Arts & International Affairs Volume 5, Number 1, Summer 2020 | Page 22

I’LL DO IT WHEN DAME JUDI DENCH DOES IT.
Today, a technological innovation or a scientific equation will take its
value from the register of exchange values if it can be found useful in the
immediate process of production. But there are also values of aesthetic
and scientific creation that do not have an immediate effect on exchange
values and which, for this reason, actually deserve being funded. (Guattari
2015:31)
Artistic freedom is therefore an innovative mode of investigating life/existence, whose
trajectory and effects cannot be fully quantifiable (or covered) in terms of political, social,
or economic impact. At the same time, the value that artistic freedom produces
cannot be immediately convertible through a measure of its potential usefulness to the
wider society or to particular individuals. As such, it seems fair to imagine that one great
concern for both the artist and the funder (for different reasons, evidently) is whether
artistic freedom is a fundable thing.
In order to bring all these important questions under the purview of the paranoid critical
eye, I attempt a comparative exercise between a famous cultural/artistic manifestation of
the communist era, called Song of Romania (Cântarea României), and ACE’s public engagement,
relevance, and diversity strategy. With regards to ACE, I am particularly interested
in how the themes of public engagement, relevance, and diversity are outlined and
“languaged” ( Jacobsen 2018:18) in the application form and/or explanatory materials.
2. Song of Romania: Aesthetic Ratatouille
Song of Romania (Cântarea României) appeared as a result of the XI Congress of the Romanian
Communist Party (Congresul al XI-lea al Partidului Comunist Român), organised
in 1974, and launched the idea of “the creation of a multilaterally-developed socialist society
and Romania’s advancement towards Communism” (Congress XI 1975:614). Song
of Romania was imagined as a cultural and artistic event of great magnitude, delivered in
the form of a large-scale (countrywide) festival, structured as a series of competitions
run at local, regional, and national levels and comprising artistic manifestations of all
genres. Song of Romania was a biannual event that lasted from 1976 to 1989, with seven
editions in total. To give a sense of the size of the festival, it is sufficient to note that it
grew exponentially from two million participants during its first edition to around five
million participants in 1989.
The huge numbers fulfilled Nicolae Ceausescu’s vision:
The emergence of the new man presupposes the collaboration of activists,
[ ... ] with the large masses of those who work, and on that basis, the
creation of an ample popular movement in the domains of education and
culture. Like in all sectors of material and spiritual life, the determinant
role in the creation of the new culture belongs to the popular masses, to
the unending, always innovative popular genius. (Ceausescu 1976:52)
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