Title: Making the Documents Speak—A Creative Exploration of the Mihai Pop Fonds

Authors: Rucsandra Pop, Alexandru Iorga

How to cite this article: Pop, Rucsandra, Alexandru Iorga. 2019. “Making the Documents Speak—A Creative Exploration of the Mihai Pop Fonds.” Martor 24: 151-170.

Published by: Editura MARTOR (MARTOR Publishing House), Muzeul Național al Ţăranului Român (National Museum of the Romanian Peasant)

URL: http://martor.muzeultaranuluiroman.ro/archive/martor-24-2019/

Martor (The Museum of the Romanian Peasant Anthropology Journal) is a peer-reviewed academic journal established in 1996, with a focus on cultural and visual anthropology, ethnology, museum studies and the dialogue among these disciplines. Martor Journal is published by the Museum of the Romanian Peasant. Interdisciplinary and international in scope, it provides a rich content at the highest academic and editorial standards for academic and non-academic readership. Any use aside from these purposes and without mentioning the source of the article(s) is prohibited and will be considered an infringement of copyright.

Martor (Revue d’Anthropologie du Musée du Paysan Roumain) est un journal académique en système peer-review fondé en 1996, qui se concentre sur l’anthropologie visuelle et culturelle, l’ethnologie, la muséologie et sur le dialogue entre ces disciplines. La revue Martor est publiée par le Musée du Paysan Roumain. Son aspiration est de généraliser l’accès vers un riche contenu au plus haut niveau du point de vue académique et éditorial pour des objectifs scientifiques, éducatifs et informationnels. Toute utilisation au-delà de ces buts et sans mentionner la source des articles est interdite et sera considérée une violation des droits de l’auteur.

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This issue of Martor has been published with the financial support of the National Cultural Fund Administration (AFCN Romania). Making the Documents Speak—A Creative Exploration of the Mihai Pop Fonds

Rucsandra Pop University of Bucharest, Faculty of Letters [email protected] Alexandru Iorga University of Bucharest & Constantin Brăiloiu Institute for Ethnography and Folklore [email protected]

ABSTRACT KEYWORDS

In 2016, the Mihai Pop Fonds was established as part of the Image Archive Mihai Pop, personal archives, inter- at the Romanian Peasant Museum, and this past year has seen a real effort to disciplinarity, social sciences in organize the documents left behind by the scholar. The Fonds brings together Romania. key documents: a rich correspondence with Romanian and foreign research- ers; Mihai Pop’s field notes from the sociological research campaigns; his PhD thesis, which has yet to be published; documents related to his participation in national and international congresses; his notes for the folklore lectures he gave at the University; and many other documents. The paper aims to present how an interdisciplinary team of ten researchers and artists organized various types of documents from the personal archive of Mi- hai Pop in order to make it accessible to both specialists interested in the topic and the general public. The paper highlights the contents of the Fonds and focuses on the difficulties involved in organizing a personal archive. The paper will show not only how the Mihai Pop Fonds was shaped in the process, but how the network of people interested in his work has grown and come together in this process, generating new knowledge and new perspectives.

...... in semiotics, and, along with Tudor Vianu2 1) Dimitrie Gusti (1880 3 – 1955), Romanian Introduction and Alexandru Rosetti, he ran the Circle sociologist who taught of Poetics and Stylistics. On his visits to the at the University of Ia[i and the University of orn in 1907, Mihai Pop first United States, Pop discovered the American Bucharest and served as Romania’s Minister developed an interest in linguistics— school of anthropology, and, in addition of Education in 1932– attending the meetings of the Prague to studying anthropology, he made an 1933. Being the creator of the Bucharest School BLinguistic Circle in 1930s and studying important contribution to the spreading of Sociology and of in Poland. He continued with sociology of anthropology concepts and literature in several other Institutes, he led, between 1925 and ethnomusicology, as a participant in Romania. “Looking into someone’s life with and 1948, research campaigns in several the research campaigns initiated by the help from instruments such as pictures, Romanian villages. sociologist Dimitrie Gusti,1 before he finally recordings, letters feels almost sacred. It feels turned to the study of literary theory in Bonn. strange, sometimes voyeuristic, and it comes From 1949, when the Folklore Institute was with a deep responsibility of holding in 2) Tudor Vianu (1898 established, he became a specialist in folklore your hands a snippet of someone’s personal – 1964), Romanian literary and art critic, studies, which he started teaching in the history.” It is with these words that the Black poet, philosopher, and 1950s. In the 1960s, he became interested Horse Mansion4 video collective captured translator.

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the experience of working for almost one perspective. It is largely acknowledged year on a project meant to shape, categorize among Romanian scholars and practitioners and showcase to the public the Mihai Pop (Grosu 2014; Chirilă 2016) that archives 3) Alexandru Rosetti (1895 – 1990), Fonds. Indeed, immersing yourself into a were and still are depositaries of materials Romanian linguist, editor and memoirist. professional yet very personal archive is an and documents about various issues and He was the promoter intimate experience and a powerful way to elements related to national identity. of new research directions, such connect different generations and histories. Although the very first archives in Romania as mathematical The experience is even more intense if the emerged from personal initiatives and linguistics and structuralism. In 1961, owner of those documents has touched so collections, the conceptual structure of Rosetti established the Romanian Academy’s many lives, as professor Mihai Pop has. archives is that they should follow a specific Center for Phonetic This paper aims to present how an institutionalized agenda oblivious of the and Dialectological Research. In 1974 interdisciplinary team of over ten researchers personal fonds, data, and collections which this Center merged and artists5 immersed themselves into the were incorporated into larger archival with the Institute of Ethnography and massive body of documents that constitute projects to varying degrees. Unlike other Folklore. the Mihai Pop Fonds to structure it and traditions of archival practice based on to make it visible for both the specialists personal fonds and collections, archives in interested in the topic and the general public. Romania, more specifically professional The paper, while obliquely highlighting ones (vs. bureaucratic and state archives),

4) Black Horse the contents of the archive, mainly focuses were collective efforts documenting specific Mansion is a video on the exploratory research challenges elements considered for preservation and production studio born out of the pleasure of involved in structuring a personal archive. further investigation. Dealing with personal creative collaboration. It includes many voices, with the purpose archives involves new challenges (Chirilă Miruna Vasilescu, Ana Banu and Alina of showing that, while the people involved 2016). What happens with personal archives Manea are collectively exploring the world of in the project had different approaches, of prominent figures that were discovered video art, site-specific personal motivations, and findings, there by serendipity? installations and performance, creating was a clear common purpose: to stimulate In line with Kaplan’s 2002 seminal paper, inspiring video critical thinking around Mihai Pop’s cultural as well as Pop’s own thoughts (further de- content. legacy and bring to light as many facets as veloped below) and Barthes’ point of view possible of his complex personality. The (1972), we deemed it necessary to use an diverse points of view of the researchers approach both interdisciplinary and anthro- led to different ways of understanding and pological in organizing the materials from 5) Project team: processing the material. We treated the body the Mihai Pop Fonds as part of the Image Rucsandra Pop, Gra]iela B\descu, of documents as a living organism that was Archive of the Romanian National Peasant Cristina }ineghe, Denisa Pleoscariu, being structured by the researchers and, in Museum (Arhiva de Imagine a Muzeului Paul Drogeanu, Alex return, (re)structured them, their way of Național al Țăranului Român). In this paper, Iorga, Mirela Stan, Andrei Ro[ca, Ramona thinking, and their research methods. The we have chosen to engage in a descriptive and Barbu, Ana Banu, paper shows not only how the Mihai Pop a self-reflective approach to files, documents, Miruna Vasilescu, Alina Manea, Fonds was shaped in the process, but also and the whole work involved in organizing Alexandru Vlad, Simona-Ioana Ghi]\. how the network of people interested in his the Fonds and less in issues related to their In the second part of work has grown and come together in this content, as we decided to emphasize the prac- the article the role of each member will be process, generating new knowledge and new tice of managing a personal archive and no described in detail. perspectives in a reflexive and multi-vocal theoretical and content related issues were way that we further develop here (see also at stake. Personal objects and formal/insti- Kaplan 2002 and Zeitlyn 2012). tutional items from the Fonds shed light on To our knowledge, this is a singular Mihai Pop’s biography as well as on the histo- attempt to discuss the long neglected perso- ry of European linguistics, semiotics, sociolo- nal archives in the context of Romanian gy, ethnology, folklore, and anthropology. As archival practices in an institutionalized our paper emphasizes, the Mihai Pop Fonds environment and from an interdisciplinary goes straight to the heart of the history, iden-

