[oberlist] Open letter to MNAC Director

[Mihaela Varzari]

Please circulate this letter on oberlist.

Many thanks


Dear Calin Dan,

My name is Mihaela Varzari one of the 4 international curators and
researchers in residence selected as a result of the open call launched in
2016 by MNAC under your directorship. I was looking forward to carrying out
my project in Bucharest when 2 weeks prior to the starting date I was
informed (in a 2 line email) that my residency was cancelled because of the
budget. My many attempts to discuss alternatives with you didn’t get
anywhere as you never endeavored to respond to any of my emails, letters or
phone calls. I even met you face to face, by sheer coincidence, at an art
opening, but you told me you were too busy to discuss my situation. Only
once someone from MNAC called to let me know that it was not a cancellation
but a rescheduling. Nothing was followed up, despite a number of emails I
sent in the hope of getting the ball rolling. I can’t help but think now
that the promise of re-scheduling my residency was a tactical way of
evading the problem altogether in the hope that I would eventually lose
interest in pursuing this opportunity. My reaction to this cancellation and
the treatment on behalf of yourself and your staff was one of immediate
shock and disbelieve. A publicly funded institution decides on a whim to
discriminate against 1 of 4 residents (the other 3 residents carried out
their respective projects) without feeling it at all necessary to offer
more than a 2 line explanation and what transpired to be a false promise.
In preparation for my time in Bucharest I had organized to sublet my room.
As a result of the cancellation I had nowhere to live for a month and was
forced to stay at friends and pay for a room with airbnb . The initial
explanation was in relation to the budget but recently I just noticed that
a new open call was launched my MNAC which indicates the opposite.

For any art practitioners who have encountered similar things or understand
the ethical dimension a national museum is bound by:
What avenues are there at my disposal for interrogating such unprofessional
attitudes verging on abuse of power? Does MNAC have any responsibility to
explain itself, especially since it’s a public institution when asked to?
What kind of legal format does such a relationship between an invited
resident and such institution can take? What about the social contract or
just basic human decency?
P.S. If any of you are lawyers, please offer me some advise.
-- 
/////////////////0000???{{{]]]]]]%%%%%\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\
http://mihaela-varzari.blogspot.com/
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: </pipermail/oberlist/attachments/20171023/48e99bd2/attachment.html>