What to do this weekend

At a loose end? BR brings you the best of Bucharest’s cultural highlights for the weekend ahead.

OUTDOOR

BESTFEST

July 4-7, Tunari

British alternative rock band Texas will perform for the first time in Romania this summer, during the B’estfest Summer Camp music festival. Other names confirmed for B’estfest Summer Camp 2013 are Chase & Status, Noisia, Soilwork, Tiamat, Friction, Enter Shikari, Joker, Nneka and Nas. Find out more about the festival here.

A three-day pass at this year’s B’estfest edition is currently on sale for RON 200, a one-day ticket cost RON 100, while a camping voucher can be purchased for RON 40. Tickets can be bought online here.

ArCuB Live Open Air Jazz, Blues & More

Until July 7, from 19.00

George Enescu Square

After last week’s classical music journey in the George Enescu Square, now the international jazz elite will conquer the same spot. Specially designed as a meeting place for music and art lovers, the generous space near the Romanian Athenaeum turns into an unusual “musical garden”, thanks to ArCub.

Until July 7, if you want to chill out the hot days of summer, come to see ArCuB Live Open Air-Jazz, Blues & More. The lineup consists of international jazz starts James Carter and Tomasz Stańko, as well as bands from Romania, Germany, UK, Holland and US. More details here.

Caragiale’s Bucharest Festival

Until September 15

Old City, Children’s World Park, Conu’ Iancu’s restaurant

Until September 15, the State Jewish Theater, Tandarica Theater, Comedy Theater, Metropolis Theater, Masca Theater, Nottara Theater, National University of Theater and Film and Hyperion University presents the second edition of Caragiale’s Bucharest Festival. The event will include comedy, classical, modern theater and music hall performances, but also various-genre music, which can be seen in Old City, Children’s World Park and Conu’ Iancu’s restaurant at Hala Traian.

In terms of music, the festival’s organizers prepared fanfare music, Romanian traditional folk music sung by the famous Maria Tanase, operreta and opera music.

The admission is free of charge. The entire program of the festival can be seen here, in Romanian language only.

DISCOVER BUCHAREST

Art in Bucharest – no. 15 – My Friday afternoon with artists

July 5, 13.00, Piata Unirii meeting point

RON 80, subscription at art@artinbucharest.com or by phone at 0726.008.152 (Daniela Staicu)

This Friday, ‘Art in Bucharest’ will take you to a journey through four artists’ studios, connecting you to the passion and the joy of creation. During four hours and a half, there will be a tour through those artists who work with materials varying from glass, to pencils, and food. Lucian Butucariu (stained glass artist), Vasile Muresan Murivale (painter), Marius Tudosiei (food artist) and Ioan Atanasiu Delamare (grafic designer, painter) are those visited.

The Art Deco architecture of Domenii quarter, Bucharest

July 6, 11.30-14.00

Reservations: v.mandache@gmail.com / 0040 (0)728.323.272

Tour available in Romanian and English, RON 35

The tour offers a guide through a quite special section of Bucharest, in the past housing a part of city’s elite, composed mainly from medium and high ranking government workers from the inter-war Ministry of Agriculture and State Domains, hence the name “Domains” (Domenii in Romanian) for this quarter. The area has been developed between the early 1920s and the late 1940s. The beauty of the architecture found in this corner of Bucharest, a large part of it developed during the years of the fascist dictatorship, war time and the dawn of the Stalinist regime, is a testimony to the resilience of the human spirit in the course of those adverse upheavals.

Walking tour in Mosilor quarter of Bucharest

July 7 11.30-14.00

Reservations: v.mandache@gmail.com / 0040 (0)728.323.272

Tour available in Romanian and English, RON 35

The tour offers a guide through one of the most picturesque areas of historic Bucharest, that has known a spectacular development after the unification of the Principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia in the aftermath of the Crimean War. It is located on the road stemming from the old city toward Moldavia, known in the olden times as “The Highway” (“Drumul Mare”). Its name comes from that of the famous Mosilor fair, held outside Bucharest’s walls, where traders and peasants from Moldavia and north-eastern Wallachia came with their goods and products.

EXHIBITION

Visual Power: 21st Century Native American Artists/ Intellectuals

America 24/7

The National Library

The American Bucharest Corner was inaugurated on June 20 at the National Library and two exhibitions take place: “Visual Power: 21st Century Native American Artists/ Intellectuals.” which shows Native American contributions as scholars, professors, museum curators, and writers as well as makers of traditional fine arts, video and photography to document their cultural heritage and their struggle for sovereignty and a second poster exhibit, “America 24/7”, accompanied by a book, the result of a project by American author and publisher, David Elliot Cohen, and American photographer, Rick Smolan. More than 25,000 digital photographers across the U.S. – including 36 Pulitzer Prize winners – responded to the invitation to take pictures of their towns, families, neighbors and friends for 24 hours a day for seven days. The best photos capturing the diverse authentic America were included in the exhibit. More details, here.

Q.E.D. by Mircea Cantor

The National Museum of Contemporary Art

Until April 2014

More than 1,200 people have attended the opening of the first local solo exhibition of one of the most important young artists to emerge on the international scene over the last decade: Mircea Cantor, winner of the Prix Marcel Duchamp Award 2011. The QED exhibition, the largest survey of the artist’s works to date, comprises 30 pieces. More details here.

The Human Body

Antipa Museum

Until August 4

One of the most realistic exhibitions in the world, The Human Body, will stop for the first time in Bucharest, at AntipaMuseum, from March 22 to June 30. The exhibition includes more than 200 pieces – human bodies which through dissection of organs and tissue offer a three dimensional perspective of the miracle of the human body. More about this exhibition, here.

“Live tropical butterflies”

Antipa Museum

Until July 31

Starting on May 1, the AntipaMuseum will host the “Live tropical butterflies”, a temporary exhibition organized in collaboration with the “House of Butterflies” and the Vulticulus Geography Society. Visitors will have the possibility of seeing over 30 species of exotic butterflies flying freely in the special greenhouse set up within the “Antipa” Museum’s garden, but they can also witness the “birth” of butterflies. The exhibition can be visited from May 1 to July 31. Tickets cost RON 10 per child/student and RON 12 per adult/pensioner.

Treasures of China

The National Museum of History

Until July 30

Local culture enthusiasts are now able to enjoy a traveling exhibition of China’s Terracotta Warriors: thousands of life-size terracotta figures from an army prepared for battle. Found by coincidence in 1974, they are now considered one of the greatest archeological discoveries of modern times. The exhibition features 101 rare objects – including the Terracotta Warriors – from one of the largest burial sites ever built, the Terracotta Army of the first Emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang. Four is the maximum number of these figures permitted outside China in a single exhibition. More details about the exhibition, here.

Oana Vasiliu

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