Doina Cornea, the lady behind the window
The Art Museum in Cluj-Napoca (MACN), a public cultural institution operating under the authority of the Cluj County Council, on the initiative and with the support of the “Doina Cornea” Foundation, organizes, between December 15, 2023 and January 7, 2024, a suggestive exhibition dedicated to the memory of the anti-communist opponent Doina Cornea, which tries to reveal a cramp in the life of an exceptional woman.
Doina Cornea was a convinced activist for human rights. Starting from 1982, she was known in Romania through the “Europa Liberă” radio station. However, in western democratic countries she had a much greater notoriety, the French calling her “Egeria” or the “icon” of the Romanian Revolution of 1989.
The title of the exhibition symbolically represents Doina Cornea’s position from 1982-1989. In 1987, together with her son, Leontin Horațiu Iuhas, Doina Cornea was sent to prison. Thanks to her daughter, Ariadna Combes (domiciled in France), who had alerted the press and the French political class, Tin-Tin and Doina Cornea were freed. But not other detainees. Doina will support them, as will Ariadna. From then on, Doina’s daily life was practically under house arrest.
The event curated by the French art historian and critic of Romanian origin, Ileana Cornea, in collaboration with Julie Combes and with the involvement of the Canadian artist, Gabriela Hebert, respectively the sound technician, Zachary Perreault Samson, authors of the sound installation present in the exhibition hall, will be opened on Friday, December 15, 2023, starting at 06:00 p.m., in the presence of the curator of the exhibition and Mr. Leontin Horațiu Iuhas, the son of Doina Cornea and president of the homonymous Foundation. Besides them, there will also participate Mr. Marius Oprea, historian and vice-president of the same Foundation, and Mr. Dănuţ Iacob, vice-president of the Association “November 15, 1987” from Braşov. In the inaugural context, the Cluj County Council will be representend by the vice-president Vákár István.
The host offices will be provided by the historian Lucian Nastasă-Kovács, manager of the Art Museum in Cluj-Napoca, the responsibility for the organizational coordination of the exhibition falling, on behalf of the host institution, to museographer Alexandra Sârbu.
On this occasion, the exhibition will receive the Blessing of His Eminence Andrei, Archbishop of Vad, Feleac and Cluj and Metropolitan of Cluj, Maramureş and Sălaj, as well as His Reverend Father Claudiu, Diocesan Bishop of Cluj-Gherla.
