KATHRIN SONNTAG IN FLACC

In her work, Kathrin Sonntag (1981, Berlin) meticulously analyses everyday life. She is fascinated by slight shifts in the perception of familiar objects and situations creating ambiguity and wonder. Her installations are precisely constructed and consist of objects, drawings, photographs and films. She combines both abstract and concrete elements and strips accessories, such as glasses, tables and chairs of their domestic connotation. Her work is a study of the nature of things. It creates an ambiguous framework of the familiar and the unfamiliar. In the course of the year she travelled to Transylvania to gather footage for her film-essay "Dracula's Ghost" exploring the impact of the Dracula myth on today's Romania.

Sonntag graduated two years ago at the University of the Arts, Berlin. Recently she exhibited in White Light - Düsseldorf, Kunstverein Nürnberg and at Frieze Art Fair. The artist stayed for three month in FLACC, developing new works and editing "Dracula's Ghost" that will be screened on the 2 November 2008. During the day the visitors are invited to meet the artist in the studio, see other work and have some tea and cake.
Sunday 2 November 2008
Studio visit from 13.00 hours
Screening Dracula's Ghost (30'), 20.00 hours
FLACC, Casino Modern

Nicolai Paduraru is the President of the Transylvanian Society of Dracula, a cultural-historic non-profit organization. The interview took place at the society’s office at Bucharest, which is also the seat of Paduraru’s Company of Mysterious Journeys, an agency offering a set of thematic tours through Transsylvania and Wallachia to Dracula-enthusiasts.

KS: Nicolai, I was very surprised when you told me that it was not until the early 1990ies that the novel Dracula by Bram Stoker was translated into the Romanian language. Nevertheless the career of Dracula in Romania started earlier than that, in the 1960ies. Could you please tell me what happened at that time?

NP: Romania opened up for international tourism beginning 1958. This isolated communist country called Romania, with sixty percent people in the countryside, forty percent people in the cities and traditional ways of life was exposed to you, western visitors, with your ideas, with your fancy about what Romania could be. At that time I was freelancing for the ministry of tourism and later I was writing for the magazines of the ministry. Therefore I was in the middle of the game. One of the questions frequently if not always asked by the foreign visitors was about Dracula; A word that didn’t mean anything to us. Dracula! And Castle Dracula, ha! The western visitors were really offended by our attitude. They said: “What are you talking about? The whole world knows about Dracula in Transylvania, and you tell me you never heard of Dracula?” - “Yes!”
Until one day a disgusted tourist left his Bram Stocker novel with me. Later on I discovered I was not the only one. Other guides also received their Bram Stoker, including Alexandru Misuga, up north. Altogether throughout the 60ies and the early 70ies there were roughly a hundred people in Romania, who new about Dracula.

The story of Castle Bran started with the early American tourists in Romania in the 1960ies. A Yugoslav company called compass brought them into this part of Europe. They had three days in Yugoslavia, three days in Bulgaria, three days in Romania, three days in Hungary and then they moved into Austria and went home. On their first day here in Romania they crossed from Bulgaria across the Danube to Bucharest. On day two they took the Prahova Valley to Brasov and Bran. On day three they made their way to the Hungarian border. Being the only castle they saw and being such a beautiful castle, genuinely gothic style, they said: “if this is Transylvania, this must be Castle Dracula.” “No, no it is not”, we said, “Bram Stoker had no idea that Castle Bran existed.”

The tourists look back at you and say: “Ok now that you said so… yet we want Bran to be our Castle Dracula!” After they have seen Poenari and the Castle Dracula Hotel in the Borgo Pass. So it is amazing. Goodbye rationality! I mean, there is no rationality involved in their choice for Castle Bran. But at least they admit that they abandon rationality and reality in favour of mythology for which they have come for. It is very beautiful. Our need to dream our need to imagine is there and very much so! This is why Transylvania plays the role of a Shambala or a utopia where your dreams come true…