152 Making the Documents Speak—A Creative Exploration of the Mihai Pop Fonds tity and memory of these disciplines. Our or her discipline, and afterwards working purpose is to highlight both a general and a towards a synthesis of that unit. For example, personal process of experiencing memory, considering that a village was a unit. But it history and forgetting (Ricoeur 2004) related was not interdisciplinarity. In order to speak to working with the Mihai Pop Fonds from about interdisciplinarity, it is necessary for an interdisciplinary point of view. the researchers in the team to try to think the In the case of this project, things are same, to have the same view of the reality that all the more exciting as the subject itself is they are investigating (Rostás 2003: 345). interdisciplinary. Mihai Pop was one of the key figures in the institutional continuity of a In his view, interdisciplinary research number of disciplines—linguistics, folklore, involves the whole of the researched reality sociology, anthropology and semiotics— as an object of research itself, which must be but also an innovator and an important defined in a unitary vision. Pop continues agent of interdisciplinary mediation, by highlighting that the interdisciplinary theoretical change, and modernization researchers do not have to be specialists during communism. We understand in all the fields; they just need to know the interdisciplinarity as Barthes defined it: principles of each discipline. He sees the necessity of training a new type of researcher Interdisciplinary work, so much discussed who is capable of thinking about culture these days, is not about confronting already by assuming a method of embracing the constituted disciplines (none of which is techniques of various atomized disciplines. willing to let itself go). To do something The ambition of the project was to create interdisciplinary is not enough to choose a the space for this new type of researcher to subject (a theme) and gather around it two manifest creatively, while not abdicating the or three sciences. Interdisciplinarity consists imperative rigor of scientific research. in creating a new object that belongs to no Looking at Pop’s definition of interdiscipli- one (Barthes 1972: 1). narity, we notice that there are too few con- texts and initiatives in which Pop’s personality Interdisciplinarity was actually one and legacy are investigated using interdisci- of the theoretical issues tackled by Mihai plinary formulas. He is usually trapped in a Pop on several occasions. In the interview box where researchers look at him as one of conducted by the sociologist Zoltán Rostás the founding fathers of modern folklore stud- in the 1980s and published in The Bright ies in Romania, while the other aspects of his Room [Sala Luminoasă], Pop distinguishes intellectual persona are being completely between multidisciplinarity and inter- overlooked. One proof of this oversimplified disciplinarity, pointing out that the first reading of such a complex intellectual is the real interdisciplinary researches conducted fact that Mihai Pop is rarely studied outside in Romania in the field of social sciences the folklore studies curricula. In the opinion took place in the 1970s in the Cosău Valley, of anthropologist Vintilă Mihăilescu, formu- Maramureș. The statement is intriguing, lated in an interview conducted by Rucsan- given the fact that the research campaigns dra Pop in 2009: led by Dimitrie Gusti almost annually in the 1930s were supposed to have had an It is complicated to say what the role of interdisciplinary approach. Mihai Pop was in the development of social sciences in Romania. At the Institute (of Multidisciplinarity, says Mihai Pop, is what the Folklore) he had a role, at the University sociologists did. I mean they were people from a different role, and a completely different different fields, each of them investigating role internationally. And he contributed to a certain reality from the perspective of his importing a structuralist-semiotic vision

153 Rucsandra Pop, Alexandru Iorga

Photo 9. In the Image Archive at the Romanian Peasant Museum, even the gloves are smiling as the documents in the Mihai Pop Fonds are being organized. Photo credit: Mihai Pop Association.

to Romania, vision which he promoted, digitized the documents in an effort to of- encouraged and, to some extent, shaped fer to both academics and a wider audience (Mihăilescu, February 19th, 2009). a more sophisticated, unprejudiced under- 6) Harry Brauner (1908 – 1988), Romanian standing of him and his activity. Moreover, ethnomusicologist, That is why we have called on an inter- we wanted to innovate and to use new tech- composer, and music teacher. He managed disciplinary team consisting of archivists, nologies to bring Pop’s intellectual biogra- the Folklore Archive, ethnologists, anthropologists, sociologists, phy to the attention of a wider audience, and as deputy director, he founded the Folklore writers, actors, and film makers: to make to encourage researchers already interested Institute, and led the first ethnomusicology sure that we capitalize on the full poten- in the topic to look at it critically, from new laboratory in Romania. tial of the documentary material and that perspectives. At the end of the project, part During his career he recorded about 5,000 we will be able to trace and reveal as many of the materials were used in an artistic proj- Romanian folk songs. as possible places of memory (Nora 1984) ect—a performative installation—with the throughout the process. The project has purpose of offering to the specialized and also brought together several generations general public a coherent image of Mihai 7) Constantin Br\ of researchers—from scholars who worked Pop, as he is reflected in these documents. iloiu (1893 – 1958), Romanian composer, closely with Pop to students who interacted The Mihai Pop Fonds is hosted by The music critic, with him only through his works. As the Image Archive of the Romanian National ethnomusicologist, folklorist, and professor. Mihai Pop Fonds requires an understanding Peasant Museum in Bucharest. The Museum He founded, along with of its uniqueness and complexity, we felt the is a partner in the efforts of the Mihai Pop other composers, the Society of Romanian need to recreate this complexity at the level Association to provide researchers with Composers and he initiated the Folklore of people who brought their diverse exper- open access to this information, thus Archive. He had a prolific tise into the project. Each specialist involved encouraging them to critically approach international career in ethnomusicology and in the project had a different understanding the work of a Romanian scholar with major he is considered the of Mihai Pop’s personality and most of them contributions to the international history of founder of the Romanian School of Folklore and already had interdisciplinary training and these disciplines in the twentieth century. Ethnomusicology. the ability to see how a new space is born The idea of a museum hosting the Fonds at the intersection of the disciplines they was both salutary and future-oriented. In served. This team studied, classified and Kaplan’s words:

