Just a few weeks after the fall of communism in Romania, in February 1990, at the Dalles Hall in the centre of Bucharest, Mihai Stănescu’s exhibition “Now Is Not the Time” was opened in the presence of the artist. The album that accompanied the works assembled in the exhibition was printed in a spectacular print run of 100,000 copies, after the artist had multiplied it by his own efforts and put it into circulation among his friends as a samizdat. However, although the print run was huge, Mihai Stănescu says that it was insufficient for that moment, in which his exhibition drew a quite remarkable number of visitors. Mihai Stănescu also recalls the short history of the samizdat album that preceded the exhibition, ensuring its extraordinary success later: “I also created an album called Now Is Not the Time in June 1989, and I multiplied [the drawings] at the American Library, at the Fine Mechanics Factory, where they had photocopiers. And that’s why people knew about it, and after the Revolution the first book that appeared in Romania was mine, at the beginning of January, because all the writers had withdrawn their books, to remove from them the compromises that they had made. I had mine ready and I had nothing to remove, so [I took advantage of the fact that] the whole House of the Spark was free, and I printed [the album] in 100,000 copies. And it wasn’t enough. I held a launch at the Dalles Hall, but I only too about 5,000 copies to sign for the launch, because I didn’t know there would be so many people. And many people were left without, but they bought it afterwards.”
Stănescu, Mihai. 1990. Acum nu e momentul (Now is not the time). Bucharest: Uniunea Artiștilor Plastici din România. Stănescu, Mihai. 2009. Best of Stănescu: Desene 1979-1989 (Best of Stănescu: Drawings, 1979-1989). Bucharest: Uniunea Artiștilor Plastici din România.
Stănescu, Mihai, interview by Pătrăşconiu, Cristian Valeriu , December 13, 2017. COURAGE Registry Oral History Collection