A few months after our establishment, we thought it’s time to spread the, to be heard over the mountains and valleys and to invite special guests to the official launch of Made with love Romania, traditional Romanian carpets.
In this picture mother Nina (in memoriam), grandma Floarea and me (Alina).
So, in October 2019, for 3 days, in the new location of Occident Gallery in the central area of Bucharest, we gathered many people to admire the wonderful carpets woven by women from the small villages of the country, but also the stories of Grandma Floarea, the guest of honour of the event.
We opened the series of events on the morning of Thursday, October 10, with the press event, where Grandma Floarea, mother Florica as her grandchildren and great-grandchildren call her, told everyone who wanted to hear about the life and customs of the last century, about how they washed and dyed wool, how they prepared the warp and in the winter they put the loom in the middle of the room and began to weave the flowers of the spring and summer that had just passed into colored wool carpets. One of her stories, recorded in the summer of 2019, here.
The meeting lasted a few hours, the guests did not let them go from grandma's stories, the beauty of the carpets displayed in the gallery, but also of the delicious sweets made in the house by mother Nina.
In the evening of the same day we had the big gala, with important guests, lovers of Romanian carpets and traditions, actors, personalities from the Romanian business environment, family members and dear friends. We welcomed them with homemade dishes, good wine and a wonderful violin and piano concert, Sonata no. 3 for piano and violin in folkr character, composed by George Enescu, performed by Ioana Ionescu and Iulia Ghinda.
The exhibited carpets were the occasion of even more stories, of childhood nostalgia, of new plans of decorating the house integrating authentic Romanian objects, such as carpets.
Because the space of the gallery, although generous and spread over two floors, was insufficient for the guests who wanted to step on our doorstep, we continued the gala evenings on Friday, with the same good cheer, tasty stories and selected dishes. We were joined by family and friends, those who supported us in our project, some of them coming from abroad, even directly from the airport.
The evening was even happier when we received the visit of Andreea from La blouse Roumaine and the kind-hearted people from the Cultural Association Mostenitorii, together with their grandfather from Vaideeni, Valcea. The grandfather, very proud and spiritual, made a good pair with the grandmother in stories, especially since the grandfather had visited the Amarastii de Jos and knew a part of our community there.
The gallery remained open on Saturday as well, for the latecomers who could not reach the events but still wanted to admire the beautiful Oltenian carpets. There were a few days full of emotion, rediscovery of traditions and emphasis on our national identity, an alarm signal on endangered crafts, but also a manifesto supporting the reintegration of carpets and traditional elements in the contemporary space, as authentic, distinctive elements , which personalizes the space, in an era in which uniformity has a hard word to say.
In memoriam, to our beloved mother and grandmother Nina (Niculina) Mitrica.
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