Abstract
This chapter brings together the three case studies introduced in Chap. 2 through a reflection on their representation in museums and artworks. It focuses on three examples: The Golden Flat—The Last Carnival installation, the artwork Contesa (The Countess), and the crystal chandeliers from the House of the People. These illustrations of the domestic sphere and aesthetics in socialism have a strong material component and offer the opportunity to reflect on aspects related to value, taste, differentiation, and morality. The analysis also points to the disjuncture and desynchronization between artistic discourses and everyday practices of local actors.
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- 1.
For example, the exhibition ’70/’80. Tinereţea noastră (’70/’80. Our Youth) at the National Museum of Romanian History in 2011 (http://mnir.ro/portfolio/70-80-tineretea-noastra/) and the multimedia exhibition DISCO BTT—Discotecile Comuniste (Disco BTT—Communist Discos) at the Cultural Association Control N (http://www.controln.ro/asociatia-culturala/disco-btt/).
- 2.
Funky Citizens, a Romanian NGO, centralized all the private initiatives to represent communism in Romanian museums in a map available online (website in Romanian) https://muzeulcomunismului.ro/initiative/#initiativeconexe.
- 3.
The permanent exhibition Casa Ceausescu (Ceausescu Mansion) (http://casaceausescu.ro/?page_id=3403&lang=en).
- 4.
My analysis of this art project is based on conversations that I had with Alexandru Potecă in the spring of 2013 and on information from his personal blog (see: https://alexandrupoteca.wordpress.com/category/the-golden-flat/).
- 5.
The Golden Flat—The Last Carnival.
- 6.
The Countess.
- 7.
For more details about the SPAM project see: http://thereart.ro/ileana-oancea-countess/ (in English); http://ioanaciocan.com/ro/despre-s-p-a-m/ (in Romanian).
- 8.
http://ileana-oancea.blogspot.de/ (in Romanian).
- 9.
For more, see the article “Cine a înjunghiat contesa? (Who stabbed the Countess?),” https://www.dollo.ro/2013/09/cine-a-injunghiat-contesa/ (in Romanian).
- 10.
Other Eastern European countries had a longer tradition in the porcelain industry as exemplified by the trajectory of the Meissen factory, East Germany, during socialism and after the reunification (Marchand, 2020, chapter 9). However, in Romania the manufacturing of porcelain goods developed only after the instauration of the socialist regime (Ferrari, 1999, 15).
- 11.
Vernacular Romanian style (Vachon, 1993, p. 60).
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Cristache, M. (2021). The Glass Fish, the Figurine, and the Crystal Chandelier: From the Home to the Museum. In: Domesticity on Display. Consumption and Public Life. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-78783-7_7
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