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MenuHomeUpfront Now Up Books Towns Structures People Firms Lexicon | BITENCO, JanBorn: 1945Artist | ||
Born in Giurgiu, Romania of a Romanian mother and Russian father. Jan describes Giurgiu as a small industrial town in a predominantly agricultural country on the Danube. In 1952 his parents were arrested and in cattle trucks, were deported together with their seven year old son. While in concentration camps, young Jan contracted rheumatic fever which affected his heart. Back in Romania he attended the university in Bucharest where he concentrated on literature, languages and art, with much emphasis on drawing. In 1977 he managed to leave Romania and to travel to Cape Town to have a heart valve replaced at Groote Schuur Hospital. Recovered, he went back to Romania, but, deep within him, he knew that one day he would return to South Africa. In Bucharest he obtained a position in the prestigious well-established Barabas Studio which happened to be involved in the restoration for President Ceasescu of the Cotroceni Palace, originally built for the kings of Romania. This required the installation of 1 000 square metres of stained glass. One day while collecting material for his kiln, he was arrested and beaten for taking strategic material meant to line the presidential anti-atomic bunker. When he was again arrested and savagely beaten, this time for taking photographs of some fine old buildings before they were destroyed, he decided to emigrate, and, remembering the majestic loveliness of Cape Town, he came to South Africa in 1948. After working for two years with a firm doing commercial stained glass in Cape Town, he set up his own studio and has contributed a number of fine windows to churches and institutions and private homes. (Extracted form Oxley 1994:41) Books citing BITENCO
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