Camera Arhiva , An Archive of Romanian Communist

Camera Arhiva is an archival platform seeking to unearth Romanian printed matter  published between 1947 and 1989. Functioning as a research platform that is a permanent work in progress, Camera Arhiva retrieves material traces of communist everyday life, such as almanacs and journals, state periodicals and union-owned magazines, newspapers and pamphlets, posters and exhibition catalogues, paperbacks and do-it-yourself manuals.

“A spectre is haunting Eastern Europe, the spectre of revisionist history,” write editors Petrică Mogoș and Laura Naum in the context section of their newly launched online archive, Camera Arhiva. The pair, who run the excellent Eastern Europe-focused art and culture platform Kajet, launched the new site to unearth and make accessible Romanian printed matter published between 1947 and 1989 – the country’s period under communism – and features the whole gamut of objects from books, newspapers (state sanctioned and not), union-owned magazines, pamphlets, posters and exhibition catalogues and fiction. Although, the pair tell us, the purpose of the archive has been to present the printed objects for their content primarily, the site has also become a documentation of graphic design and photography styles of the time, showing the richness and variety of aesthetic sensibilities in Romania during this period.

Published by Dispozitiv Books

256 pgs, 30 × 22 cm, softcover, 2020, 9789730305883