Copyright © 2016 The Authors. Published by VGTU Press. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. The material cannot be used for commercial purposes. 48 CoaCtivity: Philosophy, Communication 2016, Vol. 24, No. 1, 48–58. ISSN 2029-6320/eISSN 2029-6339 Introduction The age of the interactive online communication or Web 2.0 – a term coined in 2004 and popularized by Tim O'Reilly (2005) – has impacted daily life in its most personal and professional aspects. Social media platforms DOI http://dx.doi.org/10.3846/cpc.2016.237 OnlIne aRtIStIC aCtIVISM: CaSe-StUdY OF HUngaRIan-ROManIan InteRCUltURal COMMUnICatIOn gizela HORVÁtH1, Rozália klára BakÓ2 1Department of Fine Arts (Graphics), Faculty of Arts, Partium Christian University, Primariei str. 36, 410209 Oradea, Romania 2Department of Social Sciences, Faculty of Economics, Socio-Human Sciences and Engineering, Sapientia University, 530104 Miercurea Ciuc, str. Piata Libertatii 1, Romania E-mails: 1horvathgizela@gmail.com; 2rozalia.bako@sapientia.ro Received 29 May 2015; accepted 5 January 2016 Technical reproduction in general, and photography in particular have changed the status and practices of art. Similarly, the expansion of Web 2.0 interactive spaces presents opportunities and challenges to artistic communities. Present study focuses on artistic activism: socially sensitive artists publish their creation on the internet on its most interactive space – social media. These artworks carry both artistic and social messages. Such practices force us to reinterpret some elements of the classical art paradigm: its autonomy, authorship, uniqueness (as opposed to copies and series), and the social role of art. The analysis is aimed at Hungarian and Romanian online artistic projects from Transylvania region of Romania, relevant as intercultural communication endeavours. Our research question is the way they differ from the traditional artistic paradigm. keywords: artistic activism, Hungarian-Romanian intercultural dialogue, online communication, social media. such as blogs, online photo sharing sites like Flickr and Instagram, video distribution platforms (YouTube or Vimeo), microblogs (such as Twitter), and the most popular space, Facebook allowed an unprecedented level and intensity of participation in the public square. Modern art has developed in an ivory tower of creators, interpreters, disseminators and 49CoaCtivity: Philosophy, Communication 2016, 24(1): 48–58 consumers, from the Renaissance to the end of the 20th century. In contrast, contemporary art in the 21st century offers wider spaces for creation, expression and distribution via information and communication technologies (ICTs). While keeping the classical tools of display, creators and cultural managers have moved works of art "from museum walls to Facebook walls" (Perjovschi, cited in Horváth 2014: 73). Intercultural exchanges have never been so easy and affordable. Indeed, ICTs connect regions, countries, groups and individuals in various multimedia platforms, from audiovisual channels to the media-rich content of the internet. However, digital divides can hardly be bridged by mere infrastructural investments. Intercultural capital (Pöllmann 2013) or the ability to decode the differences among cultures takes time and educational resources to build. Works of art in the age of digital reproduction Almost a century ago a major shift has taken place, as described by Walter Benjamin in a famous text (Benjamin 1936): "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction" deals with the effects of videoand audio recording, film and radio on art. The conclusion is that the concept of art itself has transformed accordingly. Works of art have lost their "aura", the "unique phenomenon of a distance, however close it may be" and got close to their public. Although Benjamins text has been interpreted mainly from the perspective of losing "aura", it would be useful to remember its introductory idea of a greater loss: "creativity and genius, eternal value and mystery". In fact, he refers to the destruction of a major paradigm in art based on the artist's unique, unreproducible, talentand genius-based work of art. We recognize Benjamin's visionary ideas as reflected in the 20th century's artistic experiments: ready-mades coined by Marcel Duchamp, timelessness changed to timeliness by action art, performance and process art, by the works that incorporate the ephemeral, by the interactive works of art where the artist shares the privilege of creation with the audience, and by appropriation art that challenges authorship. A hundred years of technical innovation and its impact on art is hard to summarize in keywords. However, the reception of art has been reshaped by the internet, which has enhanced and fueled the relationship between the artist and his/her audience. Social media with its interactivity features had catalyzed this relationship even more in contemporary art. Hans-Georg Gadamer has developed a dialogical model on reception of art, in his book Truth and Method published in 