Month: September 2025

Vii la mal?
Hai cu proiectul tău la HEI!

Invităm comunitățile și grupurile informale din Timișoara să se folosească de spațiul generos din Vila Mal al HEI – House of European Institutes!

– Ești lucrător cultural, artist independent, activist sau faci parte dintr-un grup informal și ești în căutare de un spațiu pentru a organiza evenimente culturale?

Dacă ai nevoie de spațiu pentru ateliere, instalații, proiecții de film, discuții, performance-uri, întâlniri comunitare sau orice altă manifestare culturală, te rugăm să completezi acest formular sau să ne scrii pe e-mail, la adresa hei@eunic-romania.ro, care să conțină:

• o scurtă biografie a ta sau a organizației tale și link(-uri) de social media
• o descriere a proiectului/evenimentului pe care vrei să-l înscrii (acest text va fi folosit în promovarea evenimentului)
• datele posibile de implementare în intervalul august-octombrie 2025 (Vă rugăm să luați în calcul că HEI este deschis între miercuri și duminică.)
• nevoile logistice

Selecția proiectelor va fi făcută de echipa HEI, în limita disponibilității spațiului.

Proiectele găzduite vor beneficia de promovare pe canalele HEI și acces la resursele logistice ale spațiului (proiector, boxe, ecran proiecție, mese, scaune).

HEI încurajează manifestări multiculturale și perspective diverse, așa că evenimentele incluzive și comunitățile vulnerabile vor fi prioritizate.

HEI – House of European Institutes este un proiect coordonat de Fundația9 si British Council Romania, alături de Rețeaua Institutelor Culturale Naționale din Uniunea Europeană – EUNIC Romania.

About the programme

Reclaiming Post-Industrial Futures is a multi-residency programme exploring forgotten industrial heritage sites in Romania as places for collaboration and community building. Developed by EUNIC Romania , the programme involves eight cultural institutions operating in Romania, each engaged in supporting one residency:

• British Council
• Czech Centre
• Embassy of the Netherlands
• French Institute
• Italian Cultural Institute
• Cervantes Institute
• Polish Institute
• Fundația9

EUNIC – European Union National Institutes for Culture – is Europe’s network of national cultural institutes and organisations, with 39 members from all EU Member States and associate countries.

The programme was framed by this consortium of European partners, in collaboration with Curator Ilinca Păun Constantinescu – PhD, President and Founder of the Ideilagram Association, Co-Founder of the Planeta Petrila Association, Co-Founder of the Architecture Office Ideogram Studio, Lecturer at Ion Mincu University of Architecture and Urban Planning Bucharest, Department of Theory and History of Architecture.

Situating industrial heritage

Industrialisation has profoundly shaped most Romanian towns and cities and has been present in all aspects of urbanity. After 1989, the majority of the industrial complexes were shut down and were brutally cut off from the cities. Former workers were left behind and the towns’ morphologies were left with voids, affecting social and urban life until the present day.

The former industrial facilities form a new type of cultural landscape – consisting of buildings, people and their stories – which is increasingly silenced and hidden in an invisible layer, soon to be replaced. Smaller towns face even more of an existential crisis, as the magnetism exercised by the big and prosperous cities makes us forget or disregard their sometimes extraordinary heritage and liveability.

But as happens in history, a crisis can be a source of creativity. Neglected buildings, people who lost their former role in the social hierarchy, and abandoned urban spaces all seem to be negative aspects. However, calls for a shift in the narrative and the rediscovery of existing, often unused values that can add value to urban life. Although it may not be obvious, these towns are sometimes surprisingly rich, not only in terms of built heritage and history, but also in terms of social networks. In the absence of top-down concerns (with few exceptions), bottom-up initiatives shed new light on the existing reality and work directly with the local communities that are trying to redefine their role.

In recent years, a solid network of such initiatives has taken shape in Romania.

Reclaiming Post-Industrial Futures is a programme that works with various representative former industrial sites and communities, providing a bird’s-eye view of the local diversity and astonishing nature:

• ORAȘUL VICTORIA – a garden city built from scratch in the 1950s
• REȘIȚA – the oldest steel industry since the 18th century
• DROBETA TURNU-SEVERIN – an unused 19th century shipyard by the Danube
• CÂMPINA – the world’s most modern pre-WW1 refinery
• TURNU MĂGURELE – a Danube port town laid out after an 1836 urban project
• PETRILA – the oldest mining site in the Jiu Valley
• and the hidden industrial layer of central BUCHAREST.

The programme is an invitation to explore the vacant and impressive industrial built heritage and the potential of these monumental hollow shells. Their spectacular spaces and the collective stories of work and life are still strongly connected, so this is also an invitation to connect to local initiatives and communities and contribute to their town’s future.

It is an invitation to explore diverse histories and cultural landscapes and meet local organisations active in the fields of architecture, urban strategy, history and art.

During their 10- to 14-day stay at the host organisation, the artists immerse themselves in the residency experience. Each resident will host a public event – be it a workshop, discussion, community gathering, cooking session or another interactive format – to engage with the local community or space. Throughout the residency, artists will document their process and experiences through journals in various forms: writing, audio-visuals, objects, drawings, sketches or new works. This creative documentation will be made publicly accessible. In autumn 2025, all residents will reunite in Bucharest for a two-day follow-up, where they’ll share insights and outcomes, adding to the project’s ongoing dialogue and impact.