Many thanks Public Works for your long term collaboration and friendship!

Over the last decades, economic inequality and insecurity have only increased. There’s the financial capitalist economy as the key operator for this

An exhibition organised in the frame of the project C4R (Cultures for Resilience), by tranzit.ro, in collaboration with Atelier d'Architecture Autogérée (FR), Casco Art Institute (NL), Nethood (CH), in partnership with Minitremu Association (RO) and supported by the Creative Europe Program of the European Commission. 2 – 15 July 2023 Riverside Pavilion / Children’s Park Ion Creangă, Timișoara A research exhibition comprising documentation produced in the C4R activities, as well as artworks and documents related to a localised understanding of resilience. The first edition of the exhibition took place in July 2022 in Bucharest, moving to Sofia in September 2022 in an adapted version and with some works presented in premiere. The third edition in Timișoara shows a selection of works from the previous two editions, alongside new contributions that respond to the context of the project and to Minitremu Art Camp 8 intended for high-school students. The new iteration of the exhibition expands the different understandings of the concept of resilience – both related to nature’s regenerative (im)possibilities amidst the climate challenges of the current times, and to the different forms of organization in the rural and urban areas based on an ecological, sustainable and communitarian thinking and acting. Apart from the existing research related to mapping several ecologial farms in Romania, the video presentation of 20 more artistic initiatives in nature and the rural, the presentation in Timisoara includes new initiatives and artistic work from the region closer to Banat: Healthy Places, a co-design model for green and social regeneration of community spaces in Timisoara run by Studio Peisaj; a work by Nita Mocanu documenting the results of the spruce bark beetle invasion caused by draughts and destroying the forests in the Apuseni; or Andreea Medar & Mălina Ionescu’s long research into the accidental water leak in Racoti village which has created in time a mini-delta, being the main source of water supply for the local inhabitants. The exhibition is designed as an informative and learning space activated by the artists invited in the Minitremu Art Camp 8. Participants: * atelier d’architecture autogérée, r-urban, CASCO, nethood, Remix the commons, tranzit.ro; * Gilles Clément, Georgiana Strat; * Alex Axinte, Bogdan Iancu, Monica Stroe, Alexandru Vârtej; * GreenMogo, Legumim/ Gastronaut, Luca’s Farm, Nettle Garden, Țopa Farm, Soil and Soul, Seed Bank “Casa Semintelor”; * Delia Popa, Vlad Brăteanu, Eduard Constantin, Oto Hudec, Anamaria Pravicencu, Andreea Medar & Mălina Ionescu, Nita Mocanu, Roberta Curcă, Studio Peisaj, TerraPia; * Ovidiu Țichindeleanu; * Carambach (Adriana Chiruță), Cecălaca/Csekelaka Cultural Studio (Oana Fărcaș), Crețești Studio-Garden (Delia Popa), Cucuieti Permaculture (Otilia & Radu Boeru), The Dendrological Park Romanii de Jos (V. Leac), Drenart (Stoyan Dechev, Olivia Mihălțianu), The Experimental Station for Research on Art and Life (Dana Andrei, Edi Constantin, Valentin Florian Niculae), The House of Light and Information (Matei Bejenaru), Intersecția Residency (Emanuela Ascari), Jan Hála House (Zuzana Janečková), LATERAL AIR (Cristina Curcan, Lucian Indrei), Muze. Gemüse Initiative (Maria Balabaș & Vlad Mihăescu), The Rajka Orchard (Martin Piaček), Rădești House (Irina Botea Bucan & Jon Dean), Reforesting project (Vasilis Ntouros, Dora Zoumpa), Siliștea Future Studios (Adelina Ivan, Ioana Gheorghiu, Virginia Toma, Ramon Sadîc, Robert Blaj, Vlad Brăteanu), Slon Residency (META Cultural Foundation, Raluca Doroftei), Solar Gallery (Ariana Hodorcă & Albert Kaan), Watermelon Residency (Daniela Pălimariu, Alexandru Niculescu), Na záhradke Gallery (Oto Hudec), Khata-Maysternya/House-Workshop (Bogdan Velgan, Taras Grytsiuk, Olga Dyatel, Ekaterina and Olga Zarko, Alyona Karavai, Yulia Kniupa, Taras Kovalchuk, Magda Lapshyn, Anna Mygal, Sasha Moskovchuk, Svyat Popov, Tanya Sklyar, Natalia Trambovetska, Vilya and Ivanka Chupak); symbiopoiesis (Andrei Nacu). * Raluca Voinea. Curator for Timișoara edition: Adelina Luft In the framework of the C4R project, tranzit.ro has looked at practices that redefine the relationship with the countryside, with land and soil, with nature, with food and natural resources, with the rural communities and with people in the big cities who are looking for sustainable alternatives to their life styles. All the partners in this project have used a variety of tools: anthropological and cultural mapping, conferences, discussions and seminars as well as digital platforms, in order to highlight different forms of resilience in our societies, in the East, West and North of Europe, touching on issues from the circuit of organic food, to sustainable building materials, forms of commons and of governance, communities structured around ecological thinking and action, and not least artistic initiatives that seek for linking with nature and the countryside. Some of these different understandings of the concept of resilience will be reflected in the exhibition Now the impulse is to live! As part of a project that is still in progress, the exhibition offers a format for continuous reflection on the topics researched. Riverside Pavilion, situated in Ion Creangă Children’s Park in Timișoara was created following the idea to continue the public space into the building, without having any steps or obstacles, so that interior and exterior merge together. Minitremu Art Camp is a yearly summer camp intended for theoretical, real or vocational high school students and students in their first years of college. The project is supported by the EC's Creative Europe - Culture programme. ERSTE Foundation is the main partner of tranzit. The event is part of "Outside the school" a component of the Knowledge fields (along with Kinema Ikon, Asociatia Foc si Pară / Indecis and Association Doar Maine) part of the national cultural programme "Timișoara – European Capital of Culture in the year 2023" and is funded by the City of Timișoara, through the Center for Projects. Exhibition title and cover image from a material on Luca’s Farm, by Alex Axinte.