1960: paintings talk to us, ask questions and answer them. Therefore "aesthetics has to be absorbed into hermeneutics" (Gadamer 2004: 157), and should deal with the following issue: "How does the work speak and what does it tell us?" (Gadamer 1986: 30). Such a dialogical model is still trapped in the museal paradigm of the work of art: paintings are hung on walls and engage in "dialogue" with those privileged few who can afford to visit museums and contemplate them. The visual revolution of the internet challenges this museal approach to art: a plethora of artistic images, audioand video content is available online, and even if such experience does not replace a "museum feeling", it still stands for a valid aesthetic experience. Social media transforms the dialogical model's metaphor into fact: artists publish their works on Facebook or Tsu and their networks give them at least the minimal feedback of a "like". The metaphorical "dialogue" turns into effective communication. Online artistic activism Contemporary artists strive to use the benefits of the internet and promote their works online. This statement is even more valid for creators who stepped out from museums to the street, 50 Gizela Horváth, Rozália Klára Bakó Online artistic activism: case-study of Hungarian-Romanian... and who react quickly to the social and political agenda, to daily events. Works of art have lost their aura: activist artists are no longer interested in being original; rather, they want to ensure replicability, wide-scale dissemination and connectivity. All they need is internet access and a device to instantly and closely reach their audiences. New forms of online activism seem to confirm Benjamin's thesis: by giving up the ideal of originality, the role of art changes radically – "instead of being based on ritual, it begins to be based on another practice – politics" (Benjamin 1936). A social and political message is more effective if it can reach a wider audience, rather than the privileged few "natives of art", as Pierre Bourdieu would put it. Social media and artistic activism Both artists and cultural institutions strive to benefit from the opportunities provided by social media (Horváth 2014). The main function of interactive platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube is to promote artistic news: museums inform about their actual exhibitions, art galleries publish sample items from their actual exhibitions, and artists present their new projects. There are several art projects embedded more deeply in social media, born in and for such media. We present four such projects: three developed on Facebook, and one on the WordPress blogging platform. Among the three Facebook-projects one connects local and global and it is monocultural, using the Romanian and the English language to express its cartoon-like works (Dan Perjovschi), and two of them reflect the multicultural space of the Transylvania region of Romania: the HungaRomânisme (Hunga-Romanianisms) project and Ütő Gusztáv's Autonomy project. The blogging project is a bilingual twin-art: the anonymous author coins him/herself as feminist and political protest artist by using two different skins for the same visual content: ballerinas. local and global: Perjovschi's drawings Perjovschi is an internationally recognized Romanian artist who exhibited works at Tate Modern in London (2006), and at the Museum of Modern Art in New York (2007). He represented Romania at the 1999 Venice Biennale. His drawings made him famous, by using a special graffiti technique: they are displayed directly on the exhibition walls and windows with a black marker. The in situ works of art are then washed from walls and windows: they are therefore very ephemeral, and utterly local. Perjovschi's drawings are simple, minimalist sketches representing people, objects and often words, in order to make content more accessible. His topics are less concerned with general issues of the human condition, and more so with political statements related to actual events. Some of his word-sketches are wordplays, featuring letters as both signs and aesthetic elements. Perjovschi joined Facebook in 2009 and after reaching the 5 000 limit of "friends", he registered an artist page on 2 September 20111. On the latter, he posts works with an English headline, or simply publishes visual content in photo sets. Album tags show that he conceptualizes art as a tool of social and political criticism. Titles for 2014 speak for themselves: "2014 Hong Kong protests", "European Parliament election, 2014", "Putin's Game", "News from Putin", "Kiev local election, 2014", "protest movements", "2014 FIFA World Cup", etc. Drawings posted on his personal page are more concerned with the Romanian political agenda, whereas the artistic page features the international political landscape. Many of his posts highlight an environmental protest movement, the Roșia Montană issue2, but he 1 See personal Facebook page of Perjovschi (Facebook.com 2015a) and his acting as an artist page (Facebook.com 2015b). 