Timisoara is stepping into light, on Friday, with an exceptional programme that marks its debut as European Capital of Culture, including concerts, exhibitions, debates, screenings, light, colour and movement shows, which will animate all the city’s neighbourhoods.
“This is an extraordinary chance to show the entire world the potential that Timisoara has, which becomes, for a year, a great stage for the international culture,” says the Timisoara City Hall in a press release.
On Friday, Timisoara will write history, starting 7.00 pm, when the Unirii Square will open the TM2023 programme, with a show that will take the audience through all the areas of performing art. It will be a celebration of community, which will show, once again, that the inhabitants of Timisoara are welcoming hosts and valuable members of the European community.
Access to all the events in the Square is free of charge. Also free of charge is public transport during the weekend February 17-19.
As of 1.00 pm, the Banat Philharmonic will host the launch of a special stamp issue themed “Timisoara – European Capital of Culture, in the presence of presidential adviser Sergiu Nistor and a Culture Ministry representative.
As of 3.00 pm “Chronic Desire – Sete Cronica”exhibition will be varnished at the Garrison in Piata Libertatii, and at 4.00 pm there will take place the varnishing of the exhibition “Victor Brauner: Inventions and Magic”, at the National Art Museum.
As of 4.45 pm, the “Timisoara – European Capital of Culture” Gala Ceremony will take place at the Palace of Culture, and at 7.00 pm the audience will be able to enjoy a series of shows in the Unirii Square.
More than 100 high-ranked officials from 41 countries will be present in Timisoara on the weekend of the official opening of the Timisoara 2023 – European Capital of Culture programme.
The Royal House of Romania will be represented by Her Majesty Margareta, Custodian of the Romanian Crown, and His Royal Highness Prince Radu of Romania, and European Commissioner Adina Valean will present the city with the “Melina Mercouri” award of the European Commission, which is awarded to European capitals of culture.
Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca will also be in Timisoara on Friday, to participate, at the Palace of Culture, in the official opening of the Timisoara 2023 – European Capital of Culture programme.
Also, more than 16,000 locals and visitors are expected to show up for the opening event in the Unirii Square, “We Celebrate Opening.”
For the first time in Timisoara, hearing-impaired people in the audience will benefit from the artistic interpretation of the concerts in Unirii Square. On Friday, between 7.25 and 10.00 pm, Lavinia Chitu, one of the rare concert interpreters in Romanian sign language, will be on stage with the artists, will translate the lyrics and reproduce the rhythm of the music, so that people with hearing impairments to be able to enjoy a memorable show.
On all three days of the opening event, between 10.00 and 5.00 pm, the fascinating XR Show Spotlight Heritage Timisoara will take place, offering guided tours of the Experimentarium (Polytechnic University of Timisoara), which include physics demonstrations and chemistry experiments that are meant to bring science closer to the audience.
To see what the organizers have prepared for these three days, those interested can access https://opening.timisoara2023.eu/program/.
Mayor Fritz expecting up to one million visitors in Timisoara for European Capital of Culture year
The opening gong of the great spectacle of the European Capital of Culture (ECC) 2023 will sound in Timisoara today for the official opening that will take place in the presence of dozens of European Union and non-EU ambassadors, ministers of culture, Romanian and foreign cultural officials.
Timisoara Mayor Dominic Fritz told the opening of an international news conference on Friday morning that Timisoara is expecting between 500,000 and 1,000,000 people in 2023.
He added that “Timisoara, with its history of diversity, innovation and courage is an example for Europe, and through culture and arts we can tell its story and thus bring a new focus on the role of this region of Eastern Europe, of Romania in this wonderful design that Europe is.”
The mayor of the European Capital of Culture 2023 reviewed the city’s progress from 2015-2016, when he expressed his intention to win the title, and said that the ECC’s cultural programme has cost 44 million euros since its inception, which includes the preparation period, of which 40 million euros from three public financiers (Timisoara City Hall, Timis County Council and the Ministry of Culture) and 4 million euros raised from private financiers.
