Exhibition at the National Geology Museum
Bucharest, July 11th, 2018
“From craftsmanship to art. Stone processing”
The National Geology Museum, in partnership with the Institute for Advanced Studies in Levant Culture and Civilization, the National History and Archaeology Museum of Constanța and the Geological Institute of Romania, hosts the exhibition entitled “From craftsmanship to art. Stone processing”. On the occasion of its opening, Ștefan Marincea, manager of the Geological Institute of Romania, Sorin Colesniuc, manager of the National History and Archaeology Museum of Constanța and Professor Dan Grigorescu, scientific director of the IASLCC, described the exhibition as the result of a combination between the esthetic and the scientific, as well as that between the experience of archeologists and that of geologists, highlighting all levels of stone processing, from constructions to art.
The visitor who manages to extract himself from the hustle and bustle of Victoria Road and enters the silent world of stones present in this small exhibition, shall discover, among the 114 exhibits covering approximately 6000 years of history, the world of the ancient man, with all its aspirations and anxieties, so far away from the present world. Each of the stone exhibits, be it a tool, a statue, an arrow head, catapult shell or cult or decoration elements, bears within its layers of stone a life story, that could have been our own. The story of silent stones unveils a relatively simple existence, in which people live in agreement with nature, an existence marked by the uncertainty of wars, agricultural practices, trade and crafts, but in which art, cult and religion play a great role. The most precious and rare exhibit reminds one that time is the most important gift that man ever received. It is a time measuring instrument, a solar dial placed between a bull’s horns, dating back to the IInd century, discovered in Cumpăna. Next to him stands, finely sculpted in marble, the sleeping head of Thanatos, the young god of death.
All the exhibits come from the History and Archaeology Museum of Constanța. The exhibition can be visited until September 22nd, 2018.
Professor Dan Grigorescu, PhD,
Scientific Director of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Levant Culture and Civilization
“The Institute for Advanced Studies in Levant Culture and Civilization, one of the supporters of this exhibition has as its main goal the performance of scientific research on the cultures and civilizations of the ancient area of the Levant, referring here to the Middle East, Northern Africa, the Balkans and the Caucasus, places where religion, mathematics, medicine and other sciences originate from, but also an area of extreme reflection of art, especially sculpture. The aim of this research is to highlight the cultural values of this space of origin, in direct connection with the present and to underline the importance of these values for a world of good understanding and cooperation.
Among the Institute’s goals, one can find a new approach of heritage, which integrates the natural, biological and geological component, with the cultural, historical and artistical one.
The present exhibition is a very good illustration of the twinning between the natural and the cultural. The stone in which the exhibits have been crafted is the very essence of the geological nature, while the sculptures are the eloquent essence of art created by talented craftsmen.
Stone and sculpture are representations of body and soul, a union between the material and the spiritual, the latter rejoicing art throughout stone.
Such events having a deep cultural message and showing openness towards nature at the same time, are highly welcomed in the cloudy (from both a climate and spiritual point of view) landscape of these days.
The fact that this cultural event is hosted by the main geological museum of the country, in which stone has inscribed within its layers the history life, is a joyful occasion for me, as a servant of geology and an art lover”.