154 Making the Documents Speak—A Creative Exploration of the Mihai Pop Fonds

[…] practice is the archivist’s raison d’être. which he did not pursue. It was also due to 8) George C\linescu Archival ideas could never be an end in his uncle that he came to study in Bucharest. (1899 – 1965), Romanian critic, literary themselves: archivists do what they do so that In 1940, Mihai Pop married Irina Sturza historian, writer, others (scholars, students, administrators, (1916-2000).15 The two had met in 1939 journalist and member of government officials, citizens, genealogists), when Pop was conducting field research in the Romanian Academy. whether now or in the distant future, can do Dâmbovnic. The marriage with Irina Sturza what they do (2002: 217). was in itself a gesture with great political and social implications, considering that at that 9) Roman Ossipovich Jakobson (1896 – 1982), The Mihai Pop Fonds consists of a rich time the marriages between Transylvanian Russian thinker who became one of the most correspondence with Romanian and foreign noble families and the boyar families in the influential linguists of 6 researchers (Harry Brauner, Constantin Romanian Old Kingdom were an exception. the twentieth century, 7 8 laying the foundation Brăiloiu, George Călinescu, Roman Jakob- Pop belonged to the generation of Ro- for the development of son,9 Piotr Bogatyrev,10 Julien Greimas,11 manian intellectuals who emerged between the structural analysis 12 13 of language, poetry, and Alan Dundes, Margaret Mead, or the two World Wars. With graduate studies art. He was one of the 14 leaders of the influential Katherine Verdery, to give just a few in Prague, Krakow, Warsaw and Bonn in the Prague Linguistic examples); Mihai Pop’s field notes from the 1930s, he earned his PhD in Bratislava, where Circle and, later, of the Linguistic Circle of New interwar sociological research campaigns he served as a diplomat during the Second York. He had a profound he participated in; his PhD manuscript— World War. After completing his BA stud- influence on general linguistics and Slavic which has yet to be published; documents ies in Bucharest, he decided to continue his studies, but also on semiotics, anthropology, related to his participation to national and studies in Prague, because of his interest in psychoanalysis, international congresses; notes of lectures linguistics and Slavic languages. Soon after he ethnology, mythology, communication theory he gave at various universities, and many arrived in the capital of the Czechoslovak Re- and literary studies. other documents. Another part of the Fonds public, the Romanian scholar connected with is composed of materials (mostly video and the Prague Linguistic Circle, notably with its audio interviews) collected over fourteen Russian core members—Roman Jakobson, 10) Petr Bogatyrev years of research by Rucsandra Pop— Piotr Bogatyrev, and Nikolai Trubetzkoy. (1893 –1971), Russian folklorist, ethnologist, currently a PhD candidate at the University He became part of an international network linguist, literary of Bucharest working on Pop’s intellectual of scholars who were invited to take part in scientist, theatre scientist and translator. biography. sessions held by the Prague Linguistic Circle. He was one of founding members of the Prague By participating in these meetings, as well as Linguistic Circle and a attending the First International Congress of member of the Moscow ...... Slavists that took place in Prague in 1929, Pop Linguistic Circle. had the chance to witness the birth of struc- Short bio turalism, the theoretical paradigm that domi- nated the first half of the twentieth century. 11) Julien Greimas (1917 – 1992), Lithuanian To put in context this archival work, one While studying abroad, Pop returned to literary scientist who wrote most of his body needs to have an overview of Mihai Pop’s Romania for the summer months each year. of work in French while life and career. Mihai Pop’s family life as It was during that time that he engaged in the living in France. He is considered one of the a whole offers an interesting plunge into most important Romanian social sciences most prominent French Romania’s recent history. He was born in project—the monographic campaigns led semioticians. 1907 in Glod, Maramureș, then part of the by sociologist Dimitrie Gusti. During the Austrian-Hungarian Empire, in a family of campaigns which took place at Fundu Greek-Catholic priests from Maramureș. Moldovei (1928), Drăguș (1929), Runcu 12) Alan Dundes (1934 – 2005), American His mother’s brother, Ilie Lazăr (1895- (1930), and Cornova (1931), he worked folklorist at the 1976)—with whom he had a very close in Constantin Brăiloiu’s team, the famous University of California, Berkeley. His work is relationship—was a politician and a Member musicologist. Surrounded by specialists from said to have been central to the establishing of the of the Romanian Parliament in the interwar so many different disciplines, the young Pop study of folklore as an period. Under his influence, Mihai Pop also became interested in various aspects of academic discipline. started a political career at a very early age, the community. In time, Pop became one of

155 Rucsandra Pop, Alexandru Iorga

13) Margaret Mead the core members of the teams gathered by Together they formed a generation of (1901 – 1978), American cultural anthropologist Gusti around the Romanian Social Institute. semioticians. Mihai Pop also participated who served as president In 1936, he was given the task of relocating in the summer schools organized by the of the American Anthropological a wooden church from Maramureș to the International Centre for Semiotic and Association in 1960 and newly created Village Museum in Bucharest, Linguistic Studies, in Urbino, Italy. There, held various positions in the American contributing to the birth of this ambitious together with his younger Romanian Association for the 19 Advancement of Science. project. In 1939, he conducted field research colleagues, he worked with Umberto Eco, 20 She worked with Mihai in Dâmbovnic, following a methodology Julien Greimas, Maria Corti, and other Pop due to their common 16 interest in ethnographic developed by Anton Golopenția, which major semioticians of that time. It was also films. was slightly different from Gusti’s. in the 1960s that Pop was reunited with His encounter with sociological research his interwar international connections and impacted Pop’s future career. The materials resumed his international activity. Roman 14) Katherine Verdery (b. 1948), American collected in Brăiloiu’s archive during the Jakobson (1896-1982) played the role of anthropologist and interwar campaigns constituted the basis on intellectual godfather for Pop, connecting author, Professor at City 17 University of New York. which the Folklore Institute in Bucharest him with prestigious scholars and insti- Starting with 1973, she was built. The creation of the Institute was tutions in the United States and Europe. did extensive fieldwork in Romania. put in motion as early as 1948, when, together Unlike other social sciences, ethnology with his friend and colleague Harry Brauner, and folklore survived in Romania during Pop began to plan its future development. communism, mainly because it was 15) A young agricultural Mihai Pop worked in this Institute for almost instrumentalized by the political regime, but engineer descending from an old boyar family. thirty years, until his retirement. While the this only after the 1950s. She was part of the years in Prague gave him a strong theoretical research team that did fieldwork in Dâmbovnic background and international openness, First, they were perceived as ‘too national’ in in 1939. The campaign was coordinated by the experience with the Gusti teams offered an era of Soviet imposed internationalism. Anton Golopen]ia and Pop not only solid research know-how, Secondly, in Romania, folklore and Mihai Pop. but also a good understanding of the art of ethnography were traditionally associated managing a research institute. As director with the peasants, initially suspected in the of the Folklore Institute (1965-1974), Pop Leninist vein everywhere in the Soviet sphere 16) Anton Golopen]ia (1909 – 1951), initiated numerous fieldwork trips, which of influence (Leonard and Kaneff 2002), and Romanian sociologist culminated with the campaigns in Cosău later on barely accepted as a secondary ally and statistician. In 1932-1933, he worked Valley, Maramureș, in the early 1970s, where of the proletariat. Consequently, folklore and as chief of cabinet— and then secretary to his he led interdisciplinary teams of Romanian ethnography, in their original form, were also professor Dimitrie Gusti, and foreign researchers. Pop was also the suspected—or had to adjust their interests who held the office of Minister of Education. editor of the Journal of Ethnography and to the new imperatives of the proletarian Later Golopen]ia Folklore [Revista de Etnografie și Folclor], the culture (Hedeșan 2008: 24-25). became editor of Sociologie Româneasc\, scientific publication of the Institute. From a teaching assistant at the Gusti-chaired 1958 onward, and parallel to his activity at the Things changed in the early 1960s, after Sociology, Ethics and Institute, he taught Folklore at the University the death of Stalin and the emergence Politics Department, and a director at the Social of Bucharest. In 1976, Pop published two of the nationalist type of communism Institute founded by books: Romanian literary folklore (Folclor promoted by Ceaușescu. Due to Ceaușescu’s Gusti. Due to differences of opinion regarding literar românesc), written in collaboration policy of independence from Moscow, the methodology and 18 purpose of sociological with Pavel Ruxăndoiu —book that became Romania became an interesting research research, he left both the “the Bible” for generations of folklore studies area for American, French and Belgian department and Gusti’s Social Institute in 1939, students—and Romanian traditional customs sociologists and anthropologists. Katherine after conducting field [Obiceiuri tradiționale românești]. Verdery, Gail Kligman21 (United States), research with Mihai Pop 22 23 in Dâmbovnic. The 1960s were marked by Pop’s interest Claude Karnoouh, Jean Cousinier in semiotics. Beginning in 1963, Pop headed (France), Marianne Mesnil24 (Belgium), The Circle of Poetics and Stylistics, along and others were all introduced to their with Tudor Vianu and Alexandru Rosetti. Romanian fieldworks and supported by

