The City Of Women Writers
Urban Landscape In Literature Written By Women
The exhibition proposes a recovery of interwar women’s literature through a path built around the relationship between writers and the city. The biographies and works of authors such as Hortensia Papadat-Bengescu, Martha Bibescu, Cella Serghi, Maria Banuș or Jeni Acterian are put in relation to the urban space, configuring a cultural cartography of modern Bucharest.
The exhibition design is organised in three sequences. The first room reconstructs the printing house as a production space. A printing house made entirely of cardboard, activated by visitors, functions as an interactive installation, completed by a table with 18 newspapers dedicated to each writer. Three graphic maps locate the works in Bucharest and other cities. All the structures are built exclusively of cardboard, through mechanical fastenings, without adhesives, which allows for quick assembly and disassembly and ensures reversibility.
The second sequence is a transition corridor with video projections that reinterpret the streets of interwar Bucharest. The walls become projection surfaces, and the visitor’s path is transformed into an immersive passage.
The last room is configured as a literary café. Original objects from the MNLR and ANR archives – manuscripts, letters, photographs, magazines – are exhibited together with a panoramic projection, creating a direct relationship between historical documents and digital representation.
Through this ensemble, literature written by women is presented as an urban map, and the design – through modularity, material and interactivity – translates cultural content into an accessible and clear form for the public.
DESIGN TEAM:
Constantin Goagea, Mara Stancu, Ioana Vlaș
CONTRIBUTORS:
National Museum of Romanian Literature
Project Coordinator: Ioan Cristescu, Director of MNLR
Curator: Andreea Răsuceanu
Team: Anița Vulcan-Grigoriu, Andreea Teliban, Alexandru Dumitriu
Head of Heritage Department: Ion Barbu
Heritage Department – Archive Division: Andra Ispas, Diana Iancu-Albu, Ileana Muică
Extended Team: Anni Udrea, Leonard Fulău, Alina Niculescu, Antoanella Bănciulescu, Rădița Cânea, Cristina Titivel
Technical Support: Marian Golescu
National Archives of Romania
Alina Pavelescu, Deputy Director; Monica Negru, Elena Mușat, Laura Dumitru, Ștefania Grigorie
GRAPHIC DESIGN
Policromic
Artemisa Pascu
Andrei Grosu
PRODUCTION
Pliabil Studio — exhibition furniture
Azero — printing
PHOTOGRAPHY
Andrei Lumpan