Timișoara, European Capital of Culture 2023
Timişoara looks forward with confidence to the impressive programme ahead
Corina Cristea, 20.02.2023, 13:50
A European Capital of Culture in 2023, alongside the towns of Veszprém in Hungary and Elefsina in Greece, the western Romanian city of Timişoara launched the first events in the programme this weekend.
For 3 days, as many as 130 cultural events brought together 500 artists from Romania and abroad. Some 15,000 visitors and over 100 senior officials, representing over 40 countries on 3 continents, attended the events.
Timişoara turned into a huge art gallery, with many collective and personal exhibitions scattered around the city. Music concerts, theatre performances, film screenings and giant puppet parades, community roundtables, a digital culture festival, the opening of a 5-level nursery with 1,300 plants in Victory Square for biodiversity education, as well as a book launch occasioned by the great sculptor Constantin Brâncuşis birthday were also among the highlights.
The artist Dan Perjovschi presented his mobile exhibition, a tram decorated with drawings and messages related to the contemporary social, political and cultural life. “It is an exhibition that doesnt wait for people to come see it, but instead it goes out to find people,” the artist said, explaining that the goal was to bring his works to people who do not usually go to museums.
One of the most interesting events was the opening of an exhibition on the Romanian artist Victor Brauner, the first such retrospective in his home country.
The remarkable 3-day display of culture came to an end around midnight on Sunday, but the show will go on, as the programme Timişoara – European Capital of Culture is only beginning, the organisers said.
At the end of the opening weekend, the mayor Dominic Fritz said Timişoara conveyed its message with courage this weekend. “The values that have built this city-inovation, multiculturalism, diversity-were seen and heard across Europe,” he pointed out. “Timişoara, officially a European Capital of Culture for 2023, looks forward with confidence to the impressive show to follow until next February. Over 1,000 events are planned, conveying an international message that speaks about the citys cultural values, disseminated by the hundreds of diplomats and journalists that were here this weekend, and by the around one million visitors expected to come here during the year. Timişoara still has a lot to show, and everybody is welcome,” Dominic Fritz added.
Attending the opening weekend, the European Commissioner Adina Vălean awarded Timişoara the Melina Mercouri prize, worth 1.5 million euro, regularly grated to the European capitals of culture that fulfil their programme commitments. (AMP)