156 Making the Documents Speak—A Creative Exploration of the Mihai Pop Fonds

Pop. Paradoxically, during the 1960s and ...... 1970s, there was no lag between Romanian The seasons of the archive 17) Since the Folklore Institute has changed ethnology and Western research. its name several times Pop was a member of various inter- Winter was about dusting and sorting a over the decades, further in the text we chose national associations and had lectured in heap of documents that had belonged to to simply name it the Germany, France, and the United States. In Mihai Pop. The documents were kept in Institute. 1975, Pop retired but continued to advise big plastic bags in a basement belonging to generations of PhD students, as Professor Anisia and Gheorghe Stănculescu—Mihai Emeritus at the University of Bucharest. Pop’s niece and nephew who took care of the 18) Pavel Rux\ndoiu He set up “his office” at home, in a house in documents left behind in the Caragea Vodă (1934 – 2015), Romanian folklorist, central Bucharest. No longer having a full- Street house, where the Pop family had lived who worked closely time institutional affiliation, he became an for almost half a century. The work was done with Mihai Pop at the University of Bucharest. institution himself. His home was a meet- by the project core team and a few volunteer He co-authored with ing place for researchers from Romania and undergraduates from the Faculty of Letters Pop the book Romanian Literary Folklore. abroad, as well as a place where new ideas (University of Bucharest). In the meantime, and initiatives came to life. Just after the fall other students were transcribing interviews of communism, Pop contributed, among about Mihai Pop and doing more interviews others, to the creation of the Romanian with people that had known and worked 19) Umberto Eco Society of Cultural Anthropology. In addi- with him. Some of the students later joined (1932 – 2016), Italian novelist, literary tion, he was an advisor to the team of re- the research team as full members. critic, philosopher, semiotician, and searchers that left the Folklore Institute in Dressed in doctors’ gowns, armed with university professor. order to start the Romanian Peasant Muse- masks and gloves, we went through the um in the early 1990s. He died in 2000, at the papers one by one and jumped with joy for age of 93. After Pop’s death, his intellectual Photo 3. Before being brought to the Romanian Peasant Museum, the docu- portrait was completed with the publication ments in Mihai Pop's personal Fonds were stored in the basement of the house 20) Maria Corti of a series of articles he had written between belonging to Anisia and Gheorghe Stãnculescu—Mihai Pop’s niece and nephew (1915 – 2002), Italian who took care of the documents left behind in the Caragea Vodã Street house. philologist, literary critic, 1937 and 1940, signed with the pseudonym Photo credit: Mihai Pop Association. and novelist. Peter Buga. The articles were accidentally discovered by the sociologist Zoltán Rostás, in 2009. The collection of articles, published 21) Gail Kligman (b. in The Romanian World [Lumea românească] 1949), American and Today [Azi]—two Romanian interwar sociologist, Professor UCLA and Director of the publications—were gathered in the volume Center for European and I also want to be revised [Vreau și eu să fiu Eurasian Studies. Her research and teaching revizuit]. Many of the articles cover topics of focus on ethnographic and historical national and international politics, revealing comparative studies a young Pop with interests going beyond the of politics, culture, and gender in Eastern scholarly realm. Europe, during and after Even without producing an extensive communism. Kligman has done extensive theoretical work, Pop held a prominent fieldwork in Romania. position in the field of ethnology and anthropology in Romania, as well as in Europe and, partly, in the United States. 22) Claude Karnoouh Considered the creator of the Bucharest (b. 1940), French Ethnological School, Pop did not leave anthropologist and sociologist, who has behind a one-sided vision. Instead, he opened done extensive fieldwork up several lines of research and reflection, in Romania. which were later adopted by various groups of ethnologists and anthropologists.

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documents. And when we finally felt like we knew what we were doing, Cristina Ţineghe came and initiated us for the second time in the art of archiving. And we realized we had to restructure the Fonds completely. And also our minds. We should have paid more attention to Cristina in the beginning, when she told us it was not easy to organize a personal archive. Luckily for us, she was by our side throughout the stages of the project. After all, she was the only specialist

Photo 7. Sanda Golpen]ia and Constantin Eretescu, both former collaborators in archives and the history of Maramureș, of Mihai Pop, visited the archive in June 2018. In the image, Sanda Golopen]ia, the only one to have dealt with a personal Rucsandra Pop and Paul Drogeanu trying to decipher a letter from the Fonds. Photo credit: Mihai Pop Association. archive before. We began inviting Pop’s close collaborators, all of them specialists every treasure we found. Then we went for in his life and work, to join our project: 25 26 23) Jean Cuisenier a coffee and a pretzel and discussed how to Ioana Popescu, Zoltán Rostás, Sanda (1927 – 2017), French shape the Fonds. It was not simple, as this Golopenția,27 Constantin Eretescu,28 and ethnologist, specialist 29 in French and European was the first project of this kind that we had Nicolae Constantinescu. Each of them ethnology, in particular ever worked on. brought a bit more light into the process, Romanian folk arts and traditions, and In spring we dusted off once more all the helping us to connect the dots and better more particularly rural architecture. Starting documents we found and put them in boxes. understand the content of the documents. with 1973, he did The boxes were sent to the National Institute In autumn we began to reap the fruits extensive fieldwork in Romania. of Materials Physics for decontamination of our labor. After long conversations and with gamma-ray irradiation. The operation many hours of work, the “skeleton” of is supposed to kill off all living organisms in the Fonds began to take shape, and now the papers, but it does not remove the dust. we could add muscles to it. Every facet 24) Marianne Mesnil The dust remains no matter how much you of Pop’s personality became clearer right (b. 1944), Belgian anthropologist, shake it off. So do the coughing and skin after a first round of sorting through the specialized in the study irritations that come with it. In spring we documents. We discovered many artifacts: of Romania, where she went for the first time started enlarging the team, as the funding a rich correspondence with Romanian as a student in 1967. from The Administration of the National and foreign researchers; Mihai Pop’s field She then made many field trips throughout Cultural Fund (Administrația Fondului notes from the research campaigns part of the period marked by the Ceaucescu regime. Cultural Național) had finally come. Nature the Gusti School of Sociology; personal She is now an honorary awakened and so did we. We took the boxes notebooks with Slavic words and verb professor at Université Libre de Bruxelles. of documents to the Romanian Peasant tenses; flash cards with the notes he made Museum and put them next to those donated while studying in Prague and Bonn, his to the Image Archive by Andrei Pop-Jora, unpublished doctoral work; documents Mihai Pop’s youngest son. We were satisfied related to his participation in national and

25) Ioana Popescu with our work so far. We did not realize how international congresses; telegrams; flight (b. 1949), Romanian much work still lay ahead of us. tickets; notes from courses he attended or ethnologist, who worked closely with Mihai Pop In the summer we began the sorting taught; lists of books; documents related to at the Folklore Institute. process. We spent our time poring over his work at the Folklore Institute and many After 1990, she was Research Director at letters almost impossible to read, matching more. And we realized that each piece of the Romanian Peasant Museum and was in papers with the same texture and written the archive could be turned into a book. charge with the Image in the same ink, pulling out and throwing After prioritizing what should reach print Archive. away all the office clips from the papers first, we started scanning documents. The and the rusty rails from the folders. We opinion was unanimous: the correspondence bundled, indexed, catalogued, and scanned should be published as soon as possible,

