De la Hala Centrală în Dealul Copoului
From “Hala Centrală” to Copou Hill

Summary/Abstract: The study highlights key moments in the organization and unfolding of the earliest editions of “Târgul Olarilor” (the Potters’ Fair), first initiated in Iaşi in 1970 and continuing for more than half a century. It began on the esplanades of the Central Market Hall (“Hala Centrală”) in the heart of the city and, starting with 1983, it has been held in the splendid surroundings of Copou Park, near Mihai Eminescu’s Linden Tree – a setting where, year after year, the most gifted ceramists from across the country and beyond its borders gather to delight us with the beauty of their craft. The main figure of this account is the renowned potter Ion Diaconu from Tansa, Iaşi, featured in an ethnographic film that reveals all the stages of this ancient craft – from extracting the clay under the hills of “Gârla Tansei” to displaying the vessels, adorned with a rare mastery, on the fair stalls of Iaşi. The film also provided an opportunity to capture glimpses of the work of other potters from Tansa – Ion Olaru, Ion Cristian (Diaconu’s mentor), Constantin Sbiera, and Niţă Cristian, to name only the most skilled artisans of this celebrated pottery centre in the Central Moldavian Plateau. At the fifth edition of the Iaşi fair, our attention was drawn by the elder craftsmen Bacinschi and Luchian from Schitu Stavnic, who sold their white-varnished vessels (“albituri”), charming in their simplicity and elegance, somewhere near the memorable fish market; by Lazăr Manolache from Brădeştii Vasluiului, with his flower pots (“gavanoase”) and handled vessels (“tortare”) of a striking archaism; by Ilarion Cumpănă from Pârâu Negru, Botoşani, who sold his pots “once filled with grains”; and by Dumitru Beringhian from Marginea Rădăuţilor, with his black, anthracite-like vessels, among others.

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