euro|topics - Mihai Maci

01/12/2008

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Maci, Mihai

2 articles of this author have been cited in the European Press Review so far.

Revista 22 - Romania | 19/08/2008

Art and politics in Romania

The Romanian Cultural Institute (ICR) in New York has been harshly criticised in recent days for an exhibition in which swastikas and penises were featured. Now a parliamentary committee is to assess the quality of the ICR. The weekly newspaper Revista 22 criticises the decision. "Politics is entering a domain where it has no reason to be. Contemporary art can please us or not, it can inspire us or leave us cold, it can challenge our values or pass by unnoticed. It is governed by its own laws, and politics should have no say in the process. Every attempt to define art with political criteria or terminology (here we recall Soviet and Nazi art and the oppression of the avant-garde), has led to blatant political errors and has discredited politicians who every now and then like to play the defenders of values and traditions. ... It is discouraging that in Romania everything is politicised: an art exhibition ... the potholes in the streets, the dubious quality of our food or educational programmes. Politics is everywhere, in everything that exists and will exist in times to come. That is a pathological situation the consequence of which is that politics means everything and nothing."

Dilema Veche - Romania | 04/01/2008

Mihai Maci on Romanian universities

Mihai Maci, lecturer at University of Oradea, reports on the change at universities since the end of communism. Numerous private universities have been born, and tuition fees have been introduced. "How does one make the leap from socialist law to European Community Law, from the theory of a planned economy to marketing strategies, from the literature of Gorky to the works of Jorge Luis Borges? Overnight, the universities had new staff: doctors and engineers who had never worked before as lecturers; teachers and former party cadres turned into lecturers on philosophy, psychology, sociology and political science. Jobs were created for husbands, sons-in-law, godchildren or neighbours. … Today, the universities are a good business: Here, the children who would catch a cold in the chill air of the marketplace find a cosy lodging, a leg-up."

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