What to do this weekend November 15-17

At a loose end? BR brings you the best of Bucharest’s cultural highlights for the weekend ahead.

FAIR

Romania’s Tourism Fair (in picture)

Romexpo

Until November 17

Over 200 companies of Romania, Austria, Bulgaria, Egypt, Germany, India, Indonesia, Jordan, Israel, Italy, the Republic of Moldova, Slovakia, Poland, Turkey and Hungary will participate in the 30th edition of Romania’s Tourism Fair, between November 14-17 at Romexpo.

On an exhibition area covering approximately 10,500 square metres, travel agencies, hotel keepers, domestic and international promotion agencies will provide Romanians holiday packages both for Christmas and the New Year’s Eve, but also for the 2014 spring-summer season. More details about this event, here.

PERFORMANCE

SoNoRo

November 1-19

Ticket prices: RON 50-370 (full pass)

Bucharest, Cluj and Iasi will host the eighth SoNoRo chamber music festival. The opening concert will be held at CotroceniPalace and will be followed by another eight shows in Bucharest.

Pianists Diana Ketler and Konstantin Lifschitz, violinists Alexander Sitkovetsky, Erik Schumann, Andrej Bielow, violist Christian Naș, trumpeter Olivier Darbellay, and cellists Adrian Brendel and Monika Leskovar will entertain the public with their works, joined by some debutants, such as violinists Ilya Gringolts and Alissa Margulis, violist Maxim Rysanov, cellists Sonia Wieder Atherton and Marcin Sieniawski, the Paris Niguna Assembly and the Oslo Engegard Quartet.

The Bucharest concerts will be held in several locations: CotroceniPalace, BragadiruPalace, the Palace of the National Military Circle, the Romanian Athenaeum, ArCuB, the National Museum of Art of Romania, St. Iosif’s Cathedral and the National Bank of Romania.

Life is Beautiful Festival

November 7-17

Bucharest National Opera

Ticket prices: RON 7-107

This year’s event will include operetta, music-hall and ballet performances, concerts, exhibitions and shows for kids.

The festival will kick off with a concert by Spanish singer Buika. The artists and ensembles featured on the program include Carmen, performed by the Tbilisi Musical Theatre, the ballet Baiadera, chorographical theatre performance Mozart Steps, a concert by Sonia Theodoridou, The Japanese Tale, performed by the Radu Stanca Theatre, Count of Luxembourg, by the State Theatre of Musical Comedy, Russia, an Alexandra Coman concert, Bloody Wedding, by the Klaipeda State Music Theatre, Lithuania, and an Alfredo Pascu concert.

EXHIBITION

Book illustration (in picture)

Instituto Cervantes

Until January 20

The Bucharest Cervantes Institute and the Miguel Delibes foundation are opening the ‘Common land. Illustrated Delibes’ exhibition, showcasing book illustrations by 16 of the most important contemporary Spanish illustrators. More details about this event, here.

Polka Folk

The National Peasant Museum

Until December 1

A collective of young Polish designers presents the Polska Folk exhibition, which includes furniture, lighting, graphics, products and architecture influenced by traditional Polish folk patterns and craft techniques.

The 19 objects from the exhibition are inspired from the Polish traditional art, handicrafts and decorative art, with the materials used by the designers being genuine and local. The exhibition is organized at the initiative of the Polish Institute in Bucharest. More details about this event, here.

Invasion 68 Prague

Annex MNAC (Calea Mosilor no. 62-68, 3rd floor)

For the first time in Bucharest, the well-known photographer Josef Koudelka will present Invasion 68 Prague, an exhibition that presents the historical moments of August 1968. During those days, the thirty years old photographer realised a series of photos, which he later managed to take out of the country, when he immigrated to France. The photos were published by Magnum Photos agency one year later, in 1969, in many international magazines, on the occasion of the first anniversary of the invasion, without the author’s name. In the same year, Koudelka was honored with “the Czech anonymous photographer” award with Robert Capa golden medal from Overseas Press Club. Josef Koudelka, one of the most prominent contemporary photographers in the world, has been recognized as the author of the photographs only in 1985, after his father, who was still in Czechoslovakia, died. More information about this event, here.

100 miniatures chairs

Promenada Mall Bucharest

100 miniatures of classical seats which convey the history of the chair, from the Industrial Revolution to the artistic experimentation, will be exhibited at Promenada Mall, the latest mall in Bucharest, on the occasion of the opening of a new Cărturești Library.

The exhibition will unveil 100 fascinating prototypes of classical seats dating from between approx.1800 to 1990, presented in terms of nine chronological groups. Faithful reproductions of drawings, photographs and catalogues illustrate the path of development of the seats, from the first draft via production to their actual use. The exhibition offers a fantastic opportunity for those who wish to be part of an aesthetic universe closely linked to the art history over the last two centuries. More information about this event, here.

Visual Power: 21st Century Native American Artists/ Intellectuals

America 24/7

The National Library

The American Bucharest Corner was inaugurated on June 20 at the National Library and two exhibitions take place: “Visual Power: 21st Century Native American Artists/ Intellectuals.” which shows Native American contributions as scholars, professors, museum curators, and writers as well as makers of traditional fine arts, video and photography to document their cultural heritage and their struggle for sovereignty and a second poster exhibit, “America 24/7”, accompanied by a book, the result of a project by American author and publisher, David Elliot Cohen, and American photographer, Rick Smolan. More than 25,000 digital photographers across the U.S. – including 36 Pulitzer Prize winners – responded to the invitation to take pictures of their towns, families, neighbors and friends for 24 hours a day for seven days. The best photos capturing the diverse authentic America were included in the exhibit. More details, here.

Q.E.D. by Mircea Cantor

The NationalMuseum of Contemporary Art

Until April 2014

More than 1,200 people have attended the opening of the first local solo exhibition of one of the most important young artists to emerge on the international scene over the last decade: Mircea Cantor, winner of the Prix Marcel Duchamp Award 2011. The QED exhibition, the largest survey of the artist’s works to date, comprises 30 pieces. More details here.

Oana Vasiliu

DMCA

PROTECTED