2 Political activities against the Roșia Montană cyanide gold mining project, a large scale protest movement. 51CoaCtivity: Philosophy, Communication 2016, 24(1): 48–58 is equally concerned with the political class' corruption cases, and political leaders' media scandals, such as the Prime minister's case of plagiarism. Perjovschi uses Facebook strategically as a medium that delivers messages instantly. In an interview (Stefan 2013) he declared: "For some time, I have been sliding from the institutional wall to the walls of Facebook. I found it to be an interesting space. Here, my drawings mean something beyond 'art'. I can have a more objective and precise look at the events I comment on". He feels that on this space he can really make a difference, he can have a real impact on his audience. The use of Facebook has impacted his style: some of his works are created digitally, whereas traditional drawing is still a preferred technique. The road to reaching target audiences has never been so short and easy: social media offers instant feedback and gratification. Perjovschi's art page had 5 619 likes as of 1 January 2015 (Facebook.com 2015b). The first post of the year gathered 33 likes in one hour. The most popular of his posts has gathered 128 likes in 2014. His art page posts feature exhibition-related content and internationally relevant works. His personal page reached the limit number of friends allowed back in 2011, but his posts can still be followed by an increasing number of interested readers: the number of followers as of 1 January 2015 has reached 12 737. His last 2014 post has gathered 243 likes, whereas the first post on 1 January 2015 got 116 likes: this signals the interest of Romanian art fans for his work, and the topics that capture public interest. The way in which Perjovschi's Facebook page functioned as a mobilizing, information sharing, and whistle-blowing platform during the second round of the Romanian Presidential election (16 November 2014) is of particular interest. On Election Day Perjovschi published 19 textual posts, 12 shares and 23 original wordplay-drawings. The greatest number of likes was gathered by posts on voting mishaps of Romanians living abroad3 (2 032 and 1 530, respectively). Most wordplay-drawings were supporting Romanians living abroad, mobilizing them to vote. One of these drawings gathered 760 likes, another one 496. The next day after election we found 14 textual posts, 8 shares and 10 drawings on Perjovschi's wall. The largest number of likes (853) was gathered by a post announcing that Romanians and Hungarians elected a German President4. Drawings were also positively received by Perjovschi's fans: the one conceptualizing Romanians awakened by an ethnic German president got 773 likes, while the one on "non-ESCU" defeating an "ESCU" got 1 031 likes (most Romanian names end in -escu). The most successful wordplay drawing was the one conceptualizing joy winning over hate: it gathered 1 149 likes. Perjovschi's wordplay-drawings show languageand visual creativity equally: he develops quizzes for his audience, and gives an opportunity for the joy of discovery, landscapes of conundrums and new layers of meaning to be decoded. Artists like him are less sensitive to copyright infringement issues, as compared to artists communicating in traditional media. Since they are interested in conveying a socially significant message, large scale dissemination is a must. One of Perjovschi's contacts asked him whether he could use a drawing published on 18 November 2014 as a cover image on Facebook. He answered: "any of my drawings". Perjovschi's artistic credo is a clearly articulated ars poetica. In a 2013 interview he declared: "In fact, my paintings transform canvas and easel into placards. Contemporary artists should be socially involved – not in a propagandistic 3 The greatest scandal of the presidential election was the poor organizing for Romanians living abroad: many of them could not cast their votes, even if they stood in line for 11 hours. 4 Klaus Iohannis, Romania's newly elected President is ethnically German. In a country with a Romanian majority such a result is nearly miraculous. 52 Gizela Horváth, Rozália Klára Bakó Online artistic activism: case-study of Hungarian-Romanian... manner, but in a subtle, profound way [...] We can express people's discontent, because we work with images, signs and representations throughout our lives" (Calen 2013). Intercultural communication Romania is inhabited by several ethnic groups: 88.6% Romanians, 6.5% Hungarians, 3.2% Roma (Gypsies), 0.3% Ukrainians, and 0.2% Germans – according to 2011 census data. Transylvania is a complex multiethnic and multicultural region of Romania about three times the size of Belgium, with most of the Hungarian and German minority living here. The situation is made even more complicated by historical roots: Transylvania was either a relatively independent principality, or belonged to the Kingdom of Hungary, or the AustriaHungary. After the World War I the region was attached to Romania. Since 