Title: “Aurel Flutur and His Museum of Chişcău. (In memoriam Petre Popovăț)”
Author: Vlad Manoliu
How to cite this article: Manoliu, Vlad. 2009. “Aurel Flutur and His Museum of Chişcău. (In memoriam Petre
Popovăț)”. Martor 14: 135‐143. Published by: Editura MARTOR (MARTOR Publishing House), Muzeul Țăranului Român (The
Museum of the Romanian Peasant)
URL: http://martor.muzeultaranuluiroman.ro/archive/martor‐14‐2009/
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Martor is indexed by EBSCO and CEEOL. 135
Aurel Flutur and His Museum of Chi[c`u
(In memoriam Petre Popov`])
Vlad Manoliu
‘The Museum is made by collections, The village was full of households managed just as honey is made by the beehive’. by poor people. ‘They dealt more with woodcut- Aurel Flutur ting and food transportation. They delivered potatoes and apples cultivated here and brought Between 2008-2009 researchers Petre wheat and corn instead’. (A.F.) Apart from their Popov`], Dr. Vintil` Mih`ilescu and Vlad Mano- regular occupations, the villagers began to work liu undertook fieldwork as part of the project in other parts of the country as well, especially at ‘Heritage and Local Identity. Identifying and Sohodol, in Banat County. ‘I harvest wheat in Promoting a Few Village Collections from Ro- Ponor/ My swain works in Sohodol’, says a local mania’. The results of our research on „Horea folk song. Many inhabitants have been working and Aurel Flutur“ authorised museum, as well abroad for 20 years (around 15-20 per cent). as the personality of the collector Aurel Flutur The Flutur family has lived like any villager are summarised in the following pages. from Chi[c`u. At the beginning, they only did seasonal work; during the communist regime all boys learnt a trade, just like Aurel Flutur who *** became a driver after having completed seven grades and military service. Taking advantage of Attested in 1551, the village of Chi[c`u lies the post-1989 job opportunities, Aurel Flutur’s in the Beiu[-Va[c`u depression, between the children went to work in Spain. Bihor, P`durea Craiului and Codru Moma Aurel Flutur’s biography is typical of a peas- Mountains. Spectacular karst phenomena are a ant from Bihor whose intelligence and ingenuity feature of the low chalky mountains near the vil- helped him overcome the frequent hardships of lage. Here lies Pe[tera Ur[ilor (The Bears’ Cave), a miserable life. Born in 1940, he was left an or- one of the most beautiful caves in Europe. The phan at an early age and adopted by an aunt and name of the village comes from the inhabitants’ her husband who raised him like his real pa- old occupation. ‘There was a foundry in the vil- rents. ‘My father wanted me to become a wood- lage that lent its name to the village of Chi[c`u. man or a teacher.’ (A.F.) But, as the collector In Hungarian „chi[co“ means a small foundry’. says, ‘I’ve never liked to stay in one place. No! I (Aurel Flutur) did neither of them. I’ve always liked travelling.’ 136 Vlad Monoliu
(A.F.) After completing the military service and living with me because of this old rubbish (A.F.), attending a 6-month driving school, he first be- and also because, instead of staying with his fa- came a truck driver and then a taxi driver. A tire- mily at home on Sundays after a whole week of less curiosity brought him professional satisfac- hard work, Aurel used to search for ‘old rubbish’ tion. ‘It was much better because I could talk to and buy it. When he learnt that his wife had left people’. (A.F.) The jobs he chose as a driver mir- him, Aurel rushed to bring her back. He ex- ror his never-ending curiosity: a driver on geo- plained to her that he would never give up logical expeditions, the only taxi driver in the ‘gathering old rubbish but he would find some town of {tei. methods to clean them up and to avoid storing He started collecting things at the age of 18 them in the house’. and, little by little, this passion has turned from This event reflected the fact that the collector an ordinary hobby into the raison d’etre of his had to face the serious problem of cleaning and existence. Chi[c`u is quite an isolated village. storing the objects. He used different methods. ‘I ‘Before I became a collector I hadn’t seen any took them (i.e., the objects) to the river down the museum because there were no transportation valley. I dammed up the river with stones until it means and there was nowhere else to go. My first reached one meter in depth. I kept them im- trip was 6 kilometres from home, dressed in mersed and covered them with stones lest the white peasant trousers. The waistband tore off water should sweep them away. Whether I and I fastened the trousers with a tendril until I gathered wood, fabric or anything, I kept them got home. That was the first time when I saw a all immersed and left them there for three days. light bulb. I was a first-grade student’. (A.F.) In doing so the bugs, the worms and all that… At the age of 21 he got married to Lucre]ia disappeared. I dried them in the shade because (Chei]a) who was 17 (born in 1946). They have otherwise they all got out of shape if dried in the three children and have always felt a rare pas- sunshine. I experienced that too. Some of them sion – that of collectors and museum owners. deteriorated.’ (A.F.) When Aurel Flutur got married, he was al- People like Ioan Godea, Nicolae Brânda and ready a passionate collector who spent his last Aurel Chiriac gradually taught him how to store penny and leisure time, on the one hand, and and disinfest the objects. His wife was little by worked hard, on the other, to gather various ob- little contaminated with her husband’s passion. jects. ‘I definitely paid for them! I spent thriftily She took part in finding, purchasing and arrang- to make sure I had enough money to pay for ing the collection pieces; she was extremely con- them. Sometimes I had to work in order to have cerned, like her husband, with the fate of the them. I’ve never worn a suit, not even at my collection, so both are now collectors who make wedding ceremony’. (A.F.) At first he used to a perfect team. store all the objects in his house from Chi[c`u. The collection has grown in time, over- His wife got fed up with the old rubbish, espe- coming both financial problems and the lack of cially with those full of dirt and parasites. ‘My specialised knowledge. However, Aurel Flutur’s wife used to tell me:
Ethnography Department of the }ara Cri[urilor tors from all over Romania. Both the museum Museum of Oradea); Barbu {tef`nescu and and these eight collectors mounted an ample ex- Sever Dumitra[cu (former directors of the }ara hibition called „Robii frumosului“ (Slaves to the Cri[urilor Museum of Oradea). Nicolae Brânda Beautiful) where they displayed pieces belonging and his wife Georgeta as well as other employees to the eight collections. Aurel Flutur proved a re- of the museum of Beiu[ have been his friends markable ability to rapidly befriend the visiting for a long time. ‘We met 30-40 years ago, both of researchers of our Museum. Personally, I can say us were young. I am 67 and I have travelled a lot that my relationship with Aurel Flutur is now with Flutur. I taught him a lot and he taught me more than a strictly professional one. Aurel Flu- a lot about these places’. (N.B.) tur has earned my respect and deep sympathy. He has had a special relationship with Prof. Aurel Flutur is a talented person. As a mem- Aurel Chiriac, PhD, the current director of the ber of „Miron Pompiliu Association of Folk- }ara Cri[urilor Museum of Oradea. Aurel Flutur lorists of Bihor“ he gathered a large amount of was an employee of this museum for a while and folk literature in his travels. He published a part his collection was for a short time considered ‘to of it in „Anthology of the Folk Culture of be part of our museum complex. A part of its ex- Bihor“, vol. I – Ballads, vol. II – Legends.1 He hibits have been transferred to our museum in- also culled much lyrical verse which, to his dis- ventory.’ (Aurel Chiriac) He taught Aurel Flutur appointment, was lost by a well-known folk the meaning of museography and took him on a singer from Bihor. professional trip to Italy where Flutur had the In 1974 he exhibited for a few years a part of opportunity to visit great museums. It is Aurel his collection at the House of Culture in the Chiriac who has also been in charge of arranging town of {tei. He had already brought the whole and rearranging the objects collected by Aurel collection to his home in Chi[c`u in 1981. Later Flutur, turning them into an authorised mu- on he bought an old house and built a 300-sqm seum. ‘I am directly responsible for introducing hall in order to protect and exhibit his collection. explanations and photos which build up the pre- He also uses the household’s inner yard, a street- sent image of the museum. I have made a selec- front shed and the back yard. In the summer of tion of the most interesting and valuable pieces. 2009 he built there ‘a shepherd’s hut’ – I have also built up a museum circuit…I have
