News

Date: 16-17/01/2020
Location: University "Aleksander Xhuvani", Elbasan city (Albania)

The event was composed by the exhibition, installation, poetry reading and interesting conversations with the students of the Faculty of Human Sciences of the University "Aleksander Xhuvani" and the pupils of Artistic High School  "Onufri".

Location: National Experimental Theater (Tirana, Albania)
Opening ceremony: 17/12/2019

Our team was invited to a workshop to share our project related experinces with the new potential applicants. The event was organized by Tempus Public Foundation, who is the national information provider of Europe for Citizens programme in Hungary.
Location: Európa Pont (Budapest, Hungary)
Date: 04/12/2019

Opening ceremony: 25/11/2019
Location: Casa Meșteșugarilor, Stefan cel Mare Street, no. 18, 440027, Satu Mare (Romania)

EUnderground Travelling Exhibition - Expoziția Culturii Underground din Perioada Comunistă – is invited and hosted by the municipality of Satu Mare during a series of events dedicated to the 30th commemoration of the events of December 1989, within the project ”Revoltă, rebeliune și atitudine sub dictatură înainte de 1989” [Revolt, rebellion and attitude under dictatorship before 1989], organised by the Municipality of Satu Mare and the Cultural Centre “G. M. Zamfirescu”.

Invited speakers:
Professor Mircea Florian, musician
Professor Valentina Pricopie, Institute of Sociology, Romanian Academy & University of Bucharest
Professor Ioan Bogdan Lefter, Faculty of Letters, University of Bucharest

Related to EUnderground project, our staff were invited to a conference in Paris.

Taking Stock of European Memory Policies in 2019
An opportunity for projects selected under the Europe for Citizens programme to share their experience in the field of remembrance.

Date: 23 October 2019, hotel Meliã La Défense, Paris
18:00 Welcome 
Baudouin Baudru, Chef ff de la Représentation de la Commission européenne en France
Isabelle Coustet, cheffe du Bureau en France du Parlement européen 
Teemu Tanner, Ambassador of Finland in France, Member state holding the presidency of the Council of the European Union
18:20 Introduction - Importance of remembrance in European policies 
Oriol López Badell, European Observatory on Memories (EUROM), Angela Cristea, European Commission
18:50 "1948-2018: réveil de la Guerre froide?" 
Documentary film in French (subtitles in English) introduced by its director, André Bossuroy, MEDIEL asbl

Date: 24 October 2019, The Jean Monnet House, Bazoches-sur-Guyonne
9:00 Presentation of the objectives and the programme of the day
Martí Grau, The Jean Monnet House/The House of European History; Marie Corman, European Commission 
9:15 Roundtable: Challenges of the European public memories 
Panelists: Georges Mink, Institut des Sciences Sociales et du Politique (CNRS, France)/Université de Paris X, Nanterre; Sara Gensburger, CNRS; Markus Prutsch, European Parliament
Moderator : Ricard Conesa, EUROM
10:15 Implementing projects supported by the ‘Europe for Citizens’ programme- a few guidelines, questions and answers
Gilles Pelayo, Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA)
11:15 Workshops
14:15 Workshops
16:30 Concluding remarks: Oriol López Badell, EUROM; Debora Righetti, Jean Monnet House; Marie Corman, European Commission
17:30 Public event: « L’éducation et la mémoire européennes : projets novateurs » Cycle « Conversations sur l’Europe », marking the 40th anniversary of Jean Monnet’s death. 
Speakers: Kaja Sirok, National Museum of Contemporary History of Slovenia -  ICOM Sloveni; Antoine Arjakovsky, Research Director at the Collège des Bernardins, Paris; Andreas Holtberget, Euroclio
Moderator: Maurice Braud, Association Jean Monnet 
19:00 At Summer’s End
Performance by Smashing Times International Centre for the Arts and Human Rights

Opening ceremony: 17/09/2019
Location: Karlín Barracks in Prague, Prvního pluku 20/2, 186 00 Praha 8-Karlín, Czech Republic.
Artists: Bobeš & Band - Bobeš Rössler (lead of the band) used to play with two of the most famous underground bands: DG 307 or Plastic Plastic People of the Universe. He also wrote a book about the underground scene in Czechoslovakia in the 1970s-80s. The concert was held as opening to the exhibiton "Stories of European underground" that was available for the public on the premises of the Karlín Barracks.

