The Cervantes Institute in Bucharest is organizing a series of events throughout May, offering the Romanian public the opportunity to explore the artistic and literary richness of Andalusia.
Building on the recent publication in Romania of the first complete translation of the volume Juan de Mairena (Maxims, Witty Remarks, Notes and Memories of an Apocryphal Teacher) by Antonio Machado in the Biblioteca Hispanică collection of the Cervantes Institute and Humanitas Publishing, on the 150th anniversary of Antonio Machado’s birth, the Cervantes Institute in Bucharest, together with the Centro Andaluz de las Letras, is dedicating three weeks in May to literary and artistic voices with a notable presence in the Romanian imagination. The program Andalusia through its Voices will allow us to rediscover the richness of poetry, prose, and theater born in southern Spain, while enjoying documentary film screenings about renowned painters such as Velázquez and Murillo.
The program in Bucharest is a collaboration between the Centro Andaluz de las Letras, the Romanian Cultural Institute in Madrid, and the Cervantes Institute in Bucharest. It represents a literary meeting between Romania and Spain taking place in Málaga, Granada, and Seville from May 9 to June 11, 2025, and in Bucharest from May 8 to 28, 2025, with a variety of activities including literary dialogues, reading performances, poetry recitals, and film screenings.
(Abel Murcia Soriano, Director of the Cervantes Institute in Bucharest)
“Andalusia through its Voices” began on May 8 with the first reading performance of the AproapESpectacol season, featuring the play Alone with Marilyn by Alfonso Zurro, translated into Romanian by Irina Călin, directed by Bobi Pricop, with Ana Bianca Popescu – actress, Andrei Kivu – music, and Tony Macpela – video design.
The program continued with the screening of the documentary Velázquez. Art and Power, directed by José Manuel Gómez Vidal. The film, which presents one of the most representative painters in history, the Sevillian Diego Velázquez, was shown on May 12 and introduced by Mălina Conțu, Head of the European Art Section at the National Museum of Art of Romania.
Between May 8-28, the Cervantes Institute will host the monographic program Andalucía en sus voces and during this period, the bibliographic exhibition Andalusian Authors from the Luis Rosales Library collection of the Cervantes Institute in Bucharest can be visited.
A fascinating journey into the life and work of the painter Bartolomé Esteban Murillo will be presented by José Manuel Gómez Vidal in the documentary Murillo. The Last Journey, introduced by Miruna Moraru, museologist at the National Museum of Art of Romania. The film, which follows the story behind one of Murillo’s most famous paintings, The Little Beggar, is scheduled for May 19, at 7:00 PM, at the Cervantes Institute.
Another celebrated Sevillian, Antonio Machado, one of the prominent voices of the literary movement Generation of ’98, and who is commemorated on the 150th anniversary of his birth, will be honored in an event scheduled for May 16, at 6:00 PM, in the Auditorium Hall of the Cervantes Institute. The event will feature the launch of the first complete translation of Juan de Mairena (Maxims, Witty Remarks, Notes, and Memories of an Apocryphal Teacher) by Antonio Machado, translated, with an introductory study and a chronological table by Melania Stancu, recently published in the Biblioteca Hispanică collection of the Cervantes Institute and Humanitas Publishing. The event will feature speeches by Justo Navarro – Director of the Centro Andaluz de las Letras, Lidia Bodea – General Director of Humanitas Publishing, Melania Stancu – Hispanicist, PhD in Hispanic Philology from the University of Bucharest, and Abel Murcia Soriano – Director of the Cervantes Institute.
May 21 will be dedicated to poetry – starting at 7:00 PM in the Auditorium Hall, there will be a Poetry Evening with poets Paula Bozalongo, Svetlana Cârstean, Pablo García Casado, and Marin Mălaicu-Hondrari.
The winner of the prestigious Premio Príncipe de Asturias de las Letras, writer Antonio Muñoz Molina, author of novels such as Full Moon and Winter in Lisbon, will be “read” and discussed by his Romanian translators, Melania Stancu and Mioara Angheluță. The event will take place on May 22, at 7:00 PM, in the Auditorium Hall of the Cervantes Institute.
Bucharest and Seville will have a special meeting on May 27, at 7:00 PM, in the Auditorium Hall of the Cervantes Institute, when Javier la Beira, author of the book Bucharest and Director of the Generation ’27 Library in Málaga, will dialogue with Ioana Bâldea Constantinescu, novelist and cultural journalist, author of the novel Beyond the Oranges, a fabulous recovery of Moorish Seville.
The Andalusian journey of May will end with a night dedicated to theater: on May 28, at 6:00 PM, in the Auditorium Hall of the Cervantes Institute, two reading performances will be presented as part of the AproapESpectacol season: The Tenant by Paco Gámez, translated by Irina Călin, directed by Mihai Gligan, with Claudiu Mihail and Bogdan Oprănescu, and As If Tonight Were… by Gracia Morales, translated by Luminița Voina-Răuț, directed by Luiza Dabija, with Ana Dumitrașcu and Maria Moroșan, followed by a dialogue entitled The Five Senses of Theater with Paco Gámez and Ioana Anghel, cultural manager, translator, and coordinator of the editorial catalog of the Camil Petrescu Cultural Foundation.