158 Making the Documents Speak—A Creative Exploration of the Mihai Pop Fonds because it highlights the many roles that ...... Pop played, his stature, and the value of his The archive is about: relationships. Data and information: In many of the texts 26) Zoltán Rostás about Mihai Pop, there appears a long list (b. 1946), Romanian of international scientific bodies of which sociologist of Hungarian ...... origins. He is specialized he was a member. Beyond the fact that in the history of the Gusti The Mihai Pop network School of Sociology and this long list is only partially correct and is founder of the research usually carelessly copied from one article to group Cooperativa Gusti. In the 1980s, The Mihai Pop Fonds could be defined the other, very few scholars go deeper into he has done extensive by drawing up the list of the people with the roles these professional organizations oral history interviews with the researchers whom he collaborated throughout his played, and how the history of the respective who participated in the monographic campaigns career spanning nearly seven decades. Pop fields flows through them. One cannot initiated by Dimitrie Gusti, was a member of many important scholarly understand the development of folklore or including Mihai Pop. networks and international professional anthropology unless one has background associations in the field of ethnography, data on the history of these professional anthropology, and semiotics. He lectured associations. And there is a lot of this data 27) Sanda Golopen]ia at over twenty universities in the United in the Pop Fonds. Now that the data is (b.1940), Romanian States and Europe, and he participated available, the biography of Mihai Pop will linguist, now Emeritus Professor at Brown in an impressive number of international surely be re-written in a more detailed and University, Providence, congresses and events. Actually, his precise manner. Long Island. She worked at the Folklore Institute, international career could be the topic of a People and stories: Apart from Mihai doing extensive fieldwork with Mihai PhD research, and there are many folders Pop, whose archive we were researching, Pop. She published containing documents that could inform the papers bring to light other people several books on linguistics and semiotics such research. An address book from the with whom even the most cold-blooded and edited the work of 1970s is perhaps the most eloquent and researcher would fall in love. One of the her parents [tefania Cristescu-Golopen]ia condensed document of the Pop Fonds. It scholars whose personality is revealed by and Anton Golopen]ia, both members of includes many of the names and contact the documents in the Fonds is Constantin the Gusti School of details of the researchers he worked with— Brăiloiu. When reading letters signed by Sociology and close some of them renowned, such as Claude the well-known musicologist, he turns from friends of Mihai Pop. Lévi-Strauss or Umberto Eco, others known a Wikipedia entry into flesh and blood. A mainly in their fields, like the German letter addressed to Harry Brauner, brought ethnologist Ingeborg Weber Kellermann or Brăiloiu to life for us, the research team: 28) Constantin Eretescu the folklorist Carl-Herman Tillhagen. (b. 1937), Romanian I’m glad Pop arrived and brought all the stuff. folklorist, who worked Photo 5. The Mihai Pop Fonds contains hundreds of business cards showing how closely with Mihai Pop extensive Mihai Pop’s professional network was, both nationally and internation- I included a note for him, too. I’m also glad at the Folklore Institute. ally. Photo credit: Mihai Pop Association. In 1980, he fled to the that the latest concerns of His Magisterial United States and taught Serenity (Dimitrie Gusti) confirm beyond cultural anthropology at Rhode Island School of any doubt all the flattering views I have always Design, Providence. had regarding His brilliant intelligence. Don’t forget my devilish Decalogue for the 1931 monograph, consisting of four points (*as any respectful Decalogue should): 29) Nicolae Constantinescu 1. Thou shalt not kill, respectively commit (b. 1934), Romanian folklorist and professor, suicide. who was Mihai Pop’s 2. Thou shalt beautifully gather beautiful assistant at the things. University of Bucharest. 3. Thou shalt form a state within the state. 4. Thou shalt crush monographic sociology

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under smiles of contempt. as granddaughter of Mihai Pop, secondly Here, I enjoy moments of perfect silence, with the University of Bucharest where she propitious to a radical concealment. is working on her PhD, and last but not least (…) with the Mihai Pop Association [Asociația 30) This letter is very With all my love, Constantin Brăiloiu.30 revealing for the Academician Mihai Pop], the organization differences between which initiated the research project. Constantin Br\iloiu and Dimitrie Gusti on how to This witty letter made us look for more approach field research. information on Brăiloiu, it made us look at It was equally difficult and intriguing to wear his photographs with different eyes. This all the three hats at once. As a granddaughter, man somehow came to life in the generous it was an emotionally difficult period. office of the Image Archive. And this was Digging into your family’s history always the case with all those other deceased is. While doing such work it is impossible people locked in these files and boxes—for not to re-discover yourself in relationship a few minutes, or for a few days, they would with your ancestors. The information about become alive in our minds and our souls. It my family I have access to goes back seven was emotionally intense for us to realize that generations, both on my grandfather’s and our team found a letter from Marcela Focșa on my grandmother’s side. And this is a lot of at the same time the Museum team found information to process. It generates internal one of her notebooks with her drawings processes and it changes the relationship and her notes from the Gusti campaigns. with other members of the family. Intense is Another project that connected our work a soft word, when it comes to such a journey with the activity of the Museum was the of self-discovery. 31) For more about Aurel research they were conducting on the The role I played as a scientific coordinator of Bauch, see the study 31 by Viviana Iacob in this interwar photographer Aurel Bauch. The the entire project was also intense. It was my Martor issue. two had worked together in the Dâmbovnic first time coordinating such a big research campaign—Bauch even took photos of Pop project, a project that was outside the realm of at that time and on different occasions. Of my expertise. Working with archives was also course, the two teams cooperated. In fact, a first. I took an exploratory approach. The working on the Museum premises, the wisest thing to do was to find specialists with Mihai Pop Fonds benefited from having an more expertise than I had. But as the work extended research team. It was a continuous was very time-consuming, and it involved a dialogue between the different fonds and lot of attention to details and digital skills, their researchers. it was also important to find young people willing to participate in a project that could open for them new professional perspectives...... The team was very mixed: the people came from both different fields and generations. The research team It took a long time to put the team together and to find a method that would fit us all and As a professional exercise questioning guarantee the best possible results. subjectivity and reflexivity, we asked team I also had to deal with the institutional members to write down statements about side—the cooperation with the Museum was their experience working with the Fonds. excellent, both in practical terms and at the The reflections were an important part of level of expertise we could access. There were the general framework of the project. We also other partners—the Faculty of Letters have reproduced them below with minor and the Faculty of Sociology and Social Work changes regarding biographical notes only. at the University of Bucharest and the Faculty The team was led by Rucsandra Pop, who of Letters from Brașov. I felt great satisfaction had a triple affiliation—first with the family, to see that my project, which had started as

160 Making the Documents Speak—A Creative Exploration of the Mihai Pop Fonds

Photo 1. Part of the Mihai Pop Fonds project team during a working session. From right to left: Ramona Barbu, Mirela Stan, Andrei Ro[ca, Paul Drogeanu, Alex Iorga and Rucsandra Pop. Photo credit: Mihai Pop Association.

an independent project, was embraced and they spent among the papers, some of the supported by institutions that understand students took one step further in becoming the importance of the role that Mihai Pop specialists of Mihai Pop’s biography and played in the development of social sciences work. In fact, the volunteering turned into throughout the twentieth century. The a talent hunt for the project. Some of the biggest gratification I had working on this undergraduates were recruited as full-time project was to bring together such a large researchers in the project. community of researchers interested in my The graduate students were given grandfather’s work. assignments closer to their area of interest— e.g., editing the interviews, conducting new A few months before the project was interviews or even creatively reinterpreting awarded AFCN funding, a group of the archive material. undergraduate students and a group of graduate students at the Bucharest Faculty Working with archive material has always in- of Letters volunteered for the project, trigued me, so when Rucsandra Pop offered as part of their fieldwork practice. An us the opportunity to “drift” into the universe important contribution by the students was of the Mihai Pop Fonds, I became quite en- transcribing the interviews and documents thusiastic about it. I personally enjoyed the and starting to build a virtual map of Pop’s freedom given by Rucsandra—to explore professional network. Another contribution the archive in a rather creative way. It was a was to sort the papers. With each day challenge to work with the material, applying