1918 a significant number of Hungarians live in Romania – most of them in Transylvania: it is the largest and the best organized ethnic minority group in the country. After the fall of Communism in 1989 the Hungarian community from Romania started an intense process of institutional development and claimed loudly its language and cultural rights. The Székely Land micro-region of Southeastern Transylvania is inhabited mostly by a special group of Hungarians called Székelys, outnumbering Romanians and the Roma population by two-thirds. Although Székelys are organically connected to the Hungarian community, they speak a particular dialect of Hungarian, they have their own flag and anthem, and claim their own territory. The ideal of territorial and cultural autonomy, megaphoned by ethnic political parties, has encountered Romanians' discontent and resistance. Under these circumstances intercultural communication is not an easy task to achieve. Although daily interactions between Romanians and Hungarians are peaceful, it is hard to overcome the lack of trust between ethnic communities. Hungarians fear the infringement of their rights (as in the case of expecting the same level of Romanian language skills from Hungarians as from Romanian students, the difficulty of enforcing the right to signs in Hungarian, etc.), whereas Romanians fear the secession of Transylvania from Romania and its incorporation into Hungary. Several Romanian and Hungarian artists remain in the politically neutral space of "artistic autonomy" (such as Adrian Ghenie, the most successful Romanian contemporary artist), while others react to the social and political issues of their communities. Engaged artists are keener to deliver their messages to their own target audiences: Romanians focus on beggars, communist relics, Romanian immigrants. Since most of them are not interested in Hungarian community issues, intercultural artistic projects aimed at the Romanian-Hungarian relationship are particularly interesting. We present two such projects aimed at highlighting tensions between Hungarians and Romanians, promoted via Facebook: Ütő Gusztáv's autonomy project, and the HungaRomânisme artistic experiment. The first one promotes Hungarians' cultural and territorial rights in the Székely Land region. The latter is a light, humorous wordplay-series attempting to translate idioms from one language to the other, and suggesting that dialogue is possible and funny. What's on your mind? autonomy (Ütő gusztáv) Ütő Gusztáv is a Transylvanian performance artist who has joined avant-garde trends since the Communist era of the 1980s, despite the informationally isolated Romania of that time. He has been one of the most popular performance artists in the region. Ütő Gusztáv was born and lives in Székely Land and serves this community, by advocating for language rights and autonomy through performance works, 53CoaCtivity: Philosophy, Communication 2016, 24(1): 48–58 photos and installations. His key topic is Székely Land system of identity symbols. The artist started to use Facebook publicity quite early, since the summer of 2008, and has been very active ever since. Back in 2008 his posts were written in English and targeted at the international artistic community. A boldly political activism started up on Facebook since 2011. Ütő Gusztáv political statement is clearly and repeatedly put forward: Autonomy for Székely Land. This idea is branded visually in a straightforward and accessible manner. The first photo with a political message was posted on 15 October 2011 and was his longstanding profile picture. The photo, shot at the Eruptio 9 – Interregional Action Art Meeting, represents the artist holding a trilingual placard reading "Székelyföld – Ținutul Secuiesc – Székely Land" on the shore Lac Ste. Anne (Alberta). The place carries political significance, since it hosted several informal artist meetings during Nicolae Ceaușescu's dictatorship. In 1981 an artistic protest action took place: artists put a Hungarian flag on the top of a peeled pine tree, and suffered retaliations for it. After 1990 the AnnArt Performance Festival could be legally organized at Lac Ste. Anne (Alberta). The placard reading "Székelyföld – Ținutul Secuiesc – Székely Land" was made according to official Romanian place-name signs, with the three language texts written in the same manner, same text size and font style. The artist invited fellow artists and political leaders to hold the placard and take part in a photo-series action. Ütő Gusztáv explained that "the photo action was a protest against the repressive system of Bucharest authorities that ridicule and reject the 'so-called Szeklerland' historical region"5. Another theme on Ütő Gusztáv Facebook wall is the Székely flag. Although it is a political artifact created in 2004, the flag has become a strong brand and a symbol of Székelers' rights of self-determination: a sky-blue background 5 Located in Harghita County, Romania. with a golden stripe, a golden sun and a white moon as traditional symbols of the