More than 60,000 participants in the events organized in 32 locations in Timișoara during this weekend

The Official Opening of the Timișoara 2023 – European Capital of Culture Cultural Program took place this weekend, during which the residents of Timișoara, as well as the tourists present, had the opportunity to experience a diverse range of unique events.

By Romanița Oprea

From the first part of this event that inaugurates the Opening of the Cultural Program, the participants of the events could enjoy a suite of exhibitions, most of which will remain open after this first moment of celebration: Victor Brauner: Inventions and magic (17 February – May 28), You are another me – A cathedral of the body (February 17 – April 30), Mircea Nicolae – Small things, precious things (February 17 – April 23), New Times: Xenogenesis of SF (February 17 – April 2), Ritzi Jacobi & Peter Jacobi. Textures of memory. Five decades of creation (17 February – 5 May), Made up histories have long lives (17 February – 16 April), Bright Cityscapes: Mirroring the ecosystem (17 February – 2 April), Minitremu 10+ (17 February – 4 December).

The central collective exhibition Chronic Desire – Chronic Thirst (February 17 – April 23) could be visited in various spaces in the city: the Maria Theresia Bastion, the Timișoara Garrison Command, the “Corneliu Miklosi” Public Transport Museum and the Stefania Palace, during the opening weekend, over 10000 visitors crossing their threshold. The nursery architecture installation. 1306 Plants for Timișoara, which will remain open throughout the year, attracted thousands of people every day who were able to admire the Victoriei Square from above

The Opening show brought together over 17,000 people on the streets of Timișoara and especially in Unirii Square. The artists who kicked off this weekend, as early as Friday evening, were Doctorul Sinteză and Dj K-lu, followed by the Timisoara-based band Implant Pentru Refuz, along with special guests: Adrian Despot, Dan Byron, Ovidiu Takacs, Ovidiu Vinereanu, Dora Gaitanovici and Ukrainian soloist Alyona Alyona. In the continuation of the evening, the audience enjoyed the sensational aerial show, Muaré Experience, offered by the Spanish company Voalá Project, together with the Duchamp Pilot band.

The Balkan rhythms were brought to the stage in Piața Unirii by the instrumentalists from Taraf de Caliu, together with the band Impex, tambalist Alexei Ciobanu and Filip Simeonov. The Opening Night ended with the electronic music of the German DJ Fritz Kalkbrenner.

On the second day of the Opening, the Swedish-British artist Jay Jay Johanson was the central figure of the evening, performing a unique concert on the stage of the Palace of Culture in Timișoara. The end of the Official Opening was marked by the sounds of the violinist Lajkó Félix, accompanied by the Vołosi band.

This weekend was just the beginning of an unrepeatable year, which will highlight the best that the city of Timișoara has to offer, through the values that contributed to its construction: innovation, multiculturalism, diversity.

The mayor of Timișoara, Dominic Fritz, mentioned that this weekend was a real success, also thanks to the extraordinary energy of the people of Timișoara:

“It was a weekend in which Timișoara and the people of Timișoara shone for the whole of Europe. We have shown why we deserve this title: we are a lively, creative, welcoming and diverse city.

The first figures show more than 60,000 participants in the events organized in 32 locations these days. Everywhere was full. I bow to the creativity and energy of the organizers who staged 130 cultural events in 3 days. I would like to thank all those who made all this cultural gear work like wheels: the more than 1,000 volunteers, the hundreds of professionals in uniform, my colleagues from the Project Center, from the City Hall, from the Timișoara Capital Cultural Association, all those who made sure that public services worked.

And I tell the people of Timişoara and our visitors that this was just the beginning of a year in which more than 1,000 other cultural events await us that bring us together”.

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“I had the joy of bringing the Victor Brauner exhibition in front of over 6 thousand art lovers. Through this exceptional project, we are positioning Timișoara in the vanguard of the artistic elite at the European level. The Timiș County Council has invested over 2 million euros in the cultural infrastructure from The Timișoara National Art Museum and the results were not slow to appear. The important officials, but also the people of culture who crossed our threshold at the Timișoara National Art Museum, welcomed this first retrospective of Victor Brauner in his country of origin and gave us assured that they will make it known throughout Europe. I thank all the partners who made this project possible and which has thousands of hours of work behind it,” said Alin Nica, president of the Timiș County Council.

The Timisoara European Capital of Culture program continues throughout the year, encouraging those interested in art, show, performance, philosophy, architecture, design, cultural diversity, education, film, poetry, book and dance, to participate in all the events that put Timisoara on the map of European capitals of culture.

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