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my own artistic view to it, which led me to him, even though the meeting was mediated uncover one of Mihai Pop’s many portraits, by other people (Andra Samson, graduate as shaped by people who knew him. Further- student at the Faculty of Letters, University more, I actually got the chance to exercise of Bucharest, 2018). a few new skills, including collage-making and drawing calligrams (Felicia Hodoroabă- Working with Rucsandra Pop to develop the Simion, graduate student at the Faculty of Mihai Pop Fonds has given me the opportunity Letters, University of Bucharest, 2018). to learn and apply research methods, to think and build an interview, and last but not least Rucsandra’s project of bringing to light and, to grow as a researcher. My contribution why not, to life, Mihai Pop Fonds has rewarded consisted of conducting an interview with me in an unexpected way. As a child, my first Ștefan Petreuş, one of the Petreuş Brothers— dream was to become an archaeologist, but folk musicians, who were famous for life had different plans for me. However, performing songs from the Maramureş area. anthropology got me closer to my dream The Petreuș Brothers were born in Glod, the than I had ever hoped. So, getting to know same village where Mihai Pop was born. In better Mihai Pop’s personality was like diving this interview, I attempted to capture Ștefan into one of the most colorful oceans, full of Petreuş’s life history focusing on the village unimaginable life. It was enthralling to get of his childhood, the community and the to know him even if vicariously, through the relationship with the church, the mentalities eyes and stories of the people who met and of the people, the institutionalization and the worked with him. Listening, transcribing dislocation of the folk artist, the relationship and translating interviews with collaborators, with Mihai Pop, and the way the means of former students and professors, etc. who mass reproduction and dissemination of folk crossed paths with Mihai Pop was like music influenced their career. The fact that looking through a stained-glass window, I come from the Maramureș area helped where all the colored pieces recreated the me a lot, as I understand the thinking of the great ethnographer’s personality. He was a people there, the way they speak and their strong, restless, highly erudite man who kept connection to their ancient traditions. I had his feet on the ground and easily related to all had the opportunity to meet Ştefan Petreuş kind of people. (…) I am grateful to have met many years before, but the interview gave me the chance to find out more interesting details Photo 4. The students of the Faculty of Letters of the University of Bucharest had their practical training in the Peasants Museum Image Archive, helping organize about how he entered the field of music, to the documents in the Mihai Pop Fonds. Photo credit: Mihai Pop Association. which I am no stranger, as well as important information about Mihai Pop (Delia Kohut, graduate student at the Faculty of Letters, University of Bucharest, 2018).

Denisa Ploscariu enrolled herself in the “army of Pop” one evening when the project was at an early stage, and everything was still very unclear. Denisa expressed her discontent towards the way things were organized and offered her help in setting up an effective work flow for the students volunteering for the Mihai Pop Association. Shortly after, Denisa was invited to join the management team.

162 Making the Documents Speak—A Creative Exploration of the Mihai Pop Fonds

Andrei Roșca, Mirela Stan and Ramona Barbu were also “recruited” for the project among those undergraduate students who did practical training at the Mihai Pop Association. It was their curiosity and their interest in the project that got them the job. To some extent, one can say now they are the best specialists in very specialized aspects of Mihai Pop’s intellectual biography such as his participation to national and international congresses and his affiliation to various scholarly organizations.

For me, working with the Mihai Pop Fonds was like reading a story and, with time, Photo 2. Rucsandra Pop and Ramona Barbu organizing a pile of documents. Photo credit: Mihai Pop Association. becoming a character in it. Dealing with the old documents was challenging in the The work in the archive was a true challenge beginning—at first trying to decipher all for me as I took care of the managerial part the documents I had in front of me—from of the project alongside the identification letters to Pop’s personal notes—and then of the documents. I was in charge of work arranging all the pieces of the puzzle into a strategies, organizational methods, new story that had to be presented, to be told. I working techniques—like describing and would say that this was the most beautiful categorizing the documents. The most part of the project, alongside working with interesting activity I participated in was the people involved in it. Rucsandra, the deciphering Pop’s correspondence, which project’s coordinator, was always saying that allowed me to discover the professor’s essence this whole archive is about Pop as much as through the letters he wrote to people. At about our own perspective, about us trying the same time I had access to some different to understand Pop, his professional life as a types of documents, one example being the scholar, and as a human as well. And knowing documents from the folder “Manuscript— that, I personally tried to do this, and that’s The Ethnographic area of Lăpuș” which I had the reason I felt like a character in this whole to actually piece together in order to digitally story. Understanding Pop was the starting archive it. During the project I discovered a point of the archival work, and with time it lot of things related to Mihai Pop’s field of happened to be about understanding myself research, as well as the methods he used. I felt as well as understanding the people involved gratitude every time I realized how precious in the project. The reflections of each of us on are all the documents that passed through what a document meant and is supposed to my hands, all of them emanating history and mean in the present are reflected in the way life at the same time. It is amazing to see how the archive was defined in the end (Mirela the past transcends the future, projecting the Stan, undergraduate student at the Faculty of future. For me it was important to be involved Letters, University of Bucharest, 2018). in this project. Together with the entire team we succeeded to keep alive the personality My archival work in the summer of 2018 of Mihai Pop and to make it possible for the included the classification of the documents next generations to have access to it (Denisa and papers concerning Mihai Pop’s Pleoscariu, undergraduate student at the participation to congresses and his affiliation Faculty of Letters, University of Bucharest, to professional associations. The experience 2018). of eight hours spent every day, for a month,

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among papers and documents that had especially since many of the documents came belonged to one of the most important from his student years or the years he spent Romanian ethnologists was impressive. working at the Institute, and he personally During this month, I sorted the documents knew the documents’ theme or the people 32) Richard Dorson according to the name and year of every (1916– 1981), American they referenced. Paul was probably the one folklorist, author, international meeting that Pop had attended. who got totally immersed in the archive as professor, and director of the Folklore Institute Working in the archive was an extraordinary pieces of it contained him as well. at Indiana University. chance to study the documents of an anthropologist and to understand what it What I liked most from my 2018 journey into meant to be in contact with international the archive hosted by the Romanian National associations and scientists all over the Peasant Museum (as part of a group led by 33) Sigurd Erixon world, and what it meant to participate at Rucsandra Pop) were the stories. In fact, it was (1888 – 1968), Swedish ethnologist and culture the highest level of anthropological studies. not so much like a trip but like a residence or historian. The letters exchanged between Pop and a workshop, hosted by the Museum’s Image the organizers make up the main part of Archive, which became a kind of research the congress documents, and they have the hub for the Mihai Pop personal archive. Why value of a temporal instrument that anyone was it enjoyable? Because the stars lined up who is interested in these documents can at each stage. The Museum was the perfect use to follow the congresses. It was therefore place where an unconventional archive could astonishing to have access and to read be put together rigorously. The hosts had as simple documents such as the conference a legacy from the Museum’s founders the invitations or programs, letters to and from appropriate mindset for such an approach. important anthropologists and ethnologists, It was enjoyable because cubic meters of such as Richard Dorson,32 Jean Cuisenier, papers in cardboard boxes (dusty or cleaned Sigurd Erixon,33 or Alan Dundes. As all the and even irradiated) had to be converted documents were ordered chronologically, into linear meters of documents. Then whenever a folder was completed, I had the they became hundreds of elements, some impression that in front of my eyes some humble (like business cards, airplane tickets, kind of a story had come to an end. The invitations to balls or congresses), others most impressive folder was the one on the impressive (geo-political analysis reports, International Society for Ethnology and research papers, columns, cultural policy Folklore, containing documents from almost strategies), but each of them representing a every year Pop was a member of it, from 1965 surprise and anticipating an amazing body of to the 1990s. As I was indexing the papers, work. the sequence of documents gave me a bizarre The experience was different for each feeling of melancholy when I reached the member of the team. The diversity of the end of those international meetings. At some team was subtle and apparently random, point, while working on the documents of working together in a fruitful compatibility. another folder, for a Tokyo congress, I was It was enjoyable because I had stage fright so immersed in arranging the documents (and only a talented actor can feel stage (dinners, restaurants, congress program, fright, as a director of the National Theater brochures, notes) that I had the impression once said). I felt just like before an exam with that I left Tokyo with Mihai Pop (Andrei a beloved professor, an exam where I finally Roșca, undergraduate student at the Faculty got an A+ without too much effort. There of Letters, University of Bucharest, 2018). was great anxiety due to the fact that most of the team had no training in working with The folklorist Paul Drogeanu, a former archives. But it was gratifying to see that, student and collaborator of Mihai Pop at the after the work had been done and honored, Folklore Institute, gave us precious insight, our ethnological intuitions (trained or being

