We are an interdisciplinary research group based in Bucharest at the Romanian Peasant Museum working on the communist collections inherited from the former Museum of Communist Party History (Soviet and Romanian socialist-realism paintings, propaganda posters, photographs, propaganda films) or collected by the museum (everyday objects, private photographs, filmstrips).

Our project, DigitalRed is an interdisciplinary laboratory that proposes a pilot-study on collections such as the one we hold. A representative item from each section of the collection (one painting, one photograph, one drawing, one 3D object) will be digitized, researched and exhibited online on a platform that aims to unify and connect such collections throughout East-Central Europe. The object-based research will be offered as a good-practice example for holders of similar problematic collections, and will reconnect the object to its forgotten history and to similar objects in institutions throughout Europe. The network thus created will be a crucial asset for further research, visibility and safeguarding of these collections.

The outcomes of the project are: a DigitalRed site displaying the collection/archive researched and digitized in the project, a discussion platform on digitization in museums, a compiled and curated list of institutions, people and projects involved in managing recent history collections, and a written good-practice manual on digitizing, managing and researching recent history collections (focused on difficult recent heritage in the former socialist countries).

We are looking for partners interested in this research, either in its “communist” component or its digital research focus. We would be especially happy to contact institutions with similar collections and research interests.

For more details, please write to Simina Badica ([log in to unmask])