Writer Dan Mircea Cipariu states, in an interview for AGREPRES, that a Colectiv Memorial should be an initiative meant to teach us the lessons of remembrance and patience.
According to the writer, the Memorial, which could also be, in his opinion, built through a public-private partnership, could also serve as a reminder of the “individual and collective dramas from the Ceausescu era.”
“Among them, I think, of course, of those that created the so-called “decree’s generation”, which includes myself, Oana and Ionut Carjan” (editor’s note: the initiators of the initiative), Dan Mircea Cipariu said.
AGERPRES: How do you see the building of a Colectiv Memorial as a symbol against forgetting?
Dan Mircea Cipariu: I believe it is an initiative meant to make us remember one of the most terrible tragedies that happened in Romania. The more so as the initiative is fathered by someone I know; it is the wife of poet and jurist Ionut Carjan, Oana Carjan, whose brother, Catalin Alexandru Simion, met a tragic end in the Colectiv fire.
AGERPRES: How do you imagine this Colectiv Memorial? Should it be built at the site of the tragedy or somewhere else?
Dan Mircea Cipariu: Given that at the site there is a factory built during the Ceausescu era, I would find it appropriate to have a memorial, at the same time, for the Colectiv tragedy, but also one that would remind us of the personal and collective dramas of that time. I include here, of course, those leading to the so-called “decree’s generation,” which counts myself, Oana and Ionut Carjan.
AGERPRES: Given the situation of the space where the Colectiv Club was situated, who and in what degree should take care of designing and constructing a Colectiv Memorial, including in this the finding of necessary financing: the Romanian state or the non-governmental organizations?
Dan Mircea Cipariu: The best solution is a public-private partnership, in which the state provides financing to projects developed by NGOs.
AGERPRES: What motto do you believe should define this Memorial?
Dan Mircea Cipariu: “Colectiv Memorial. Light to every dream!”
AGERPRES: What do you believe should be the most important lesson remembered after visiting the Colectiv Memorial?
Dan Mircea Cipariu: There are two lessons each of us should practice: the lesson of remembrance and another one, the lesson of patience. The lesson of remembrance, because oftentimes we are tempted to place heroic and tragic acts in a passive memory or even forget them. If I think about it, very many of the heroes of the Revolution were forgotten; or the heroes who attended the first anti-communism protest in Brasov, or the heroes in Vadul Rosca during communism; or the lesson of Elisabeta Rizea from Nucsoara. This would be the lesson of remembrance. And the patience… because also those who were on the barricades at the Revolution, those who initiated the protest after the Colectiv tragedy, they all showed they needed patience to change things. Even more so that social realities, mentalities and what I find to be bad or under the sign of darkness can only be changed through the lesson of patience. More…