PostModernism Museum, Romania

Debate

From Archive to Arena: culture, memory and resilience – Eastern European perspectives

Four Romanian experts bring Eastern European perspectives on propaganda, hybrid warfare and the politics of memory to the Nordic debate. In English. 

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How are historical narratives, images and cultural symbols weaponised — and how can art and visual culture serve as sources of democratic resilience? 

This panel brings together four Romanian scholars and practitioners at the intersection of culture, memory and democratic resilience — moderated by Burak Sayin (Space Time Works Malmo / Culture Action Europe board member).

The panel examines how totalitarian and authoritarian regimes have constructed, disseminated and recycled cultural narratives — and how art and visual culture can function as tools of both propaganda and resistance. The discussion draws on primary archival research from the DARE programme (Documentation, Archiving, Re-evaluation, Exhibition) of PostModernism Museum, Bucharest, active since 2015.

Speakers:
— Cosmin Popa (Institute of History ”Nicolae Iorga”, Romanian Academy): Russian influence strategies from the Cold War to contemporary hybrid warfare.
— Antonia Colibășanu (Geopolitical Futures / Foreign Policy Research Institute, Philadelphia): The geopolitics of disinformation and the erosion of institutional trust.
— Adrian Cioflâncă (Institute of History ”A.D. Xenopol”, Romanian Academy / Wilhelm Filderman Centre; expert in Romania’s delegation to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance): The graphic war — how representations of atrocities became weapons of propaganda in Eastern Europe.
— Cosmin Nasui (PostModernism Museum): Art as propaganda and resistance — visual culture under communism, and artists and art historians in political detention.

Cosmin Popa is a Romanian historian and senior researcher at the Institute of History ”Nicolae Iorga” of the Romanian Academy, specialising in the history of the USSR, European communism, the Cold War and Central and Eastern Europe. He is a member of the Bilateral Commission of Historians from Romania and the Russian Federation, and the author of monographs on Soviet strategy in Central Europe, Ceaușescu’s intellectuals, and the political economy of communist Romania.

Antonia Colibășanu is a Romanian geopolitical analyst serving as Senior Analyst and COO at Geopolitical Futures, Senior Fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute in Philadelphia, and Associate Professor at the National University of Political Studies and Public Administration in Bucharest. She previously spent over ten years at Stratfor and is the author of several books on geopolitics and geoeconomics.

Adrian Cioflâncă is a Romanian historian and researcher at the Institute of History ”A.D. Xenopol” of the Romanian Academy, and Director of the Centre for the Study of the History of Jews in Romania ”Wilhelm Filderman”. He has served as an expert in Romania’s delegation to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance since 2005, and was a member of both the International Commission for the Study of the Holocaust in Romania and the Presidential Commission for the Analysis of the Communist Dictatorship in Romania.

Cosmin Nasui is a Romanian art historian, critic and curator who serves as the coordinator of the DARE programme (Documentation, Archiving, Re-evaluation, Exhibition) at PostModernism Museum in Bucharest, active since 2015. He is the author and editorial coordinator of volumes on artists and art historians in political detention under totalitarian regimes, on Bucharest surrealism in 1933–1941, and of the ”History Dustbin Collection” research series on visual culture under communism.

Burak Sayin is a Sweden-based cultural strategist and urban innovation expert, founder of Space Time Works in Lund, and a board member of Culture Action Europe, one of Europe’s largest cultural advocacy networks. He is a PhD researcher at Lund University in Service Studies, focusing on cultural and creative hubs, and serves on the board of Cirkus Syd, a circus innovation platform based in Lund. He previously worked as a journalist for Associated Press Television News. His expertise spans policy impact, community management and decentralised governance in culture and the arts.

The panel is part of the project ”From Archive to Arena”, funded by the Romanian Cultural Institute through the Cantemir Programme 2026.

Language: English

PostModernism Museum (Bucharest, Romania) in partnership with Space Time Works (Lund, Sweden) and Radio Romania International. Funded by the Romanian Cultural Institute — Cantemir Programme 2026.