#Exhibit of the Month

Buckles (paftale) are an almost indispensable element of traditional women's dress in the Southeastern European area, particularly in the Balkans, and have been in use over a long period, from the 14th to the 20th century.
The word pafta is of Turkic origin-possibly entering the language via Iranian influence-derived from the Persian word bafta, meaning "woven," which evolved in Turkish to signify "plate." Today, the term is used in nearly identical forms in Romanian (pafta), Bulgarian (пафта), Serbian (пафте), and some Aromanian dialects (pafta), designating functional and ornamental clothing accessories used to fasten belts, girdles, or sashes, crafted from various materials and decorated using different techniques.
The three buckles decorated in the polychrome enamel technique, preserved in the collection of the National Museum of History of Moldova, belong to the South-Danubian tradition and are dated to the late 19th - early 20th century.

Each buckle consists of two identical trapezoidal parts, their surfaces divided into three roughly equal registers, adorned with stylized vegetal motifs forming a metal lattice into which enamel is poured. The two parts extend into sharp angles at the ends, forming a triangle with the edge of the last decorative register, similarly ornamented. The enamel used to fill the floral motifs is black, turquoise, white, orange, green, yellow, and burgundy. The entire decorative field is framed by a beaded border.

On the reverse, both components retain a copper band riveted along the edge, used to fasten the ends of the belt. The fastening system, made by interlocking the hinges of the two parts and secured with a movable pin attached by a chain to a clasp fixed on one of the buckle pieces, is concealed by a rectangular plate (riveted with three pins to the body of the piece), with narrow edges ending in sharp angles, decorated in the same style and technique. Additionally, it features three circular settings with notched edges bent inward to hold centrally placed red and green glass paste. These settings are framed by a radiant, notched band.

The symbolism of the color palette encodes meanings and symbols, chosen for their believed magical powers. Red has always represented love, affection, and protection against curses and the evil eye; white symbolizes purity and spiritual and physical cleanliness; blue is symbolically associated with infinity, morning, new beginnings, and transformation; green represents destiny, hope, prosperity, balance, and rebirth, being linked to nature's revival each spring and to life itself.

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Exhibitions

„POSTER X POEM”

15 June - 26 July 2020

The POSTER X POEM exhibition in Chisinau is the first international exhibition within the framework of the POSTER X POEM project, which displays 30 posters inspired by contemporary poetry. The exhibition includes both the posters from the first POSTER X POEM exhibition held in Bucharest and works by Bessarabian artists and can be seen from June 15, on 31 August 1989 Street, no.121 A, on the fence of the National Museum of History of Moldova.

Started in Bucharest in March 2020, POSTER x POEM is an interdisciplinary project that brings together contemporary poets and artists. POSTER x POEM arrived in Chişinău on the initiative of AA +, which invited 14 contemporary poets and 14 artists from Bessarabia to participate.

The posters show poetic texts and their visual interpretation, their authors are the following creative duets: Alexander Vakulovski x Aliona Ciobanu, Moni Stănilă x Veronica Gorii, Paula Erizanu x Maks Graur, Veronica Ştefăneţ x Cristina Halp, Dan Negară x Anna Vasina, Hose Pablo x Sandul, Artur Cojocaru x Alex Escu, Anastasia Palii x Adrian Gavriliuc, Artiom Oleacu x Ecaterina Şălaru, Iulia Iaroslavski x Mihaela Mândru, Ion Buzu x Veronica Belous, Cristina Dicusar x Ana Grigorovscaia, Victor Tzvetov x Cristian Menumortu, Alexandru Cosmescu x Denis Foca.

The POSTER x POEM project was enthusiastically taken by Bessarabian poets. "I was very happy to participate in this project. I think that the interactions between artists of different genres of art are always welcome because they inspire new visions and perceptions", poet Veronica Ştefăneţ mentioned. Based on the concept of "carte blanche", each artist was offered a poem by a contemporary poet as a theme for creating a poster. The only requirement for the work was that the poem and name of the poet were on the poster. "I always thought that poets should be friends with artists, because it depends on them how poetry collections will look like. The next step is posters. Of course, I am glad that a poster will be created by a poem of mine. I can't wait to see it! I saw how a meeting of two artists created a spark. And it's even more beautiful that poetry begins from the street, and returns back to the street. Enjoy it!", poet Alexander Vakulovsky added.

POSTER x POEM started with a first online and offline exhibition on the fence of the National Art Museum of Romania in Bucharest. The first 16 posters of the project were presented in this exhibition, among the invited poets being Tara Skurtu, Dan Coman, Vasile Leac, Andrei Dosa, Mina Decu, Răzvan Ţupa, Teona Galgoţiu and Svetlana Cârstean.

POSTER X POEM believes that poetry must reach as many people as possible and for that it must come out of books and appear on walls and fences. The poster is the perfect medium to take poetry to the middle of the city, among people.

The project is initiated by GLITCH, a communication studio for cultural projects in Bucharest and arrived in Chisinau in collaboration with AA +, a non-formal initiative from Moldova, which focuses its activity around local and foreign visual culture.

#Exhibit of the Month

Buckles Decorated in the Polychrome Enamel Technique

„POSTER X POEM”

15 June - 26 July 2020

#Exhibit of the Month