»Archive of Pain« arose from the need to try to understand the communist past of Romania and joined historic and artistic efforts from well known Romanian historians Lucian Boia and Adrian Cioroianu, the Swedish theorist Tom Sandqvist and the artists Stefan Constantinescu, Cristi Puiu and Arina Stoenescu. Lucian Boia writes an introductory text about the »Communism, a philosophy of violence« and Adrian Cioroianu contributes with texts about »A brief history of Romanian Communism, The communist party after the war, The new economic path, Towards the single part, The four aces of Romanian communism, Communist repression in Romania and The Ceausescu era« framing the historical, political, economical and social context of Romania after the communist take over until the break down of the regime. Tom Sandqvist writes in his contribution »Archive of pain, the Romanian experience« about the artistic undertake of the project and try to understand the Romanian cultural context high lighting the cultural capital, the Romanian avant-garde, magazines and manifestos, absurd sources, anti-Semitism and the surrealistic communism.
