Voices of Freedom: Romania at the London Book Fair

Time & Location

13 Mar 2024, 19:30 – 21:00

Conway Library Hall, 25 Red Lion St, London WC1R 4RL, UK

About the event

We continue our journey into the world of literature prompted by Romania’s participation at the London Book Fair 2024 with an event dedicated to the literary world of Central and South-Eastern Europe. The event is organised in partnership with the Bulgarian Cultural Institute in London and brings together editor Susan Curtis of Istros Books; writer, editor and journalist Maria Stadnicka; writer and critic Bogdan Crețu and cultural manager Milena Deleva, President of Elizabeth Kostova Foundation/Open Letter Books. The evening will be hosted by writer, editor and cultural journalist Paula Erizanu.

You can book a place on this link.

Romania’s 14th participation at the London Book Fair (LBF) celebrates generations of astonishing writers, who offer strong, original voices and well-crafted language through their awarded books. 35 years since the Romanian Revolution, we celebrate freedom in all its creative forms, with a focus on Romania’s literary scene.

Join us for a rich programme that unfolds at our stand at Olympia Exhibition Centre as well as at the Romanian Cultural Institute, Barbican Library and Conway Hall. Four packed days of book launches, dialogues and spoken word performances that will to give you a flavour of our effervescent contemporary literature.

Our brilliant guests are writers and academics: Mădălina Căuneac, Liliana Corobca, Hannah Dawson, Paula Erizanu, Suzannah Lipscomb, Cosmin Perța, Florentin Popa, Alina Purcaru, Maria Stadnicka, Matei Vișniec, Elena Vlădăreanu. Authors, journalists and critics Marius Chivu and Bogdan Crețu, editors Eli Bădică, Alex Ciorogar and Susan Curtis; artist Iulian Morar; as well as translator Gabi Reigh, and cultural manager Milena Deleva complete our line-up.

The Romanian participation at the LBF 2024 is organised by the Romanian Cultural Institute’s National Book Centre and the Romanian Cultural Institute in London, with the support of the Romanian Embassy, Conway Hall, Barbican Library, the Romanian Publishers Association and the Ministry of Culture. The project is funded by the Romanian Cultural Institute.

Memøry Høuse / Event Invite

“Memory HouseA’ book and art exhibition at the Lansdown Art Gallery, Stroud, Gloucestershire.

21 – 26 February 2024 open every day 9am – 5pm / Extended open day Wednesday 21st February 9am – 8pm.

We often think about time as being a social concept, anchored in a palpable present, routing between the past and the future but nevertheless a construct that makes sense once we engage, in perpetuity, with our human experiences. In fact, what is infinite and constantly subject to our imagination and our creative processes is the past; the memories stored, processed and shared, that integrate and ground our being.

Memory House is an art collaboration searching to explore the collective aspect of memory that leads to social integration and reveals human commonalities beyond ethnicity, background or political colour. Memory House is a place where different generations and cultures reveal the archetypal aspects of our humanity.

Memory House: book detail/concept and design ©Andrew Morrison. Poetry © Maria Stadnicka

Publisher: Kerbstone Press

© Maria Stadnicka, February 2024

Doxology

© Maria Stadnicka, 2024


prayer for rechargeable batteries

and fastness and coffee mornings

for raffle tickets and crisp stereo sound

for power banks and batch cooking 



prayer for beer-tapas at my local pub 

and for average speed limits 

for goodenoughness at school reunions 

and metastatic anonymity online



prayer for microphones and bespoke

for three-in-one and all other numerals 

for Karen from Home Deliveries

and her quick recovery from sick leave



prayer for perhaps and passwords 

for stopping mid-sentence and for 

everything else that is temporary 

apart from betrayal 



prayer for scissors and for the frontal cortex

and for a long-distance relationship

with my past life

© Maria Stadnicka, February 2024

Memøry Høuse / Event Invite

We often think about time as being a social concept, anchored in a palpable present, routing between the past and the future but nevertheless a construct that makes sense once we engage, in perpetuity, with our human experiences. In fact, what is infinite and constantly subject to our imagination and our creative processes is the past; the memories stored, processed and shared, that integrate and ground our being.

