Eyes on Romania Pt.3

In a context where prejudices and stereotypes influence the relationships between different groups and the superficiality with which one relates to other cultures leads to discrimination, visual design can be a powerful and an alternative method to pave the way for a detailed study of foreign culture and its understanding. In this context and under the pretext of breaking the mold, the focus on Romania is inserted, a project that promotes the excellence of Romanian visual culture, able to impress through an authentic spirit. Thus, the project fosters a climate of exchange of experiences and critical discussion, leading to the creation of a fair vision of the Romanian identity.

Ovidiu Hrin is a multidisciplinary designer & art director working in Timișoara and internationally. He has a vast experience in branding & designing complex communication and information systems, for both cultural and corporate institutions. Ovidiu leads Synopsis: and holds graphic design, communication and calligraphy lectures and workshops throughout the world. Synopsis: was born out of the strong belief in doing outstanding work and overcoming limitations, in educating and exploring new ways in visual culture.

Kajet Journal seeks to lift the veil on Eastern Europe. It is the magazine of the inquisitive cultural flâneur interested in what happens beyond the normative mainstream; Kajet blurs the boundaries between journalism and academic writing and between visual arts and graphic design. Aiming to become a timeless archival document of utopian thinking, the magazine gets its name from the Easternised version of the French cahier, meaning notebook: a collection of thoughts and neglected narratives, a perpetual work in progress of a history that keeps rewriting itself. Based in Bucharest, Kajet has received international recognition for its design and editorial vision: it won the main prize for Editorial Design @ Most Beautiful Books of Romania (2018), as well as the Graphic Design Award @ Romanian Design Week (2018). It was highly commended as Readers’ Choice by Stack Magazines (2018), and its editors were shortlisted for the Editors of the Year Award (2018). Curated by: Petrică Mogoș & Laura Naum

Camera Arhiva is an archival platform that seeks to unearth Romanian printed matter published between 1947 and 1989. Besides its interactive and informative components, the archive is devised as a permanent research endeavour that is prone to transformative processes, where the act of adding new titles is both flexible and subjective. The selection does not follow an official canon; instead, the archive wants to unravel the common aspects of living in socialist Romania by focusing on the visual culture of the everyday. Ultimately, Camera Arhiva is an experimental attempt to renegotiate the position of physical/digital archives in the contemporary world, to salvage traces of historical events and cultural artifacts. What would an average Romanian typically read? How do we mediate our relationship with the recent past? Who writes history and for whom? Curated by: