ICR chairman, Liviu Jicman: We must place creators in spotlight

The chairman of the Romanian Cultural Institute (ICR) Liviu Jicman says that at the start of his term, that the new leadership team within the institution aims to put creators, writers, Romanian artists and culture institutions "into the spotlight".

"With the risks that I am taking, I, as occupant of this position, we do not have to focus on visibility in Romania, we must act responsibly in report with the public money, to do our jobs by abiding the law. I will say this every time I can: I am not aiming towards laurels, to go on stage, to offer prizes just for the sake of being the one who hands out prizes. I believe that the spotlight should be set on creators, writers, Romanian artists, culture institutions," Jicman said, in an interview for AGERPRES.

The institutions' development strategy for the period of 2022-2026 offers a general framework for developing and carrying out activities of the Romanian Culture Institute.

The document adopted on January 19 aims towards priorities that "we must watch in the coming years: transparency, open job contests, promoting Romanian creativity internationally, with a broader look towards cultural heritage and contemporary creation, which has an inclusive approach".

"ICR needs to be an open gate for all artistic areas and for all creativity areas, in general. On the other hand, this open gate, I dare say, must not look at each artistic area separately, but rather it would be desired to encourage transdisciplinarity, to encourage projects that tackle several artistic areas, to also encourage Romanian presence in collaboration and in partnership with international partners, Europeans and from other spaces and I believe that that is the direction which we should be heading to.

"It is important for our representation to not just be for organizing events, but to be facilitators of dialogue between artists, Romanian creators, between cultural operators in Romania and local partners. (...) That also depends on the relationship which our representations have abroad with the local media, but also depends on the cultural program that we are proposing. It depends on how connected we are to the local environment," Liviu Jicman said, during the interview.

The new director of ICR says that he wishes to promote the Romanian language, a defining element for our culture, adding that "is is very important to maintain accreditation which Romanian language classes have, and the classes that we organize to have a unitary format, regardless of being in Istanbul or New York, London or Madrid. The diploma's beneficiary to such a class should enjoy the same level of expertise in the Romanian language".

Going back to the youth, or going towards the youth, ICR has diverse programs, for example, scholarships for young creators, young artists.
"We must also make an evaluation here of already existing programs and see how we can improve them".

For 2022, ICR wishes to once again be part of a newly defined program "Festival du Livre" in Paris, the new name of the traditional book fare in Paris, "Salon du Livre".

"I am also thinking with hope towards the Europa Award in the field of literature, which will have results during the first part of the year, I am thinking about our priority, which is represented by the Republic of Moldova and the activity of ICR Chisinau which we will be focusing on this year as well. I am also thinking, even if we do not have the budget for it now, but I hope that we can obtain an important support from the budgetary rectification, so that we will be one of the organizers of the Theater Reunion, which will take place in the fall of this year. I am also thinking about the Bienala in Venice, which, apart from Romania's Pavilion and the project selected to represent us this year in partnership with the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, we are in a dialogue with and we will be present to, I dare to anticipate and say we will have a Romanian presence at the Central Pavilion, an outstanding artist, Alexandra Pirici, we attempt to support with our limited resources this year. These are just a few of the things I am thinking about, in the short term," Liviu Jicman also said, at the end of the interview. (AGERPRES)