Author: Centrul Ceh

Friday, June 24, 2016, 15 cultural institutions in Bucharest will organize under the aegis of EUNIC Bucharest, the 10^th edition of the Night of Cultural Institutes. British Council, Czech Centre, Turkish Cultural Center “Yunus Emre”, Delegation Wallonie-Bruxelles, Austrian Cultural Forum, the Greek Cultural Foundation, Goethe-Institut, Balassi Intézet – Hungarian Institute in Bucharest, Instituto Camões of Cooperation and Portuguese Language, Instituto Cervantes of Bucarest, Romanian Cultural Institute, French Institute, Italian Cultural Institute, the Polish Institute, joined by European Public Space, propose a dense program that will start at noon and lasts until dawn.

In the year that marks the 400^th anniversary of the death of William Shakespeare and Miguel de Cervantes, the program includes a theater spectacle of sonnets, screenings, readings and discussion dedicated to the great British playwright, exhibition of comics and illustration from a play written by Cervantes and a performance-based reading excerpts from “entremeses” of the beloved Spanish writer.

With a program of concerts – from violin and flute or oboe, clarinet, horn, bassoon, percussion, the bandoneon concert in minority languages ​​from the Polish region of Podlasie, Greek music, French music interpreted atop a wedding dress, jazz, jam session live, festa Portuguesa, silent disco and post-techno party, the 10^th edition of the Night of Cultural Institutes offers a musical journey for all tastes.

The night of June 24 also brings several exhibition projects: a comic dialogue, based on improvisation, a graffiti performance, a sculpture exhibition, comics and illustration exhibition “En Miguel Cervantes. Panorama wonders” exhibition of gathered objects “B L A N K”, architecture exhibition, product design, fashion and graphic design “Romanian Design Week Classics”, a clothing exhibition named “Traditional Greek Costumes, the exhibition “The most beautiful books“, a photo exhibitions “Azulejo: Story of tiles“, “Romy Schneider” or “Immota Manet” (showing in black and white photographs the consequences of the earthquake in L’Aguila).

The film offer is also interesting: Jonas Carpignano’s Mediterranea, one of three finalist in competition for the LUX Prize 2015 awarded by the European Parliament; Prospero’s Books directed by Peter Greenaway; Romanian Short Waves 9: Romanian short films presented at Cannes 2016; Short from Spain, short films selected by the Institute of Cinematography and Visual Arts in Spain; Ernst Marishka’s Sissi I (with Romy Schneider in the role of Empress Elisabeth of Austria); La Passante du Sans-Souci by Jacques Rouffio in a recent cinematic interpretation of the famous Franco-German actresses, or Whisper me if I forget by Cagan Irmak.

Language courses, games and debates intercultural on diversity and stereotypes, theater performances and workshops for children and adults – including the traditional Turkish art of drawing on water, ebru, or the one where children learn to build their little house for birds using papier-mâché technique – will complete the multidisciplinary range on June 24. And we also have culinar surprises at the Night of Cultural Institutes, the cultural marathon participants are invited to taste Turkish and Polish dishes and try the famous Hungarian goulash or traditional spaghetti, prepared live.

The program will take place between the hours 12 00–02: 30 in 12 cultural spaces in Bucharest: ARCUB – Gabroveni, British Council, Czech Centre, Turkish Cultural Center “Yunus Emre”, Green Hours, Goethe-Institut, Balassi Institute – Hungarian Institute in Bucharest, Cervantes Institute, Romanian Cultural Institute, French Institute, Italian Institute of Culture and European Public Space, which will host over 50 events proposed by 15 cultural institutions.

A project organized by EUNIC Bucharest, with the support of the European Commission Representation in Romania.

Public access is free.

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Find the full program and map the spaces that host events in the leaflet attached. NIC10 application can be downloaded from the Google Play Store.

During the European Film Festival 2015, the EUNIC Bucharest Cluster has supported a special two-day focus on the filmmaking from the Ukraine and Republic of Moldova. With the contribution of several cultural institutes (the Austrian Cultural Forum, the Czech Center, the French Institute, the Romanian Cultural Institute and the Polish Institute) and with the support of the UNDP regional office for Europe and Central Asia, 7 productions were screened at Cinema Elvire Popesco.

This event aimed to improve the presence of the Ukrainian and Moldavian film industry on the international stage, but also to reinforce the EU cultural initiatives in these the non-EU member countries, in order to offer best practices to the EUNIC Cluster in Ukraine and to support the creation of a new EUNIC Cluster in the Republic of Moldova. Indeed, their strategical position represents a major issue within the European Neighborhood Policy.

The focus was targeted towards a large audience in Bucharest, from young people to elder movie fans. With a number of almost 250 spectators in total, the goal was reached (as it also was during the Cronograf festival in Republic of Moldova and the Molodist international festival in Ukraine). This was achieved thanks to a good communication strategy, achieved both internally, externally, among the media partners but also nearby the general public, though printed and electronic materials, but also posts and updates on the social media sites. Furthermore, most of the movies were accompanied by Q&A sessions, with the presence of the following producers:

• The Gipsy Baron: producers Michaela Ronzoni, Antony Jacobson, Oleg Diordiev
• Chisinau and Kiev: producers and directors: Miroslaw Dembinski and Miroslawa Dembinska
• Arrivederci: director and producer: Valeriu Jereghi

On the 11^th of May, a discussion panel on film production took place in collaboration with UNATC and the internet platform All About Romanian Cinema. Around 50 persons participated at the panel, along the guests: Michaela Ronzoni, Antony Jacobson, Oleg Diordiev, Olga Zhurzhenko, Miroslaw Dembinski, Miroslawa Dembinska, Valeriu Jereghi, Cristina Flutur, Alex Traila and Ada Solomon.

