MindBomb 2004 Chronology
In the early morning hours of May 3, 2004, 12,000 sociopolitical posters went up on the streets in the Romanian cities of Bucharest, Cluj-Napoca, Timisoara, Tirgu Mures, Oradea, Sibiu, Bistrita, Satu Mare, and Alba Iulia.
“Bribes Kill” one poster says, over a picture of Christ on the cross. It raises the point that Judah received 30 silvers payment to betray Jesus.
“You don’t have to.” says another poster, showing a man from behind clasping a gift in his hands. This poster refers to the daily payment of ‘spaga,’ or petty bribes, that Romanians give in order to receive favorable treatment for anything from parking spaces to heart surgery.
In Cluj, one poster in particular caused an uproar that still hasn’t subsided. It was a mayorial campaign poster for a non-existent candidate from a non-existent party called Primar Devotat, which means roughly “mayor to vote for” or “a devoted mayor.”
The real mayor of Cluj, Gheorge Funar, is a nationalist with aspirations of erasing the rich ethnic diversity of Cluj’s past, present and future. In the 12 years since he has been mayor, he has turned the city into a tricolor banner of nationalist zeal – painting everything from parking meters to park benches red, yellow and blue, the colors of the Romanian flag.
The Primar Devotat poster listed ten key points that the fictitious candidate would adopt, several of them, including “I will build houses not statues,” personally implicated the mayor.
In the days following the May 3 street postering action, public guardians were seen tearing down the posters and City Hall fined the MindBomb organizers for illegal posting.Yet in the same locations, hundreds of other posters and advertisements proliferate. The mayor was clearly setting a double standard for the use of public space: if your ideology differs from ours, your message will not be tolerated. All of this occurred in the middle of ‘Freedom of Speech Week’ in Romania .
Later, a sequence of events unfolded that betray Romania ’s recent past as a totalitarian police state. Following is a brief chronology of those events:
May 3:
- Article appears in Ziarul Clujeanului announcing the action.
- Public Guardians are seen tearing down posters all over Cluj.
- Antena 1 interviews project participants and city employees for evening news.
- Press Conference at Tranzit House (gallery exhibition space).
- Candidates complain to City Hall about ‘new’ unknown candidate.
- MindBomb representative receives verbal warning from City Hall through press contact: Tear down all posters within 24 hours or be fined 500,000 Lei (US$15) for each illegal posting.
- MindBomb exhibit opens at Tranzit House in Cluj.
May 4:
- Many articles about the action appear in local and national newspapers and on the internet in Romanian and Hungarian publications. They include: Ziarul, Evenimentul Zilei, Cotidianul, Ziarul Clujeanului, Monitorul de Cluj, Agenda Zilei, MediaFax, Transindex, Szabadsag, and Kronika.
- Ziarul Clujeanului announces that the MindBomb organizers have been officially fined by City Hall. However, they are unable to find the MindBomb organizers.
May 5
- MindBomb initiates a formal protest of the fines as a government action aimed at curtailing freedom of speech. Ziarul Clujeanului runs the protest in the morning paper.
- Three police officers in plainclothes make a visit to Firma 9, a project sponsor, claiming they are investigating a complaint by the National Lottery Association that a particular poster presented the Lottery in an unfavorable light.
- The Faculty of Law at Babes-Bolyai University in Cluj offers legal support to the MindBomb organizers, stating that they stand by the action and the right to freedom of speech.
- 300 protest posters with an image of a man’s head with rope tied around his mouth are printed in haste and put up at night on the streets of Cluj. Participants are accompanied by reporters from Antena 1 and Romania 1.
May 6
- MindBomb exhibit opens at The New Gallery in Bucharest .
- Three police officers in plainclothes make a visit to Tranzit House, asking the director to provide them with the names of the MindBomb organizers and to view the contract agreements signed with the gallery. Their manner is intimidating.
- A MindBomb participant is interviewed for Realitatea TV in Bucharest .
May 10
- The Office of Ministry of sends email to MindBomb website, seeking names and contact information of MindBomb organizers for the possibility of creating an anti-corruption campaign together.
- Article appears in Ziarul Financiar, a financial newspaper
- A representative from City Hall visits Firma 9, requesting to see the legal business records of the firm. He is asked to leave.
- A front page article appears in Informatia de Cluj, titled “Afise cu Bucluc” (Posters with trouble)
- Alburnus Maior, an organization dedicated to saving Rosia Montana (in the western Carpathians) from gold mining, contacts the MindBomb organizers, asking them to help initiate a public awareness about the endangered mountain.
The MindBomb project was initiated by a group of artists from Romania , working in collaboration and with the financial support from American and expatriate Romanian artists. The ultimate purpose of the action is the creation of autonomous space for the purpose of dialogue and debate that initiates social change. Not to create a forum for consensus, but one for the clash of competing ideas and claims – a truly democratic space.
With the aim of opening the project up to as many participants as possible and for the purpose of publicizing the action, a website was created. Poster ideas, comments and suggestions were gathered over a month-long period and a vote was held to select the best ideas to be printed and put in the streets. Hundreds of Romanians from inside Romania and around the world participated in this process, creating a lively forum for online discussion about political and socio-economic issues in Romanian society today.
Gallery exhibits were organized in Cluj and Bucharest . As well as showing the posters that went in the streets, another 160 ideas that were not selected were exhibited at these shows.
Hundreds of positive messages offering support have been sent to the MindBomb website from all over Romania . Several organizations have requested working in collaboration with MindBomb to create public awareness campaigns. People constantly request copies of the posters to put up in their offices and businesses. Many art galleries from around the country have proposed holding MindBomb exhibits.