Chisinau – based museum to save Bessarabian traditional shirts from extinsion

Chisinau, 16 January /MOLDPRES/ – An exhibition entitled: 100 Bessarabian shirts saved from extinction, organised on the occasion of the Centenary of the Great Union, has been varnished at the National Museum of Ethnography and Natural History (MNEIN) in Chisinau today.

Interviewed by agency, the director of the institution, Petru Vicol, mentioned that the idea of ​​the project was launched by the members of community Sezatoarea Basarabia, made up of several women which for many years have recaptured the tradition of authenticity and originality of the Romanian costumes of the Moldovans. He pointed out that project: 100 Basarabian shirts saved from extinction in the context of the Centenary of the Great Union started in March 2017 and aims at making 100 shirts with new materials after old springs: photos, drawings, sketches, shirts damaged, parts of cloth in the shirts, which are valuable for the reconstruction of the richness of the traditional shirts in Bessarabian zone. "Our museum will buy a good deal of these costumes to be kept and transmitted to future generations," specified Petru Vicol.

At her turn, the project coordinator, associate lecturer Varvara Buzila, stated that during this period over 240 ladies and girls had learned the specifics of tailoring, sewing techniques, ornamentation principles of garment pieces. The participants in the project are members of community Sezatoarea Basarabia, passionate about needle art, representatives of various communities in Moldova and Romania, which have assumed the responsibility to recover the traditional shirt as an essential part of the authentic folk costume.

"Thus, the old shirts for women, men and children, valuable to preserve the local tradition from all areas of Bessarabia were saved from extinction. It was of great importance that shirts with the other as the most beautiful wedding dress for women and girls to be proposed by Moldova and Romania to be included in the UNESCO Representative List of the Immaterial Cultural Heritage of Humanity, as well as the rest kinds of shirts," said Varvara Buzila.

Attending the event, the director of the Romanian Cultural Institute Mihai Eminescu in Chisinau, Valeriu Matei, said that these costumes, with ornaments and a very rich colour range, contain a system of signs throughout which man communicates with society and the universe. "By bringing back these costumes, it has been restored the spiritual map of Bessarabia as a safe ethnographic area, and the MNEIN has become an epicentre of everything that happens in a beautiful way," said Valeriu Matei.

The exhibition is open until 28 February.