164 Making the Documents Speak—A Creative Exploration of the Mihai Pop Fonds trained through studies of philology or the result of facts that deserve to be told, on history) were confirmed even by modern the occasion of these interpretive acts. The archivists. In many of our discussions it identification of the documents, decisive for was said that this is not a typical archiving their classification, is done by putting them project, and so it cannot conform to the in context. Excursus: the documents speak common practices and definitions. I had of action—the actions create reality—Pop mixed feelings of incompetence and doubt. created institutes, research projects and But in the end we managed to archive the education fields, vocations and careers. His documents, on time and almost “by the actions left behind a trail of documents. book.” Although we had been congratulated When you put a document into context, you on our work, both by a competent authority ask a witness to tell a story. The stories are in archives and by Rucsandra Pop, the not just behind the document you need to initiator of the project, I turned to the classify. They go beyond it. What you read intellectual’s most faithful servant: the in the document you just classified is not a available literature. I still felt unsure about simple text anymore, it becomes a palimpsest. a few things, including the status (still In this manner I have read—sometimes ambiguous) of some personal documents (in for myself, other times for my colleagues— the case of a famous figure in a given field). the admirable actions of Mihai Pop. For And the ever faithful literature confirmed my example: a manuscript shows that Mihai expectations, although post festum, on topics Pop, while working with Gusti’s royal teams like: closed fonds, but not completed; private and thus involved in the Sociological School archives belonging to researchers vs. personal in Bucharest, had the vision of creating public archives that are produced as part of the Folklore School of Bucharest (sic!). a public scientific activity by a public figure. Another document shows that at the time “The originality of the ensemble consists, in when he was in charge with the academic fact, in the juxtaposition of private archives study of folk culture, he tried to support the 34) Alazard, Céline. 2011. “Fonds personnel (family correspondence and other personal establishment in Bucharest of an Institute of de chercheur : André notes) with documents produced by public Ethnography, precisely to separate folklore Varagnac.” ArchiSHS, Archives scientifiques 34 bodies.” In an effort to set up, in 2005, at (seen as ethnology) from ethnography (seen des sciences humaines et sociales, August the Maison des Sciences de l’Homme in Dijon as museography). Being given the chance to 11 [available online (France), the personal fonds of researcher interpret the documents as a story or as proof at : https://archishs. hypotheses.org/514 . Andre Varagnac (1894 – 1983)—a personality of an untold story was the privilege I enjoyed ] just as famous as Mihai Pop—in the field of during this journey into the Mihai Pop Fonds folklore as a distinctive scientific discipline at the Peasant Museum (Paul Drogeanu, (and we know that notoriety is decisive 2018). for the creation of fonds), it was noted the original nature of this archive, the result of The one who linked the current academic a personal production, that of the researcher, perspective with Pop’s years of teaching was while being of public interest, as long as it is Alexandru Iorga, who had undertaken the produced in public institutions. sorting of the lecture notes in the Fonds. Why were there so many stories? Not only He also invited the students of the Faculty because we had a personal, subjective and of Sociology and Social Work to get emotional relationship with Mihai Pop, both acquainted with the project and contribute Rucsandra as his granddaughter and PhD to the organization of the archive, thus candidate working on his biography and rebuilding a natural link between Mihai myself as a disciple and former employee of Pop and sociology. Alexandru Vlad was the Folklore Institute, but because the public the man who dug into other archives in reason for an archive to exist is the notoriety search of documents to help us deepen our of its author/producer. And that notoriety is understanding of what we already had. As

165 Rucsandra Pop, Alexandru Iorga

Photo 6. Actress Gra]iela B\descu performing in front of the audience at the performative installation showcased in November 2018 at the Romanian Peasant Museum in the villa that belonged to Alexandru Tzigara-Samurca[. Photo credit: Mihai Pop Association.

a historian, Alexandru Vlad was in charge of Bucharest. The audience was guided of the documents accounting for the time from one room to another by Grațiela when Mihai Pop worked at the Ministry Bădescu, who performed parts of the letters of Propaganda and was delegated to the sent or received by Mihai Pop. The actress Foreign Affairs Ministry as Press Secretary also interacted with the video material, at the Romanian Legation in Slovakia. enriching it with dance movements, a Grațiela Bădescu (actress and art symbolic recreation of traditional folk performer) juggled between the role of dances. The installation also included a project manager and the much more culinary experience, as the audience was creative role of artist in the performative offered horincă and slănină,35 as any guest 35) Plum brandy and installation. Together with the Black Horse in the Pop house would have been. The cured pork fat, drink and food from Maramure[. Mansion team—Ana Banu, Alina Manea performative installation was designed as an and Miruna Vasilescu—Grațiela built the invitation for people to step into Mihai Pop’s final moment of the project in which we universe not only through words or pieces

36) Alexandru Tzigara- planned to bring Mihai Pop to the audience of paper, but also through image, music, Samurca[ (1872 – through a performative video installation. food, drinks or objects that belonged to him. 1952), Romanian art historian, ethnographer, The Black Horse Mansion team created The installation was performed twice—the museologist and cultural journalist. Tzigara was two video collages: one that was portraying first time in Grațiela’s apartment, as part of the founder of the Mihai Pop as a scholar and another looking the HomeFest, a “home-made” art festival, National Museum, the nucleus of the present- at his family life. The videos were projected and the second time at the Romanian day Romanian Peasant in separate rooms: one imagining an Peasant Museum in a villa that belonged to Museum. His house now 36 hosts the Museum’s auditorium at the University, where Pop Alexandru Tzigara Samurcaș. offices. had taught for two decades, and the other re-creating the atmosphere of Pop’s family When it comes to video, the feeling of home, an old house situated in the center holiness is even stronger because the person

166 Making the Documents Speak—A Creative Exploration of the Mihai Pop Fonds you are searching for is right there inside a to absorb me, but Rucsandra was sending me file—moving, talking and reacting, giving a photo or a message from time to time with you precious real content, stuck-in-time, what she had found in the correspondence. contributing to your own understanding of These small details kept me motivated, while time and people. Putting together a video the team crystallized the structure for sorting installation based on the archive documents the papers. of Mihai Pop’s life and legacy felt like working The video was put together in such a subtle with a rough diamond to find ways to expose and elegant way, almost Dadaist, by the Black it to people, while keeping some of the dust Horse Mansion girls. What needed to be time had laid on it—this “dust” is time itself, done now was the text. It seemed essential to making the object of pursuit shine brighter. me to capture the human component of Pop’s For a short while, it felt like we were inside written conversations (without invading Mihai Pop’s life, being able to take a good look, his privacy/personal space), but also the while taking turns to play the parts of people perspectives of those who saw him, and in his life: a student, a friend, a colleague, a whom Pop had “changed.” The main pillars to niece, or even his wife. And when the video build the text on were two letters. One of the experiment was shown, we got to observe letters was written by Irina Pop, his wife. It conversations build around it, as everyone was a playful letter in which she invited him who had anything to do with Pop held a piece to the movies and scolded him with elegance, of his memory, triggered by the images. A ironically signing her letter as “your humble rich experience of present and future came wife, committed and obedient.” The second together (Black Horse Mansion 2008). letter was written by Pop, in 1935, when he was 28. The letter is in fact a meditation I became acquainted with Mihai Pop Fonds on the way people have transformed both long before the project even started to crystal- life and love into bourgeoisie: “This is how lize, by listening to Rucsandra’s stories about bourgeois love was born and how true love her PhD research. When we wrote together died, just as people killed the life given to the funding proposal for AFCN, the project them by God to create their own lives.” The seemed clear, at least on a theoretical level. two spaces that hosted the performance The idea of making a performance installa- installation also contributed to its final tion came to us while we were brainstorm- structure. The first was the house where ing the best possible way to give the general I had just moved in, an interwar apartment public access to Mihai Pop’s legacy. Although that became the space for hosting a culture while working on ways to organize the over- Photo 8. Screen shot from the video installation made by the Black Horse whelming amount of documents we had, I Mansion collective. The collage has in its center an image from the inter- view with Mihai Pop taken by Gheorghe Deaconu and Ioan {t. Laz\r in 1997 became also responsible for the management and on the sides items from Pop's field notebooks during the monographic of the project, my role as a performer was campaigns led by Dimitrie Gusti. Photo credit: Mihai Pop Association. never sidelined. The fact that I was involved in moving the documents from a basement to the Museum’s Image Archive, and the time spent in Rucsandra’s house, where I was a guest and had access to the room where some of the original documents were stored, kept me in close contact with all the information that was surfacing. On one hand I was dis- covering a fascinating professional trajectory, and on the other, an alluring personal com- ponent, especially as showcased in the letters. Meanwhile, the management side had begun