community. Ütő Gusztáv's version of the Székely flag – golden sun and white moon on a dark blue background, with the stripe changed to the word autonomy – appears for the first time on his Facebook wall on 29 August 2012. Later that year in October he appears with his wife and the flag holding the Székely Land placard, and finally, on 2 November 2012 it becomes his cover photo. The simplicity of shapes and the complementary colors embedding the imperfections of manual artwork into a rigorous geometrical composition carries a strong message. It is hard to ignore, it burns onto the viewers' retina. Ütő Gusztáv publishes regularly his own version of the Székely flag, reminding his network community that autonomy is on the agenda. In 2013 the flag received a traditional rune inscription. Since 2013 he has been publishing trilingual messages, posts and comments. For instance, on 21 December 2013 he posted a message on the law that punishes the use of the Székely flag in public spaces: "Elég a Székely nemzet elnyomásából! Opriţi asuprirea naţională a poporului Secuiesc! Stop the oppression of the Székely nation!" (Üto 2014). He used the Székely flag symbol in several art performances, documented on Facebook. Ütő Gusztáv and Örs Albert-Nagy participated in a common performance in Saint George (Transylvanian town from Covasna County) at the PulzArt Contemporary Arts Festival: they raised a wooden placard with a sun and the shape of a crescent moon cut out, and the sunshine drew the Székely symbols on the ground. This performance was documented on Facebook on 13 September 2013. Ütő Gusztáv has posted on Facebook – beyond Székely symbols – several photos depicting the flag. In 2013 about twice a month we find such posts: February 10, 12; March 11, 17; April 8, 14; May 6, 7, 12, 17, 28; June 14; July 23; August 8, 25, 27, 29; September 2, 20; December 8, 24, 27, 29. His communication has lately (2014–2015) turned multicultural: his 54 Gizela Horváth, Rozália Klára Bakó Online artistic activism: case-study of Hungarian-Romanian... messages are more often trilingual – Hungarian, Romanian, and English. Meanwhile, since his messages are mainly concerned with Székelers' oppression by Romanian authorities, it is more like a militant communication rather than a call for intercultural dialogue. HungaRomânisme: illustrated interethnic humor The HungaRomânisme Facebook page is administered by two authors: Alexandra Damian, a young Romanian art historian working for Facebook's video advertising department, and Dávid Sugár, a young ethnic Hungarian cultural manager with a BA in theater and cinema. Their love story was the fuel of the whole intercultural dialogue project. The idea was born in 2011, and the Facebook platform on 10 March 2013. HungaRomânisme is a collection of idioms in both languages, translated literally and humorously illustrated. First the texts came and then the fame, when artists got involved and illustrated the funny mistranslations. In 2013 they worked with 13 Romanian and Hungarian graphic designers: George Roşu, Dungi, Cutarica, Aaron Balázs, Annabella Orosz, Szilárd Banga and Albert Attila Kónya. As of January 2015 they have worked with 15 graphic designers. The interest generated by the project is illustrated by its quickly increasing popularity: in three days the Facebook page gathered 400 likes, and as of January 2015 (Facebook. com 2015c) it has reached nearly 8 000. Each Facebook post is published in both Hungarian and Romanian. Comments are both Hungarian and Romanian, and some "HungaRomanian" gibberish. For this project the interactive and informal Facebook medium is indispensable: "the bulk of this project is related to Facebook", said Sugár (Florescu 2013). The authors met on Facebook on and contacted graphic designers, who volunteer for this project. They gained popularity by publicizing their work on Facebook: in May 2013 they organized the first offline exhibition in Saint George, a culture-friendly town in Covasna County, Romania. It was an interesting fact that artistic creations moved from Facebook walls to exhibition walls. The next event was the Peninsula Music Festival in ClujNapoca: they reproduced and exhibited their Facebook wall as an offline space. As Sugár stated, "We plan to extract a Facebook page and transpose it into reality. More precisely, we want to transpose the concept of like and share into the real world. We will put six cubes, 1.6 meters high each, with an illustration on each side. In a niche we put on each cube stickers with the drawings and Like symbols will be available. Participants can take their favorite drawing (share) and put a like sticker on the cube, where their favorites are" (Florescu 2013). For Christmas 2014 the authors prepared offline presents: printed cards with the translated sayings illustrated, for a symbolic halfEuro price. They have also developed an offline "Bictionnary" with 20 humorous illustrations explained in Romanian and Hungarian. The Hunga-Romanianisms project is articulated on several levels. On the one hand, it has a clearly