Through this special focus, we haven’t only accentuated the presence of EU cultural initiatives in the Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova by offering a common platform of communication on filmmaking through the European Film Festival, but we also gave them the opportunity to present some of the best productions made in these countries situated at the borders of the European Union.

The European Literature Night initiative is coordinated by EUNIC Bucharest: the mission of this Cluster is to promote European values and to contribute to cultural diversity through collaboration between 14 European cultural institutes in Bucharest.Organized for the first time in 2012, after three successful editions, the 2015’s Literature Night in Bucharest takes place in Parc Carol.It will be and amazing experience when books and readers will meet at the Technic Museum and also at the Astronomic Observatory.The purpose of this event is to offer European countries the opportunity to present their contemporary writing in translation and to promote new voices of the European literature in a creative way.The European Literature Night concept is based on the assumption that literature is a unique and creative tool that reflects the elementary dialogue between single voices and cultures through shared reading experience. Literature is the tool of mutual understanding helping to break communication barriers.Translation and publishing is crucial to literature. European Literature Night celebrates and supports the translation of contemporary writing and works together with publishers to increase the availability of European literature.
The readers are the most prominent Romanian actors, well-known journalists, poets, rappers and among them celebrities.I wish you a wonderful and entertaining European Literature Night in Bucharest!Christophe POMEZPresidentEUNIC BucharestCultural Attaché, Director of the French Institute in Bucharest

The European-Chinese Cultural Dialogue, which took place in Bucharest between 15-17 October 2014, was a success. This is what the participants of the sixth edition concluded, following three intense days of events. The dialogue, which is organized on an annual basis by EUNIC in collaboration with the Chinese Academy of Arts, was coordinated this year by the Romanian Cultural Institute.

The theme of the 6^th European-Chinese Cultural Dialogue, “Public Spaces – EU and China Sharing Perspectives”, is of particular contemporary relevance due to the world’s process of rapid urbanization. The outlook of future cities represents a major challenge for both Europeans and the Chinese.

The participants amounted to over one hundred architects, artists, and decision-makers in cultural policies from Europe and China. They discussed the possibilities of artists making public spaces more dynamic by endowing them with novel values and meanings, and by involving citizens. Other issues that stood out during the proceedings featured: the economic, cultural and social weight of such participatory attitudes towards public spaces; the creation of sustainable cities; creative images and visions about future urban spaces.

“Your presence here, in Bucharest, convinced me that everything is possible when multiple determined inclinations converge, as they are driven by the most generous of intentions,” declared Lilian Zamfiroiu, the President of the Romanian Cultural Institute, the host of the event.

“Nowadays, 70 percent of China’s population lives in cities, thus facing an array of problems typical of such environments: traffic, pollution, etc. These issues must be solved,” said professor Don Ya from Tianjin University. He also made a remark on Bucharest having many buildings similar to those from China in the 1950s, the so-called matchbox-type apartment buildings. “I am not sure if available solutions are similar in Europe and China, but we discovered that many of the problems are,” noticed Liviu Jicman, the vice-president of the Romanian Cultural Institute.

Moreover, Mary McCarthy, the event’s curator and director of the National Sculpture Factory in Cork (Ireland), underlined at the end of the three days that “the dialogue among artists is different from that of politicians. It often is more efficient. In Bucharest, we pursued genuine and open interactions, which triggered numerous ideas.”

The organizers of the event emphasized that one of the most important accomplishments of the 6^th edition of the European-Chinese Cultural Dialogue, was the program of residencies in the European cities of Vienna, Linz, Berlin, Stockholm, Bruxelles, and Cork. During one month, seven artists from China and Hong Kong experienced new creative opportunities and shared, in Bucharest, their findings. One of them, architect Bu Bing from Shanghai told the story of Strömbrom, a bridge in Stockholm that has pillars at varying elevations. “It is a fitting metaphor for our dialogue: two different cultures that raise a bridge between them,” concluded Mary McCarthy.

For Romania, the European-Chinese Cultural Dialogue held particular significance from one point of view: in 2014 we celebrate sixty-five years of Romanian-Chinese diplomatic relations. “It is an anniversary very dear to us. Even though Romania and China are situated at opposite corners of the globe, the two countries long established the best of bilateral relations, which is most obvious in the organization of this event and in the founding of the Romanian Cultural Institute in Beijing. The latter aims to become an interface between Romanian and Chinese cultures,” declared Lilian Zamfiroiu.

The European-Chinese Cultural Dialogue originated in a very simple idea: the creation of a framework for the two worlds to come together, to showcase the best of both cultures, and to share and search together for solutions to the challenges of our times.

See here the trilingual brochure of the event.