Memory House is an art collaboration searching to explore the collective aspect of memory that leads to social integration and reveals human commonalities beyond ethnicity, background or political colour. Memory House is a place where different generations and cultures reveal the archetypal aspects of our humanity.

Memory House includes new work by the artist Mark Mawer, printing and art book produced by the artist Andrew Morrison and writing by the poet and sociologist Maria Stadnicka whose research is focused on transgenerational transmissions.

Publisher: Kerbstone Press

© Maria Stadnicka, January 2024

Memøry Høuse / Event Invite

We often think about time as being a social concept, anchored in a palpable present, routing between the past and the future but nevertheless a construct that makes sense once we engage, in perpetuity, with our human experiences. In fact, what is infinite and constantly subject to our imagination and our creative processes is the past; the memories stored, processed and shared, that integrate and ground our being.

Memory House is an art collaboration searching to explore the collective aspect of memory that leads to social integration and reveals human commonalities beyond ethnicity, background or political colour. Memory House is a place where different generations and cultures reveal the archetypal aspects of our humanity.

Memory House includes new work by the artist Mark Mawer, printing and art book produced by the artist Andrew Morrison and writing by the poet and sociologist Maria Stadnicka whose research is focused on transgenerational transmissions.

Memory House: book detail/concept and design ©Andrew Morrison. Poetry © Maria Stadnicka

Publisher: Kerbstone Press

© Maria Stadnicka, January 2024

Memøry Høuse Art Project

What I mostly remember about the past is a sum of absent encounters, people and things missing; summers, winters, in fact, years melted into a reservoir of images and experiences that are working their way slowly into my future. What I refuse to remember travels along as an indispensable companion to my imagination and my creativity. Understanding this companionship has been one reason for extending my PhD research on the Romanian diaspora in the United Kingdom and collective memory, to build Memøry Høuse. As an art collaboration, Memøry Høuse is searching for a point (or many points) of integrating social memories. Someone recently made me wonder whether this project is a constellation of remembering opportunities. It might possibly be true as not all memories make sense in words. Some are barely perceived in my body, in colour, in sound; or in places and in people. To some extent, my awareness of their existence often frees me from my own enslavement and, as a researcher and writer in this context, the enslavement of the generation I belong to: The Romanian Children of the Decree.

As the Memøry Høuse project evolves, my hope is that these memories will find a place of acknowledgment and, instead of travelling wildly, will begin to settle, find a home, or build their own house on a land that was once foreign but so familiar now.

My gratitude and so many thanks to the artists involved in this collaboration: Mark Mawer and Andrew Morrison.

Memory House: book detail/concept and design ©Andrew Morrison. Poetry © Maria Stadnicka

Publisher: Kerbstone Press

© Maria Stadnicka, January 2024

Memøry Høuse Art Project

What I mostly remember about the past is a sum of absent encounters, people and things missing; summers, winters, in fact, years melted into a reservoir of images and experiences that are working their way slowly into my future. What I refuse to remember travels along as an indispensable companion to my imagination and my creativity. Understanding this companionship has been one reason for extending my PhD research on the Romanian diaspora in the United Kingdom and collective memory, to build Memøry Høuse. As an art collaboration, Memøry Høuse is searching for a point (or many points) of integrating social memories. Someone recently made me wonder whether this project is a constellation of remembering opportunities. It might possibly be true as not all memories make sense in words. Some are barely perceived in my body, in colour, in sound; or in places and in people. To some extent, my awareness of their existence often frees me from my own enslavement and, as a researcher and writer in this context, the enslavement of the generation I belong to: The Romanian Children of the Decree.

As the Memøry Høuse project evolves, my hope is that these memories will find a place of acknowledgment and, instead of travelling wildly, will begin to settle, find a home, or build their own house on a land that was once foreign but so familiar now.