positive message received and appreciated by its audiences: the intercultural dialogue of two ethnic groups in Romania, usually conceptualized as conflictual. The artistic character is given by the tools and means chosen. The starting point is often times an idiom, usually a traditional idiom from Székely Land – quite hard or impossible to be decoded by Hungarians from Hungary. This could even be a way to preserve linguistic forms, sayings and idioms. On the other hand, the metaphorical character deals with the creative tools of literature, such as irony. A literal translation is therefore a source of humor: even for those who use these expressions on a daily basis, the translation and illustration enriches them with new layers of meaning. Language humor is then enriched by visual objectification that adds new layers of meaning and humor. 55CoaCtivity: Philosophy, Communication 2016, 24(1): 48–58 The two target groups – Romanians and Hungarians – are equally enthusiastic about these translations, according to project promoters. Hungarians from Transylvania are somewhat advantaged, because they understand the humor both ways, while most Romanians do not understand Hungarian. The asymmetry is a given: Hungarians mostly understand Romanian, Romanians understand less Hungarian – therefore most Romanian translations are not even explained. However, the project, with its aims and scope – is appreciated by both ethnic groups. It has so far only been presented in Romania, but creators plan an exhibition in Hungary. It will be an opportunity to test whether Hunga-Romanianisms functions outside the multicultural context of Transylvania as well. Protest ballerinas: parallel identities on a Hungarian and a Romanian blog Although Facebook is a privileged online space for sharing information and building relationships, the blogosphere as a communication platform has gained attention since it became user-friendly, from 2004 onward. In Romania, blogging has been a mainstream form of cultural expression since 2007, since before Facebook overtook online activities in 2010. The rise of internet use in the mid-1990s enabled a more participatory framework through simple and personal web-pages, developed by their owners. Jorn Barger, a well-known pioneer of the genre, called it a weblog (1997), but later the term has turned into the shorter "blog" (Peterme.com 2015). A new communication culture has emerged lately, landmarked by new communities and new rhetorical practices of the online world (Ferencz 2008). Our blog research suggests that Romanian bloggers are more interactive, keener to comment as compared to Hungarian bloggers from Romania (Bakó 2008). This case study focuses on two art-blogs written by the same person, with similar content: one in Romanian, the other one in Hungarian. Mapping communities developed around these virtual spaces helps a better understanding of the blogging phenomenon in bilingual context. The intercultural communication endeavor under scrutiny is a protest art project started on 7 July 2007 and closed on 11 September 2012. Dates are important and loaded with personal and professional layers of meaning: it begins on the author's mother's birthday, and ends on the day of the Twin Towers' collapse. A very intimate, personal date versus a very public, broadly significant event date frame seven years in search of identity. The author uses different pen-names for the Hungarian and the Romanian blog: Ana Pauper is a strong political reference to Ana Pauker, former minister of culture under the Stalinist era in Romania (Pauper 2012), whereas Sára Kövi is a literal translation of the name Sharon Stone to Hungarian. Different names highlight the difference in aims and scope: a more personal versus a political, an ironic "lady-blogging" versus political theorizing, both in an abstract and playful manner (Kövi 2012). While visual content is strikingly similar on the Romanian6 and Hungarian7 blog, textual elements and deeper levels of meaning are different: the author explores various levels of identity building, from private to public, from gender issues to broader political statements. The difference lies not only in content, but also in style: the Hungarian blog has a milder tone, while the Romanian one is sharper and more outgoing. Some texts are short humorous statements, while others are concise, haiku-like poems. The peak years of blog readership, according to statistics retrieved in December 2014, were 2008 and 2009. From 2010 onwards, 6 See https://pr04.files.wordpress.com/2015/02/baletristica-front.png 7 See https://pr04.files.wordpress.com/2015/02/balett ka-front.png 56 Gizela Horváth, Rozália Klára Bakó Online artistic activism: case-study of Hungarian-Romanian... when the frequency of posts deliberately decreased, the number of visitors has decreased accordingly. It was an experiment with content, interaction, audience involvement and decline. Even so, it is striking that the Romanian blog had twice as many readers8 as the Hungarian one9, despite the personal relationships and blogger