COURAGE

connecting collections

The Éva Cseke-Gyimesi Collection is arguably the most comprehensive example of Transylvanian Hungarian cultural opposition in Romania. It consists of books, manuscripts, typed texts, private correspondence, newspaper clippings, and other items reflecting Éva Cseke-Gyimesi's cultural opposition to Ceaușescu's regime. The collection allows one to understand Éva Cseke-Gyimesi's criticism exercised through her professional works, her democratic resistance marked by a truly pro-European perspective, and her struggle for human rights illustrated by letters of protest, memorandums, pamphlets, and samizdats which she authored, endorsed, or distributed.

Łódź Kaliska is an art group which has been continuously active since 1979. It is notorious for being involved in numerous scandals and provocations. The majority of its members did not have any artistic education, which was a defiance against the professionalised world of contemporary art of late socialism. In the 1980s the members of the group participated in the underground net of radical artists Pitch-In Culture and, for a long time, avoided the official art circles. The Łódź Kaliska Archive contains documentation of the group’s activities, most important works, information on exhibitions, artists’ bios, and critiques.

The Ștefan Gane Collection documents in photographs and slides the extent of the demolitions imposed by the so-called systematisation programme in Bucharest following the devastating earthquake of 4 March 1977, which the communist regime used as a pretext for destroying or mutilating numerous historic monuments. The Ștefan Gane Collection is also an important source for understanding and writing the history of that particular segment of the Romanian exile community which was extremely active in disseminating in Western countries information about the aberrant policies of the Ceaușescu regime. In particular, this personal archive illustrates the efforts of the collector and of other personalities from the exile community to stop the systematisation of Bucharest.