My gratitude and so many thanks to the artists involved in this collaboration: Mark Mawer and Andrew Morrison.

Memory House: book detail/concept and design ©Andrew Morrison. Poetry © Maria Stadnicka
Memory House: book detail/concept and design ©Andrew Morrison. Poetry © Maria Stadnicka

More updates will follow as the work continues. The exhibition Memøry Høuse will be on 20-26 February 2024 at the Lansdown Art Gallery, Stroud, Gloucestershire.

Publisher: Kerbstone Press

© Maria Stadnicka, November 2023

Memøry Høuse Art Project

What I mostly remember about the past is a sum of absent encounters, people and things missing; summers, winters, in fact, years melted into a reservoir of images and experiences that are working their way slowly into my future. What I refuse to remember travels along as an indispensable companion to my imagination and my creativity. Understanding this companionship has been one reason for extending my PhD research on the Romanian diaspora in the United Kingdom and collective memory, to build Memøry Høuse. As an art collaboration, Memøry Høuse is searching for a point (or many points) of integrating social memories. Someone recently made me wonder whether this project is a constellation of remembering opportunities. It might possibly be true as not all memories make sense in words. Some are barely perceived in my body, in colour, in sound; or in places and in people. To some extent, my awareness of their existence often frees me from my own enslavement and, as a researcher and writer in this context, the enslavement of the generation I belong to: The Romanian Children of the Decree.

As the Memøry Høuse project evolves, my hope is that these memories will find a place of acknowledgment and, instead of travelling wildly, will begin to settle, find a home, or build their own house on a land that was once foreign but so familiar now.

My gratitude and so many thanks to the artists involved in this collaboration: Mark Mawer and Andrew Morrison.

Memory House – book detail / concept and design © Andrew Morrison. Artwork © Mark Mawer
Memory House – book detail, poem © MStadnicka

More updates will follow as the work continues. The exhibition Memøry Høuse will be on 21-25 February 2024 at the Lansdown Art Gallery, Stroud, Gloucestershire.

Publisher: Kerbstone Press

© Maria Stadnicka, November 2023

Memøry Høuse Art Project

What I mostly remember about the past is a sum of absent encounters, people and things missing; summers, winters, in fact, years melted into a reservoir of images and experiences that are working their way slowly into my future. What I refuse to remember travels along as an indispensable companion to my imagination and my creativity. Understanding this companionship has been one reason for extending my PhD research on the Romanian diaspora in the United Kingdom and collective memory, to build Memøry Høuse. As an art collaboration, Memøry Høuse is searching for a point (or many points) of integrating social memories. Someone recently made me wonder whether this project is a constellation of remembering opportunities. It might possibly be true as not all memories make sense in words. Some are barely perceived in my body, in colour, in sound; or in places and in people. To some extent, my awareness of their existence often frees me from my own enslavement and, as a researcher and writer in this context, the enslavement of the generation I belong to: The Romanian Children of the Decree.

As the Memøry Høuse project evolves, my hope is that these memories will find a place of acknowledgment and, instead of travelling wildly, will begin to settle, find a home, or build their own house on a land that was once foreign but so familiar now.

My gratitude and so many thanks to the artists involved in this collaboration: Mark Mawer and Andrew Morrison.

Memory House Project
Memory House Project
Memory House Project
Memory House Project

More updates will follow as the work continues. The exhibition Memøry Høuse will take place in February 2024 at the Lansdown Art Gallery, Stroud.

© Maria Stadnicka, September 2023

Viewfinder

Artwork © Rupert Loydell, 2023
At moments of high peak
dreams show errors 
in our genetic code:
arrows on the skin’s map
erasures concealed by grammar.
We practise the waltz steps
between dots strewn on marble.

In our lives’ antechambers
the cameras record us blushing,
holding hands, sharpening knives.
Like in any rehearsal, the blades fall
on past things, on future plans.
Time decides for itself how long
the echo, how short the call.

There are no corrections. 


© Maria Stadnicka and Andrew Morrison, 2023.
Poem published in International Times on 30/09/2023.