Location: Foyer of the EXCELSIOR Theatre, Academiei Street, 28, Bucharest
Period: 5 September – 15 October 2019
Visit Programme: Monday – Friday, from 10 a.m. to 4 p. m, free access.
Opening ceremony: 5 September 2019, at 7 p.m.

Speakers:
Professor Emil Ionescu, dean of the Faculty of Letters, University of Bucharest
Cătălin Manea, curator, National Museum Cotroceni, Bucharest
Professor Cristina Bogdan, director of CISCOREP, Faculty of Letters, University of Bucharest
Professor Valentina Pricopie, Institute of Sociology, Romanian Academy

EUnderground Travelling Exhibition in Bucharest is completed with the METRONOM74 Exhibition prepared in 2018 by the National Museum Cotroceni in collaboration with the National Archive for the Study of Securitate Archive and with Radu Nicolescu. METRONOM 74 was dedicated to the METRONOM generation during communism, and the personality of Cornel Chiriac – producer of the radio program METRONOM broadcasted at Radio Free Europe between 1969 and 1975, and the banned symbol of the rock and roll young generation in communist Romania.

Links:
https://unibuc.ro/expozitie-despre-cultura-underground-din-perioada-comunista-realizata-cu-participarea-facultatii-de-litere-a-ub/
https://litere.ro/2019/09/05/eunderground/
https://www.teatrul-excelsior.ro/teatrul-excelsior-gazduieste-eunderground-travelling-ehhibition/

Date of opening: 03.06.2019
Location: Społeczna Akademia Nauk in Łódź (Poland)
The exhibition started with short opening ceremony with participation of students and teacher of Lyceum of SAN.
Mrs Joanna Szczecińska, Head of International Office of SAN, talked about EUnderground project and Mr Przemysław Damski gave a short introductionary speech about underground cultural activities in Poland during communism time.

Opening ceremony: 08/05/2019
Location: New Bulgarian University in Sofia
Hosts: Institute for the Study of Recent Past and the Department of New Bulgarian Studies 
Guest speakers:  Profesor Ivaylo Znepolski, Director of the Institute for Recent Past
prof. Plamen Doynov, Department of Bulgarian Studies, New Bulgarian University
Dimiter Dimov, historian
Media links to the ceremony:
Link 1
Link 2

Date of the opening ceremony: 24/04/2019
Location: Multifunctional Center ‘Ten’ - Municipality of Tirana

Speakers at the opening ceremony:
- Eldon Gjikaj (professor in University of Tirana)
- Ylljet Aliçka (writer and scriptwriter)
- Rezarta Delisula (chief editor at Gazeta Shqiptare)

Video about the opening ceremony (Facebook video):
https://www.facebook.com/intvalbania/videos/2038824183078405/

Date: 29/03/2019
Location: II LO w Lodzi, ul Nowa 11/13, 90-031, Lodz, Poland.
Agenda:
- About EUnderground project
Joanna Szczecinska, SAN
- About underground culture in communism time in Poland
Antoni Markiewicz, II LO
- Youth cultures in communism time in Poland
Dr. Przemyslaw Damski, Vistula University in Warsaw
- About underground culture in Czechoslovakian literature, music and underground publishing
Frantiszek Starek, Educentrum (Czech Republic)
 

Related to our project, our organization was invited to Brussels for a conference.
Title of the conference: History defines our future.
Date: 2 and 3 of April, 2019.
Programme of the first day:
Welcome and introduction – From 1989 to 2019 and beyond
Dimitris Avramopoulos, European Commissioner for Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship
2019 – a crucial year for European citizens: looking back on Europe’s history in order to look forward
Panel discussion with the participation of Dimitris Avramopoulos, European Commissioner for Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship
Corina Creţu, European Commissioner for Regional Policy
Véra Jourová, European Commissioner for Justice, Consumers and Gender Equality
Moderated by Béatrice Delvaux, Chief Editor, Le Soir
Programme of the second day:
EUROPE IN 1989 AND 2019 – THE ROLE OF CIVIL SOCIETY IN BUILDING TRANS-EUROPEAN SOLIDARITY, FUELLING POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC TRANSFORMATION, BRINGING EUROPE AND EUROPEANS TOGETHER - REMEMBRANCE PRACTICES OVER THE PAST 30 YEARS
Panel discussion with the participation of Professor Włodzimierz Borodziej, University of Warsaw
Dr. Tomáš Samek, Charles University in Prague
Dr. Martina Steer, New York University
Moderated by Director General Paraskevi Michou, Directorate-General for Migration and Home Affairs, European Commission
EXPANDING THE IMPACT OF PROJECTS BEYOND THEIR IMPLEMENTATION
Discussion moderated by Director Beate Gminder, Directorate-General for Migration and Home Affairs
POSSIBLE PRIORITIES AND AREAS OF WORK UNDER THE NEXT MULTI-ANNUAL FINANCIAL FRAMEWORK – WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?
Discussion with contributions from Alexandru Olaru, Head of Unit, Ministry of Justice of Romania
Moderated by Head of Unit Christine Grau, Directorate-General for Migration and Home Affairs, European Commission

