Category: Projects

European Film Festival 2016, the 20th edition

European Film Festival takes place between 5-29 of May 2016. The Festival is organized by the Romanian Cultural Institute, with the support of the Representation of the European Commission in Romania, under EUNIC Bucharest’s aegis.

The screenings is hosted by six cities in Romania. Four of them are competing for the title of 2021 European Cultural Capital: Bucharest, Baia Mare, Cluj, Timisoara. Other two cities, Hunedoara and Tîrgu Mureș, are traditional partners of the Festival.

The European Film Festival is a project initiated in 1996, by the Delegation of the European Commission in Romania, in order to celebrate Europe’s Day, on 9th of May. After 2007, when Romania joined the European Union, the Festival was taken over by the Romanian Cultural Institute, which organized it every year since then, the 2016 edition of the Festival being a celebratory one, the 20th.

The Festival offers its audience all kind of films, as European Union’s diversity is illustrated at its best by the multicultural, savory and whimsical European cinematography. The selection was performed by the organizers with the assistance of the Embassies of EU Member States, with the Cultural Institutes and Centers, and supplemented with valuable contributions from distributors of European films, Independența Film and Transilvania Film.

This year’s selection is the richest: 85 films, originating from 27 countries. This year’s edition includes also 4 thematic sections: Shakespeare 400 benefited from the support of the British Council. 10 Friends of EFF – a section created with the generous contribution of 10 directors, honorary ambassadors of the Festival in the latest 10 years. LUX Film Prize and Escape in Europe sections were developed with the assistance of the European Parliament Information Office in Romania and the Festival One World Romania.

Partners: the Filmmakers Union of Romania, the Romanian National Film Archive, Elvire Popesco Cinema Partners in local editions: Baia Mare: Baia Mare 2021 Foundation, Baia Mare City Hall Cluj-Napoca: Cluj 2021 Association, Cluj-Napoca City Hall Hunedoara: Corvin Castle Museum, Faculty of Engineering, Hunedoara City Hall Timișoara: Timișoara City Hall, Timișoara Culture Hall, Ambasada – project initiated by CASA PLAI Association Tîrgu Mureș: K’arte Association, ARTA Cinema, Tîrgu-Mureș City Hall.

European Literature Night 2015 by EUNIC Bucharest, 9 october

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

6th EU – Chinese Cultural Dialogue

6th EU – Chinese Cultural Dialogue, 16 – 18 October 2014 – Bucharest, Romania

After 5 succesful editions, the EU-Chinese Cultural Dialogue is coming back this year to discuss new interesting issues, thanks to the multilateral cooperation of EUNIC Global, the Romanian Institute and the CNAA.

The general aim of the EU-Chinese Cultural Dialogues is to extend existing cultural relations and bilateral exchange activities into a long-term cultural dialogue on important topics of cultural cooperation between Europe and China.

This year the EUNIC 6D event proposes an opportunity to get an overview on the importance of Public Space from a European and Chinese perspective, examining trends, outlining potential challenges and opportunities in the design, management and the use of public space. An exploration on the value of well designed public spaces and the role of artists in making a good public space in Europe and China and how they can contribute to the well-being in cities.

 

The four panel discussions will focus on the role of artists and cultural practitioners in the design and place making process:

 

Panel 1 – How artists can animate (add new value,  interpretation and engagement of people) public spaces ?

 

Panel 2 – The value (economic cultural and social) of involving artists /cultural practitioners in  the design and management of public spaces

 

Panel 3 – How artists can be involved in creating sustainable cities?

 

Panel 4 – Creative imaginings and visions on the future

 

This session plans to bring new formats and enable artistic exchanges, as well as facilitating best practice sharing and opportunities to learn from each other’s experiences. The 6D also aims to contextualize with ‘EU-China Partnership on Sustainable Urbanisation’ – the initiative launched by European Commission in 2012.

The 6th European-Chinese cultural dialogue – PUBLIC SPACES: EU and China share perspectives

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 6th 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 6th 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.

Night of the Cultural Institutes

The eighth edition of the Night of the Cultural Institutes will take place on 20 June 2014 in Bucharest. It will be an exciting cultural night starting early and ending very late!

The organizers, 13 cultural centers and institutes and embassies, members of the EUNIC Bucharest Cluster, together with the Representation of the European Commission in Romania and the Information Office of the European Parliament in Romania, have prepared a very interesting and rich program of great diversity, that will animate the city center and will charm the public: films, music, theater, poetry, dance, creative workshops, readings, language classes, exhibitions, alternative and interactive events, performances, tastings and fairs.

The entrance to all the events scheduled at the Night of the Cultural Institutes is free.

The detailed program is available on the Facebook page.

Mr. Benoit Rutten, Delegate of Wallonia-Brussels, is the President of the EUNIC Bucharest Cluster for 2013-2014 and the Night of the Cultural Institutes is coordinated by the Delegation of Wallonia-Brussels in Bucharest.

European Literature Night 2014 Bucharest

The third edition of the European Literature Night in Bucharest will take place on May 28, from 19:00 until 23:30.

13 cultural institutes and embassies, members of the EUNIC Bucharest Cluster invite the public in 6 venues situated in a charming area of Bucharest which will host the event.

The public can attend public readings or performances based on the translations into Romanian of the works of some important European authors :  Daniel Glattauer (Austria), Karel Čapek (Czech Republic), Aléa Torik – attending the event (Germany), Odysseas Elytis and Yorgos Seferis (Greece), Italo Calvino (Italy), Hilary Mantel, Sarah Dunant, Philippa Gregory and William Shakespeare (Great Britain), Michał Walczak (Poland), Rui Zink (Portugal), Ioana Pârvulescu and Simona Sora (Romania), Ramón Gómez de la Serna (Spain), Orhan Pamuk (Turkey), Attila Mizser and Béla Hamvas (Hungary) and Alain Berenboom (Wallonia-Brussels).

The lectors are young and very talented Romanian actors, well-known journalists and writers, University Professors, students as well as firefighters.

The program is available on the Facebook page.

Mr. Benoit Rutten, Delegate of Wallonia-Brussels, is the President of EUNIC Bucharest Cluster for 2013-2014 and the European Literature Night is coordinated by the Delegation of Wallonia-Brussels in Bucharest.

European Day of Languages

Organised jointly by the EU and the Council of Europe, the European Day of Languages continues its effort to raise public awareness of the languages used in Europe, to promote cultural and linguistic diversity and to encourage people – schoolchildren and adults – to learn languages.

The celebration was held September 26, 2013 at the Goethe-Institut Thessaloniki on an “Doors Open Day” and by creating a “EUNIC Corner” (British Council, Goethe-Institut, Institut Francais, Istituto Itialano, Spanish Cultural Center Thessaloniki) informing visitors about European languages.