“In all, there are investments of 150 million euros in cultural infrastructure for this title. Not all projects will be opened this year; they will be opened in the following years as well, as we are transforming cinema halls, the former water tower and other cultural attractions,” said Fritz, according to Agerpres.
European Commissioner Adina Valean said that the ECC title is not only symbolic, only for promoting the tourist and cultural brand of a city; it is not only a diploma or an award, but it is a European programme among the most popular to make Europeans showcase their cultural heritage so diverse in the EU’s vision, to practice sustainable tourism.
“I am in the city of courage, of multiculturalism and I can assure you that in Brussels I will be a constant ambassador of Timisoara ECC,” said Valean.
County chair Alin Nica said in his turn that in addition to the 5 million euros that the Timis County Council has pledged to invest in the ECC programme, the amount will reach 8 million euros, “which will enrich the cultural programme, leading to a much higher quality level.”
He also showed that the two-year postponement of the ECC programme due to the COVID-19 pandemic offered a chance to enrich the cultural programme and gave time to adjust it for new realities.
Romascanu: What happens during the European Capital of Culture should always happen in Timisoara
What happens now during the European Capital of Culture programme should happen all the time in Timisoara, the Minister of Culture, Lucian Romascanu, said on Friday, at the international press conference occasioned by the opening of the big event in Timisoara.
Lucian Romascanu started his speech by greeting the audience in several languages stating that “Timisoara is already a multicultural, perhaps even European capital of culture, since always.”
“This is the place where countless nationalities live in a very good understanding and what we are doing with this cultural capital programme is only to expand what Timisoara has been doing for a very long time,” said Romascanu.
He stated that he is happy that the European Capital of Culture title was postponed for two years because it would not have been a good idea for this to happen during the pandemic period.
“From the point of view of the involvement of the Ministry of Culture, things have already been communicated, I am happy that we can support, we were the ones who initially pre-selected the candidate cities, and Timisoara won, we managed not to have the European Capital of Culture in 2021 and to postpone for two years, because it would have been something anyway very far from what we would have wanted to have a cultural capital in the midst of a pandemic. We invested 114 million RON in cultural heritage, in cultural infrastructure, fifty and some millions of RON in cultural programmes, from this money part of the National Theatre in Timisoara, through the programmes run by the project management unit, we probably have about 25 million euros that will enter Timisoara. The Ministry of Culture is a partner (…) but I’m glad to see that Timisoara was and continues to be a cultural capital,” said the Minister of Culture.
Romascanu specified that everything that will be invested in Timisoara will be for the people of Timisoara and said that he expects “a very large number of people” to come and visit the city.
“We are not taking merits for any of this series of events, they are only from the people of Timisoara for the people of Timisoara and for Europe, and I am certain that at the end of the year we will have to count, to quantify, a whole series of successful events, a very large number of people who came to visit and saw what happened in Timisoara, a Timisoara that will benefit from all the investments this year, and all the programmes, for many years to come – we have the example of Sibiu which was placed on a higher level higher as a cultural city after it was also a European Cultural Capital in 2007,” the Minister of Culture also said.
Romascanu also thanked all the officials from other countries who are present in Timisoara for the opening of the event. “There is quite a lot of interest on the part of all Romania’s friends for this cultural challenge, because in the end it is like an an extraordinary exercise this opening of the European Cultural Capital Timisoara 2023,” he emphasized.
Asked what he will do and what he wants to aim for in Timisoara, Romascanu said that he would like to go everywhere, to visit everything possible in the time he will have at his disposal.
“I would go everywhere. The advantage of this kind of opening is that you have the chance to meet a lot of people, I will meet with ministers of culture, colleagues working in this area. I look forward to going to the Victor Brauner exhibition,” he pointed out.
Compiled from Agerpres
Photo: Facebook/Dominic Fritz
