DISCO BTT

disco btt The story of an exhibition that will take you back in time


Disco BTT - Discos of Communist Romania is an exhibition that was staged for the first time a year ago in Bucharest with support from the Cultural-National Fund Administration (AFCN). The exhibition proved to be a great success with 5,000 visitors on the premises of the Stirbei Palace, which was housing the event last autumn. The event got the AFCN award for good results in its attempt to preserve the immaterial cultural patrimony.


The concept of the DISCO BTT exhibition belongs to film director Iulia Rugina, known for her productions, Breaking News, Love Building and Stuck on Christmas. Here she is at the microphone with more on this idea.


"I got the idea a couple of years ago while I was doing research for a fiction film. I am a film director and the film I was working on was about a guy who used to be a DJ back in the 80s. While doing my research I met Sorin Lupascu who was a DJ in communist Romania and I got really captivated by this idea of introducing people to a period that was quite unknown to many as palpable evidence is still scarce. Of course there were stories from this period but no one was able to put these stories together. So we thought we should be trying to take steps in this direction."


DISCO BTT is an original artistic creation inspired from that period, which is taking the visitor through various unconventional spaces mounted in six rooms. No groups are formed and that enables visitors to stay and admire the exhibits as long as they want. Here is Iulia Rugina with details.


"We started the project as an original artistic creation. The exhibition is displayed in several rooms, each room presenting an aspect of that time. Visitors are thus introduced to the places where music was being played at a time when communist censorship was at its highest. People got access to music only by means of these DJ or music presenters as they were called back in the day. I am convinced those places were quite known to the older generations. I talked to a lot of people who saw those places first hand and gleaned stories about them. I also got posters, devices and even music from that time on tapes, records and cassette tapes. All these are on view in the exhibition, which makes for a rather sensorial experience."


The success of the aforementioned project happened to exceed the organizers' expectations. Here is Iulia Rugina back at the microphone.


"I personally didn't expect the exhibition to enjoy such a tremendous success in Bucharest last year but it did. The explanation was that we had been visited by a varied public consisting of those who were young at that time and saw these things first hand. They later brought their children or grandchildren along. We also had a good number of young visitors, mainly people interested in this cultural area who later introduced the exhibition to their older relatives. This exhibition is a very warm place, which brings a lot of emotion into visitors' hearts, whether they lived through those times or not".


Visiting hours are more or less as opening hours used to be for discotheques in the communist times. There are also many surprise elements, which visitors are invited to discover while taking a tour of the exhibition. Entrance is free of charge. Iulia Rugina told us what visitors are to discover this time:


"The exhibition almost fully recreates that atmosphere back then in Bucharest. The changes it suffered were due to the space, which is slightly different. But it is divided into six rooms, and each room is dedicated to one element from that period, with lots of music, photos, archive materials. What is very nice, and was quite spectacular about the first edition, is that it's an exhibition that takes you in, because in one of the rooms people start dancing: they come as visitors and they end up as participants, exhibits even, because they get to dance in the last room of the exhibition, which is in fact a 1980s discotheque, recreated as they used to be back then. The opening will be accompanied by lots of music, we have as guests the disco team and Florin Lupascu, who is the one who also provided the consulting part for the exhibition. What I think is interesting about this project is the fact that it takes you back in time."


The one who provided specialist advice for the exhibition was Sorin Lupascu, who used to be one of the best DJs back then. The stage design was signed by Andreea Popa, whose record includes some 20 feature films and collaborations with directors such as Claude Lelouche, Joel Schumacher, Cristi Puiu, Cristian Nemescu or Nae Caranfil. The light design concept is signed by Alin Popa. And, another piece of good news: the organizers want to bring the exhibition to as many cities across Romania as possible.




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Publicat: 2018-10-09 11:55:00
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