Oradea is apparently ready to offer him financial He is deeply engaged in all the significant support. He tried to elaborate a project in order matters related to the life of the village. He has to get funds from the European Union, but ‘to earned everybody’s respect as an industrious no avail.’ (A.F.) man, which helps him get closer to the objects He tries to sell objects in famous museums, that cause him a lot of trouble, forcing him to in- guided by the desire to preserve and offer his crease their price when purchased. achievements to all people. Many objects he has Like his and his wife’s personality, his mu- collected are exhibited today in the }ara seum is well-known in the area. He often parti- Cri[urilor Museum of Oradea, the Agriculture cipates in folk fairs; three years ago he attended Museum of Slobozia and the Village Museum of the ‘bread fair’ organised by the Bucharest Dis- Bucharest. ‘When I have two or three objects of trict 2 City Hall, where he baked bread; he also the same kind, I would give now and then only took part in the ‘Palinka-makers’ Fair’ in Oradea to a reputed museum. Nobody buys them. I and in the fair from Cetatea Oradiei. He won the don’t sell them to foreigners. God forbid! I do- first prize at a bread fair in Hungary where he nated
19th- and 20th-century Hungarian and Austrian board to make the schoolbag. When ready, I put places, Romanian bowls and pots from the well- it on my back and I started running through the known ceramic centres of the area – C`rpinet, village. It made a lot of noise because my father Cri[tior, Leheceni, S`li[te de Va[c`u, Valea put nuts in it.’ (A.F.) Neagr` and Lele[ti –; the current ceramics style Another room is a faithful reconstruction of a is represented by pots and bowls of Leheceni en- peasant indoor typical of the area; the next room trusted by their artisan to the Flutur family in dedicated to textiles exhibits distaffs, reels, order to be sold. Between stands with large pots, swingles, a linen-smoothing winding board, there are photos showing their manufacturing winders and peasant fabric on the walls. process which is also a visual clue to the tradi- Peasant kitchen objects are displayed on the tional ceramics fairs in the area. floor: an 1811 wooden cupboard, a flour chest, a The traditional crafts of the peasants from churn and many other things. Bihor – mining, smith’s work, wheelwright’s Coming back to the inner yard, we enter a work, leather dressing, boot-making, shingling, corridor where death is the prevailing theme: coopering – are put on display on the right-hand wooden tomb crosses, bells for oxen pulling the side in a covered gallery and in a room open to hearse5, the bench for the dead, a cenotaph, etc. the yard. Hundreds of pieces, which are both in- Death-causing objects are exhibited in two glass teresting in themselves and due to their associa- cases on the left wall. A few objects (lances, hal- tion and ingenuous exhibition, are highly sug- berds) were discovered in the village of Chi[c`u gestive of the main crafts specific to the villages between the 12th and the 19th centuries. in this area. A small room with musical instruments and An exterior staircase leads to the upper floor old radio sets is situated on the left side of the of the room open downstairs to the yard. There corridor. A part of the room shelters various are five small rooms here. The first one shelters household appliances like gas lanterns, grinders, several pieces of furniture, papers and photos irons, etc. that once belonged to ‘the last outlaw from The corridor leads the visitor to a large hall Bihor whom the elderly nicknamed Onea]`’ with an area of about 250-300 sqm. Many big ob- (A.F.). The outlaw Onea]` (whose real name was jects are grouped here: ‘I focused on means of Gabor Ioan), dead in 1913, was a grand-grandfa- transport which are displayed here because the ther of Chei]a Flutur. His picturesque story is objects are big and it’s easy to see them.’ (A.F.) told with pleasure by Aurel Flutur who also We find here an impressive collection of Schwab found in a secret drawer of a ‘podi[or’4 a few let- trunks and especially the big Gypsy cart from ters that Onea]` sent from prison to his wife who Banat (‘made by a German, though ordered by a had reported him to the authorities. Gypsy’ – A.F.), decorated with 52 metal snakes, The next room reconstructs an early 20th-cen- as many as the weeks of the year. There are also tury classroom with desks and a shaky master’s Romanian carts, sleighs, small carts and a mo- desk and with its typical maps and stationery. bile bread oven. On the left we come across One can also find here the first object of the Flu- many objects used for yielding and preserving tur collection – a wooden schoolbag that his fa- the fruit of the earth: ploughs, harrows, barns ther made of board. ‘My schoolbag was the first and baskets, cereal boxes, small agricultural object I preserved. I was not a frolicsome boy… tools. The hall is made of concrete, with walls every winter I used to play with snow together made of brick and a sheet iron sky-lighted roof. with the other children. It so happened that I An impressive collection of bells and cattle bells, needed another slate every two or three weeks padlocks, locks, hobbles, stirrups and saddles – because I broke it all the time. My father used hundreds of objects which fascinate by their Aurel Flutur and His Museum of Chi[c`u 141 diversity, quantity and picturesque aspect – nickname „Domnocu“ made the villagers con- hangs on horizontal bars, above the pieces ex- sider him for a long time a weird man who gath- hibited at ground level. The hall centre is an ered useless objects he even paid for. ‘People in empty passage skirted by peasant porches, whose the village used to say: ‘Goodness me, this man role is to isolate the pieces and to protect them has gone mad! Domnocu is mad and so are his from the visitors’ ‘too active’ curiosity. An old woman and babies!’ (Chei]a Flutur) wooden sewing-machine, telephones and old After the Bears’ Cave opened to the public, typewriters lie next to a corner of the hall that tourists coming from all over the world started to contains objects brought from Spain. visit Aurel Flutur’s collection and to admire it, A shed typical of Beiu[ that lies in the yard expressing their respect for it. The foreigners shelters a cart, a wagon, oxen yokes, a harrow, taught the villagers to respect their fellow. No- beehives made of clay-glued rods, barrels, nut body is a prophet in his own country. Aurel Flu- drying hurdle work. tur distinguished himself as a museum owner Aurel Flutur’s museum contains approxi- with the help of people who came from abroad. mately 2500 objects, being more than just an or- The villagers from Chi[c`u ‘admit it today, they dinary collection. Thus, the owner defines the are even amazed and they themselves come here way in which the collection turns into a muse- with their relatives and friends. They cannot um: ‘The Museum is made by collections, just as help visiting the museum. They are pleased to honey is made by the beehive’. (A.F.) have such a museum in their village. If I go It is worth mentioning that Aurel Flutur is fa- somewhere, people recognise me and tell me: miliar with each object of the collection, he can
Flutur is not fully appreciated by the mayor of hope makes him very sad. He would like to in- the commune. Aurel Flutur is a righteous man, sure the objects; some fellows’ envy puzzles he cannot put up with any kind of abuse, which them. Both have a sharp sense of humour and makes him disagreeable. Instead, vice-mayor continue tenaciously to preserve and love each Cornel Pîlea has a very good opinion about his object they collect. museum and views it as a support for the village The fact that you first have to go through the of Chi[c`u. museum in order to enter the Flutur family’s Teacher Nicolae Brânda from Beiu[ sum- household is not devoid of significance. Thus, marised the whole situation: the nickname you draw near a wooden house with a large ve- „Domnocu“ clearly differentiates him from all randah, which lies very close to another fairy- the others. They first made fun of his madness tale-like wooden house. Both houses (the and now they are envious. They have a very dwelling and the summer kitchen) proudly boast good reason for being envious because the their harmonious oldness. However, the inte- today’s collection has not only a great ethno- riors … are equipped with all that modern man graphic value, but also an economic one… His needs: heaters, bathrooms with showers and hot collection might be the greatest private ethno- water, a refrigerator and a stove, even a mi- graphic collection in Romania.’ crowave oven! The household is a mirror of their The way in which the collector Aurel Flutur souls and occupations. Though tied to the tradi- sees himself is very interesting. He is obsessed tions of the past, they whole-heartedly use with the desire to protect the traditional heritage today’s innovations. Their museum is also inter- by collecting its objects. Both he and his wife esting due to its permanent and animating dy- love their great collection; they are proud of it namicity: the Flutur couple is always looking for and honoured to be respected by all people the best exhibition methods and learn all the around them. They are often burdened with the time. In a nutshell, they refuse to stay stuck in responsibility for their museum. He hopes that contemplation. his children will take it over, but this fading
Notes:
1 Vol. I – Ballads, the Guiding Centre of Folk Creation 3 Horea Flutur is the youngest son of the collectors, and Mass Artistic Movement of Bihor, Oradea, 1979, pp. currently working in Spain; his parents hope that he will 95-96 and 116; vol. II – Legends, Miron Pompiliu Associ- come back to Chi[c`u, where he will carry on their activity. ation of Folklorists of Bihor, Oradea, 1980, pp. 15, 23, 4 podi[or = wooden cupboard 32, 38, 49, 72, 76, 106. 5 According to tradition, in the villages of Bihor the 2 ‘Focul viu’ (the ‘living fire’) = a wooden archaic de- dead were brought to the tomb only in oxen-pulled vice used to make fire by rubbing two sticks together. hearses.