performance practices, an audio archive of the women’s vocal group at the National Culture Center “Peasant Awakening – 1927”, made in the early 1990s, and the most modern field materials from 2020. Passing through certain periods, the musical model becomes a village cultural value bequeathed from the past, which is preserved and safeguarded through certain forms of stage activity. Today, it is part of the intangible cultural heritage and ‘lives’ mainly through the community center and the practice of a certain generation.

XII Национален събор на народното творчество в Копривщица (5–7 август 2022 г.)

Author(s): Rosina Kokudeva / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 3/2022

Events

Първи национален фолклорен събор, Драгиново 2022 г.

Author(s): Petyo Krastev / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 3/2022

Events

Muzee ale comunismului și povestea unei ștampile. O recenzie a expozițiilor dedicate din Brașov și din Berlin

Author(s): Adriana Avram / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 1/2023

This review aims to bring together two private museums whose theme is largely similar: life in a communist country. The exhibition of the Museum of Memories from Communism in Brașov responded to the shortcomings in Romanian state-owned museums to cover a timeframe from recent history. To put the exhibition into perspective, after I present it and consider its museological features, I briefly bring into discussion the DDR Museum from Berlin. I focus not only on the visible part of the two – that is, the exhibition, but I also go backstage after connecting with those responsible for these two private museological endeavors, in order to discern the collecting undertakings and their role in the wider frame of museums landscape in a former communist country. Finally, after my visiting experience with both exhibitions and an unwilling / unfortunate entanglement with communist practices that are still up and running (the almost-failure of having a form stamped), I reflect on the role of a museum in providing deeper understanding of socio-cultural practices that affect our (not only institutional) lives up to our days.

M. H. Maxy: de la avangardă la socialism

Author(s): Ioana-Cristina Spiridon / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 1/2023

„M. H. Maxy: from avant-garde to socialism”, opened on the 28th of December 2023 at the Romanian National Museum of Art, uses a chronological line of events to bring up to date the image of Max Herman Maxy (1895 – 1971), seen as a leading artist with a significant role in the Romanian Avant-garde, but also as the first director of the Romanian National Museum of Art. Subsequently, his contribution to the development of the national art scene can’t be denied in art history. Furthermore, the opening was carefully chosen to mark a symbolic anniversary of 145 years since the first Romanian Jew obtained his citizenship, therefore enhancing the role that the Jew community had in the bloom and spread of the Avant-garde in Europe. The exhibition has a tacit dialogue to the main artistic events which celebrate Timișoara as The Cultural Capital of Europe 2023, the retrospectives dedicated to Victor Brauner and Constantin Brâncuși, suggesting the main artistic pillars in the dawn of Modern Romania.

Защо народният празник Сурова е в Списъка на ЮНЕСКО? (Резултати от една анкета)

Author(s): Tsvetana Manova / Language(s): English,Bulgarian Issue: 2/2023

The 2003 Convention and Its Implementation in Bulgaria

Imagine prospectivă a unei contribuții muzeale la regenerarea urbană prin cultură

Author(s): Sorin Constantinescu / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 1/2022

The subject of this paper is still not enough explored, not only from the perspective of museum research but also from that of studies belonging to other fields that take into account the need to integrate culture in urban regeneration. Because this topic is current and relevant for the multitude of cultural and social forms in which the museum institution could become a lasting pillar, we believe that our attempt will allow us to sketch an integrative project from which to extract some useful considerations for future research. The conclusions that emerge from positioning the National Museum of Romanian Literature in Bucharest (MNLR), more precisely its cultural hub located in a disadvantaged area, in the epicenter of urban regeneration through culture of the adjacent area, will hopefully be compelling enough to support a cultural axis. Especially since the targeted area (although it has a rich local cultural heritage, which deserves to be capitalized and whose historical memory must be preserved) does not yet experience the long-awaited revival, MNLR - as already demonstrated - can become a crucial actor, together with partners from civil society, in drawing a new cultural axis in the Romanian capital. This could contribute to the transformation of a physically degraded area with precarious living conditions into an engine for integrating culture into the daily concerns of as many fellow citizens as possible, and not only those belonging to the local community. After all, any attempt to achieve a prospective approach focused on the museum institution only validates the generous and mobilizing slogan of ICOM: “Museums have no borders, they have a network”.

Arta grafică modernă a femeilor artiste din patrimoniul Muzeului de Artă Tulcea

Author(s): Alice-Georgiana Fănaru / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 1/2022

The study presents the graphic works of six modern female artists that are part of the Tulcea Fine Arts Museum`s heritage. Their work, presented in the context of the modern period of development of fine arts in our country, is prefaced by a comparative analysis between feminism and the feminine in art, starting from the general understanding of the concept of feminism. The article aims to promote the graphics collection of the Tulcea museum and to provide a starting point for future analytical studies.

Трансформация на образа на чинка във вярванията на съвременните грузинци (Според устни разкази и архивни текстове)

Author(s): Marine Turashvili / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 4/2023

In the present article we examine mythological legends on imps, belonging to a specific genre of Georgian folk prose. They are new and have occupied their autonomous place in Georgian folklore since the 80s of the XIX century. During investigation we used the methods of secondary analysis and comparison. We used the texts of oral histories comparing them with published texts and with those kept in the Folklore Archive of Shota Rustaveli Institute of Georgian Literature. Oral histories are also recorded during our field-work in 2009 and kept as video materials in the mentioned archive. Unpublished archival materials contain the beliefs of the “low mythology” that have universal character. Mythological narratives on imps are based on real stories that are later transformed into unknowable events by folk imagination. In order to gain an understanding of this folk character, it is necessary to consider a number of key questions. These include: where do they try to meet people, how do they look – in terms of their appearance – when they are activated, how do they relocate, what is their function, what kind of relations do they have with human beings, and how can people get rid of them. In addition, it is important to consider the modern people’s attitude towards this character. Their habitation is proximate to that of humans, in narrow gorges, dark, abandoned and jinxed locales. They meet people in uninhabited places, attempting to intimidate them, but as the area becomes settled, they leave. In popular imagination, the imp is a diminutive malevolent spirit, resembling a man’s offspring. It may also take the form of a wild animal. They emerge from the second half of October to the middle of November, posing a significant threat to people, even causing madness. If a man knows how to get rid of a chinka, the chinka cannot cause harm; if not, a man will become ill for a long time or up to the end of his life. Imps are afraid of fire. If anybody threatens him with a firebrand, the imp immediately runs away. In modern language, the name of this mythological figure is used for the description of a quick, astute, nimble person. The investigation revealed that the imp of the third generation, an evil spirit, left a lasting impression on the population and continues to be a topic of interest to this day. The research demonstrated that texts on imps are accompanied by a narrator’s synoptic marking.