I first met Martin Zet in Bucharest in 2006. I was sitting in beautiful evening sunshine on the top of MNAC, Muzeul Naţional de Artă Contemporană, the major contemporary art gallery in Romania, which is located in a wing of what was Ceausescu’s Palace. I spotted a beat up, red transit van, way off in the distance. It w… Read more

I first met Martin Zet in Bucharest in 2006. I was sitting in beautiful evening sunshine on the top of MNAC, Muzeul Naţional de Artă Contemporană, the major contemporary art gallery in Romania, which is located in a wing of what was Ceausescu’s Palace. I spotted a beat up, red transit van, way off in the distance. It was hurtling along followed by a cloud of dust and was definitely heading my way. I watched as it got closer and eventually disappeared from view. Presumably, it had come to rest at the foot of this, Buckingham Palace, sized building. Twenty minutes later Martin Zet introduced himself and told me that he and his fellow travellers had just driven to Bucharest from Berlin. A recent email from Martin confirms the route of their journey: “Ok, the journey in the van was Prague - Budapest - Bucharest - Kisinau - Iasi - Budapest - Prague, which was about 4,000km, but some of us came from Berlin, that’s true, which is another 500km there and back.” I can recommend this as an effective way to meet new people. Choose your spot carefully and wait. Martin is just one of the artists and curators I met that day.