<p>This exhibition brings to the fore <em>small </em>as opposed to <em>big </em>history by highlighting the contribution of Romanian artists who lived through The Great War rather than merely witnessed it at close range.</p> <p>Works by Nicolae Tonitza, Ion Theodorescu-Sion, Camil Ressu, Ștefan Dimitrescu, Oscar Han, Dimitrie Paciurea, Ion Jalea, Cornel Medrea - to name only the best-known of the enlisted artists - reveal human stories and overpower us with their lack of all grandiloquence typical of official imagery. Many of their drawings, paintings and sculptures were meant for a future military museum; they were exhibited for the first time at the <em>Exhibition of Enlisted Artists</em> organized by the Military Headquartes in January 1918 in Iași.</p> <p>Artists capture the contained front-line drama as well as the misery of daily survival. Their works often display a freshness of approach similar to that of contemporary live broadcasts but devoid of any sensational dimension. One is confronted with the life full of deprivations of the humble in a timely attempt to restructure collective memory from the perspective of survivors whom official history had not yet turned into (anonymous) ‘<em>heroes</em>’.</p> <p>Illustrating war reports that may have never been written, many of the works quietly (but no less critically) frame a question poignantly asked in the years 1916 to 1919 (and still valid today): <em>Who writes (our) history?<strong> </strong></em>This exhibition prompts us to pause and reflect before we attempt to personally answer the question.</p> <p>The exhibition design, inspired by war-time trench maps, suggests the traumatic war atmosphere and heightens the message of over 120 works on display.</p>