George Vasilievici and Mugur Grosu reading at an edition of the EroTICA festival (early 2000s, photo by László Kállai)
Kiustendje Brotherhood or the Constanța Group (in Romanian: frăția chiustengeană; grupul de la Constanța) was an informal association of Constanța-based writers that have been actively promoted by Marin Mincu and are considered to mark the transition from the 1990's to the 2000's, though most of its members continue to be active today. Some of them were organized in a literary and artistic association called ASALT (which, among others, organized the EroTICA festivals and published some of the first e-books released in Romania). Most of them were active in Cenaclul de Marți (which derived from an earlier circle founded by Mircea Țuglea and Sorin Dinco, Cenaclul "Păi") and collaborated at Suplimentul de Marți (which was published together with the newspaper Observator de Constanța) and, later, Tomis.
Books by several Kiustendjean p(r)oets
The name of the "brotherhood" comes from the Turkish name of Constanța, Kiustendje. Grigore Șoitu has given more recently a list of "members" (see below), but the group was, in fact, loosely organized and had not published together any manifesto or other such works, but can be taken into account together, first of all due to their stylistic similarities. The earliest and the latest "members" (though chronological differences are disputable) differ in some ways, but have in common the preoccupation for a certain kind of postmodernism that is very spontaneous (Marin Mincu has used the term "post-textualism") and open to humour. Mircea Țuglea and Sorin Dinco entitled their texts "proems" or "proetry" (terms coined by themselves). Marin Mincu included Mircea Țuglea, Mugur Grosu and George Vasilievici in Generația 2000, but Ștefania Mincu considered they (or at least Vasilievici) are closer to the "1990ist sensiblity". Nevertheless, they held close friendships with other young writers from around the country, such as Alexandru and Mihail Vakulovski, Ștefan Caraman, Claudiu Komartin, Mihai Vieru, Paul Vinicius, Dan Iancu, Roman Tolici and others (some of whom also collaborated at Tomis).
The death of Marin Mincu (2009) and of George Vasilievici (2010), as well as the fact some left Constanța for other cities such as Bucharest, could be said to mark the disbandment of the group. However, most of the members posed together in December 2011 in an "in memoriam" and book launch event, probably not for the last time.
Associated writers[]
From left to right: Mugur Grosu, Sorin Dinco, Grigore Șoitu, Ștefania Mincu, Octavian Soviany, Mircea Țuglea and Dan Mihuț, 2011 event in memoriam Marin Mincu (photo by Iulia Pană)