meetings at which the author participated several times with Hungarian bloggers, to whom she was better connected on a personal level. A content analysis conducted for 2009, the peak year of the blogs' readership, has revealed key aspects of the differences between the two platforms, as presented in the Table 1. A number of tags that structure content are the same on the two blogs, but most of them are different, showing the deliberate gap between the two online spaces in terms of messages. While the Romanian blog is more political and critical, aimed at a mainly anonymous audience, the Hungarian one is more personal and aimed at a group of bloggers connected offline with the author. Parallel cultural realities, two parallel selves, and a thin layer of less than twenty readers who understand both Hungarian and Romanian, and get the message of the parallelism. A single poem translates in both languages, summarizing the common ironical stance: "I will be passive and soft, gently stuck in your loft, dressed all in silk and honey, and careless about money!"10. 8 See https://pr04.files.wordpress.com/2015/02/baletristica-stat.png 9 See https://pr04.files.wordpress.com/2015/02/balettka-stat.png 10 Translation from Romanian and Hungarian by Rozália Klára Bakó. Conclusions This case study has presented specific aspects of intercultural communication in Transylvania region of Romania – a multi-ethnic territory loaded with new and inherited conflicts. The analysis has depicted a specific category of artistic projects: those developed on social media platforms – Facebook and blogs – and relevant from and intercultural communication perspective. Online presence and intercultural dialogue has impacted the artistic style of these creations. From an art philosophy perspective, the use of new media changes the whole mechanism of art's functioning. The projects presented above show the ways in which artists use mainstream social media platforms like social networking site Facebook and blog platform WordPress. Perjovschi's words describe the new situation better: art has moved from museum walls to Facebook walls. This shift has shortened the road from creation to reception, getting around the traditional cultural institutions of disseminating art. It is a shift toward a more dynamic exchange between those who produce and those who receive works of art. Online presence in an interactive space enables instant feedback to the authors on the public's reaction, comments can show the way they understood and received the works of art (if a dislike button were in place, the landscape would be even more nuanced). Artists concerned with the public agenda are advantaged by this opportunity. Online artistic activism eliminates the myth of the isolated, genius, out of touch artist: new media projects are either a result of teamwork (such as Table 1. Differences between the readership of the Hungarian and the Romanian blog (source: Kövi 2012; Pauper 2012) Blog data Page views Daily peak Posts Comments Tags Hungarian blog 126,994 532 1 058 3,798 45 Romanian blog 247,257 1,867 966 4,727 54 57CoaCtivity: Philosophy, Communication 2016, 24(1): 48–58 Hunga-Romanianisms, or Ütő Gusztáv's art performances), or used by several people (who share, comment, post as a cover photo, or use them at protest actions etc.). It is clear that the aura of the works of art, their distant nature regardless of their closeness is replaced by their exhibition value, as Benjamin predicted in 1936. Facebook walls bring about works of art, creators and recipients in a quasi-synchronous space of interaction. 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Üto Gusztáv's E-mail to Gizela Horváth. 27 December 2014 (unpublished source). 58 Gizela Horváth, Rozália Klára Bakó Online artistic activism: case-study of Hungarian-Romanian... aktYVI MenInė VeIkla InteRnete: VengRŲ IR RUMUnŲ taRPkUltŪRInėS kOMUnIkaCIjOS atVejO analIZė gizela HORVÁtH, Rozália klára BakÓ Apskritai techninė reprodukcija, o ypač fotografija, pakeitė meno statusą ir praktikas. Taip pat interaktyviųjų antrosios kartos žiniatinklio erdvių plėtra teikia meno bendruomenėms galimybių ir meta iššūkių. Internetas turi didelę įtaką meno darbų suvokimui. Nūdien mus užplūsta kur kas daugiau vaizdo medžiagos nei per visą tradicinės fotografijos epochą. šis reiškinys yra dar labiau įsišaknijęs su menu susijusiuose interneto turiniuose, multimedijų ir tarpkultūriniame vizualiosios komunikacijos kontekste. šiame tyrinėjime susitelkiama į aktyvią meninę veiklą: socialine prasme jautrūs menininkai skelbia savo kūrybą interaktyviausioje interneto erdvėje – socialinėse medijose. šie meno kūriniai siunčia tiek meninius, tiek socialinius pranešimus. Tokia praktika leidžia mums naujai interpretuoti kai kurias klasikinės meno paradigmos dalis: meno autonomiškumą, autorystę, unikalumą (kaip priešpriešą kopijoms ir serijiškumui) ir socialinį meno vaidmenį. Reikšminiai žodžiai: meninis aktyvumas, autorystė, tarpkultūrinė komunikacija, internetinė komunikacija, socialinės medijos, socialinis meno vaidmuo.