The exhibition ZETZAR. The Light and Shadows of Printing was launched on September 11, 2024, as part of the Zetzar project, an initiative of the National Library of Romania, developed in collaboration with the Local Design Circle, the Municipal Center of Culture “George Coșbuc” Bistrița and Infinitezimal, and co-financed by the AFCN (Administration of the National Cultural Fund).

Zețar is an old Romanian word which, according to the dictionary, means a typographic worker who manually collects and arranges type for printing. However, the project proposed by the National Library of Romania extends this definition, ZETZAR becoming more than the name of a forgotten craft, turning into a symbol of what the 20th century typographic art means. It is a unique project that brings together the history of Romanian printing technology and graphic creativity embodied in printed paper.

Conceived as a multidisciplinary project, ZETZAR aims to bring the marvelous world of old printing craft back to the public’s attention through the collaboration of some specialists in graphic arts and fine arts with publishers, librarians and researchers.

The aim of the project is to highlight the process of book production and the technologies used for it in the 20th century, as well as related fields of activity such as graphic design or illustration, by exhibiting machines, tools and other objects used for printing put out of use years ago, books and other publications made using them, accompanied by some creative installations made by modern-day artists, all together showing the complexity of this activity, which underpins all written culture.

The opening was attended by Prof. Dr. Adrian Cioroianu, Director General of the National Library of Romania, and the curators of the exhibition: Simona Gabriela Noapteș and Claudia Lungu (National Library of Romania), Artemisa Pascu and Andrei Grosu (Local Design Circle), Sebastian Vlad Popa, Iuliana Dumitru and the  artist Tudor Haschke-Marinescu (Infinitezimal).

Weblinks
https://bibnat.ro/zetzar-lumina-si-umbrele-tiparului/
https://www.facebook.com/zetzar.tipar/

Project co-financed by AFCN.
The project does not necessarily represent the position of the Administration of the National Cultural Fund. AFCN is not responsible for the content of the project or how the results of the project may be used. These are entirely the responsibility of the grantee.