167 Rucsandra Pop, Alexandru Iorga

festival in my home, called HomeFest. The volume of new information, they only outline living room became the Caragea Vodă room, the main directions of Mihai Pop’s activity, and what we called “the office” became the and to highlight his real contribution would University auditorium. Nearly thirty viewers require the completion of the documentary walked about the rooms freely, looking for corpus with testimonies found in the archives Pop in documents printed from what we had of the institutions he worked for (Cristina digitized from the Fonds, in videos and the Țineghe 2018). music from the Gusti campaigns, in which Pop had taken part. The second house that Throughout the process, we learned hosted the show was Villa Tzigara Samurcaș many things from Iris Şerban and Mara at The Romanian Peasant Museum, where Mărăcinescu working at the Image Archive the experience was inaugurated with of the Romanian Peasant Museum, who slănină and horincă, and the audience had have gathered around them a community the opportunity to get somewhat closer to of archive-minded people, people who “Moșu.” Each of the performances ended are willing to share knowledge and to with discussions, where people displayed professionalize in this domain. Luckily we their emotions and memories that the have teamed up also with Ioana Simona installation had stirred. The most exciting Ghiță, who is more than a financial manager, thing was that now I was able to see how because she is passionately supporting the things I had found in the documents independent cultural projects, helping artists resonated with the personal history of the or researchers to keep their budgets from people in the audience. A piece of the lives of the brink. Neither was Adnana Cruceanu some of the people in the audience was being only our communication manager—with a reconstructed in front of their eyes (Grațiela Master’s in Anthropology, she has come Bădescu 2018). up with a double perspective, a person passionate about the discipline and a Cristina Ţineghe was the specialist who communicator who knows how to put guided us by making a diagram for the Fonds complex things into simple words. We and sharing with us secrets of the archivist’s have tried and will continue to keep profession. Cristina taught us how to make close to the project the “elders of the the papers speak, but also how not to let tribe,” people who were close to Pop ourselves be swept away by each document and who understand the layered depths of and thus lose sight of the bigger picture and the documents and the times in which he miss the common thread of the archive. lived.

The archival processing of the Mihai Pop Fonds started with the attempt to classify the ...... huge number of documents according to the main issues they were reflecting. The principle Final remarks is simple but its implementation was difficult to achieve due to the huge complexity of the Given the overall lack of tradition in work- activities carried out by Mihai Pop in the ing with personal archives in Romania course of his life. Another difficulty was the (Chirilă 2016), the project is innovative fact that the documents revealed successively mainly because it involves a public-private many aspects of his personality, more or less partnership—the Academician Mihai Pop known, some even surprising. After this Association and the Romanian Peasant Mu- fascinated scrutiny of the records that make up seum have assumed a common mission to the Mihai Pop’s personal Fonds, we still have structure, make it grow, and leverage the the impression that, despite the substantial Fonds. Moreover, the project partnered with

168 Making the Documents Speak—A Creative Exploration of the Mihai Pop Fonds

Photo 10. Between 1971 and 1982, Mihai Pop was the president of the International Society of Ethnology and Folklore (SIEF). The participants at the City Rituals con- ference - the 13th conference of the The Ritual Year working group of SIEF - visited the Image Archive at the Romanian Peasant Museum. During the visit, they learned more about the Mihai Pop Fonds and the contribution of the Romanian researcher to SIEF. Photo credit: Irina Stahl. three important academic institutions—the of ethnology, folklore, sociology, semiotics, Faculty of Letters, the Faculty of Sociology and anthropology. and Social Work (University of Bucharest), Although he led the Folklore Institute and the Faculty of Letters (Transylvania and taught this discipline for twenty years, University). The project was not only pre- Pop cannot be reduced to the role of found- sented and promoted among the students, er of modern folklore in Romania. With but the students have enormously contrib- a European formation at the intersection uted to the archival work—some on a volun- of several disciplines—linguistics, literary tary basis, others as paid staff. Through these theory, sociology, ethnography, and folk- partnerships, a personal research project is lore—he became interested in semiotics and institutionalized, open to other researchers cultural anthropology at a later stage in his or institutions in the field, and also to the career, being among those who imported general public. This project is an invitation ideas from these disciplines into the Ro- to openness and collaboration for other in- manian academic environment. Pop was a stitutions in the country or abroad that have Socratic personality. He had the great abil- valuable documents that could contribute ity to engage in dialogue with people from to a better understanding and visibility of all social backgrounds and to influence the Pop’s personality. Mihai Pop’s cultural influ- destinies of many of those he met. Mihai ence and career are little known in Roma- Pop embodies almost perfectly the Socratic nia, despite the fact that his work has been model, as his written work is far less consis- and still is extremely important in terms of tent than the influence he exercised through institutional development and the history direct contact with his disciples. That’s why

169 Rucsandra Pop, Alexandru Iorga his published works offer a limited view of the local scientific scene with the international the influence his personality had in the field. market of ideas. One of the ambitions of this The archive offers numerous documents project is to inspire new critical approaches. that create a much broader picture. Mihai Another ambition is to popularize the activity Pop’s legacy is an intersection, and the more of this “niche personality” and to bring in the light we put on it, the more sophisticated forefront this modern Socrates—who can and clearer it becomes. To borrow the noto- still be a valuable mentor for the younger rious Saussurian terms, Mihai Pop needs to generations at a time when the Romanian be analyzed at both a syntagmatic and para- society seems to have lost its compass. Told digmatic level. in a creative and convincing way for the Moreover, the experience of working young generation, Mihai Pop’s story can be with the personal archive, which contains a plea for the fact that socio-human sciences so many elements from different periods can represent an exciting career choice, as of Mihai Pop’s life, not only offers a better they offer keys to understanding the society knowledge of his intellectual practices, but we live in. Using the digital environment and also complements the intellectual elements innovative approaches, Pop can be brought with pure biographical ones, which have closer to new specialists in the field and to either become myths in the absence of young people interested in the recent history. concrete factual references, or have been considered to be of minor importance. Project Funding The project’s aim was to disseminate and From February 15 to October 30, 2018 the project enhance the cultural heritage of Mihai Pop, was co-financed by AFCN (Administration of the a charismatic personality of the twentieth National Cultural Fund). The total amount of the century, who influenced in a subtle, but funding was 54,000 Romanian Lei, with a 10% profound manner several areas of Romanian contribution from the Mihai Pop Association. and international intellectual life, connecting

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