We have started the workshop in Romania too.

First day of the workshop: 01/03/2019
Location: Edgar Quinet Street, 5-7, Bucharest, Romania
School: University of Bucharest, Faculty of Letters, Department of Communication and Public Relations
Number of participants: 35

Programme:
EUndreground Workshop in Bucharest: “Communism vs. Underground Culture(s)”
Paweł Spodenkiewicz (Poland) "Cold War in Classical Music and Jazz"
Valentina Pricopie (Romania) “The Illusion of Free Will. Propaganda and Artistic Expression in Communist Romania”
Cristina Dâmboeanu (Romania) EUnderground Travelling Exhibition in Romania
Alina Thiemann (Romania) EUnderground Transnational Knowledge Centre
Ana-Maria Teodorescu (Romania) EUnderground Samizdat Journal: technical information about students` participation

Starting date: 25/2/2019
School: Trojské gymnázium
Location (address): Trojská 211, 171 00 Praha-Troja, Czech Republic
Local teachers: František Stárek, Martin Pilař
Guest speakers from abroad: Elsa Demo (Albania)
Number of participants: 27
Programme:
The beginnings of underground culture in the 1950s and grammatical automatism (creative poetry writing);
Samizdat publishing and the underground music scene
Short story of dissidence and underground culture based on the opus of some albanian authors and artists, illustrated with pictures, paintings and video.

Starting date: 26/02/2019
Location: Don Bosco School, Tirana
Programme:
Daniel Biro, director of Laterna Magica (Hungary): "Battle on the Potato Field" - Communist propaganda with slide films
Norbert Szari (Hungary), historian: The dance-house movement - bastion of our heritage
Hungarian folk dance teaching with the dance-house method
Local teachers: Orilda Kalami, Andi Tepelena

BULGARIAN WORKSHOPS
There were 5 workshop sessions held in 127 Secondary School "Ivan Nikolaevich Denkoglu" in Sofia, within January 9, 2019 and March 8, 2019.

All the workshops were facilitated by the secondary school teachers Hristina Georgieva and Petya Angelova, as well by Dimiter Dimov, a historian from the Institute for Study of Recent Past and Svetlana Hristova, the project coordinator.
Guest speaker from Romania: Professor Valentina PRICOPIE, Institute of Sociology, Romanian Academy (Bucharest).
Topic: "Culture as Propaganda,  Ideology as Mass Culture.
Resolutions of the Romanian Communist Party on Artistic Expression"
Prof. Plamen Doynov, historian, New Bulgarian University

Other guest speakers from the artistic and intellectual world of Bulgaria:
Mr. Dimiter Dimitrov, Institute for the Studies of the Recent Past. Title of his presentation: "Communism, Dissidents and Red Hot Chili Peppers"
Mr. Vladimir Levchev- poet, writer, journalist, ecological political activist and a professor at the Americal University in Bulgaria
Mr. Rumen Leonidov- poet, writer and editor of the literature magazine FAKEL (''TORCH')
Mr. Kiril Marechkov, dissident rock star from the Shturcite band (the "Crickets")
Mrs. Tatiana Vaksberg, a journalist at radio Free Europe
Participants: 39 students
 

We started the Hungarian workshop in Kölcsey Ferenc Gimnázium (Budapest) at 27/11/2018.
Guest speakers from Bulgaria:
Mr. Dimiter Dimitrov, Institute for the Studies of the Recent Past. Title of his presentation: "Communism, Dissidents and Red Hot Chili Peppers"
Ms. Svetlana D. Hristova, Institute for the Studies of Societies and Knowledge. Title of her presentation: "32 years after Chernobyl's accident: truths and legends”
Hungarian teachers: Mr. Nagy László and Ms. Kozma Éva
Participants: 32 students