In 2021 a group of cultural workers together with tranzit.ro, bought together a plot of land 40 km. north of Bucharest, where we are building The Experimental Station for Research on Art and Life. Amongst others, the Station aims to become a working place for artists and researchers interested in thinking a different relationship to nature. As such, we are striving to plant and maintain a garden that is responding to the challenges of climate change, which is paying attention to the local biodiversity and is at the same time permeable to metissage and cultural embedding. Cosmos Garden, drawing its name from the plant originating from Mexico, Cosmos bipinnatus, is proposed by landscape designer Georgiana Strat as “a living laboratory of experimentation for nature, art and life. The purpose is testing, observing and foregrounding of models that creatively answer to themes such as: the decrease of water resources, conservation of biodiversity, migration of plants and animal species, models of sustainable feeding, fighting desertification etc.” Georgiana Strat proposed a site analysis, a concept for the Cosmos Garden and a plan for the planting, and we presented these plans as part of the itinerating exhibition “Now the Impulse is to Live!”.

An exhibition organised in the frame of the project C4R (Cultures for Resilience), by tranzit.ro, in collaboration with Atelier d'Architecture Autogérée (FR), Casco Art Institute (NL), Nethood (CH) and in partnership with Toplocentrala (BG). 2 – 17 September 2022 Toplocentrala, 5 Emil Bersinski Street, Sofia, Bulgaria “The European Commission Joint Research Centre (EC-JRC) has warned that the current drought could be the worst in 500 years.” (Euronews, 10/08/2022) Some would equate resilience today with foolishness, utopianism, naïveté. For the world is falling apart in millions of incomprehensible pieces and apparently the realist contemplation of the disaster is all we are left with. For others yet, there are seeds to be collected and re-sowed, rainwater to be stored, communities to be invested in and cared for. We will live and we will see, as a proverb in Romania says. The propulsion for living seems to be the only solution to the mess around. Living means that the now makes sense, but this belief in the living is far from just indulging in a timeless now, it is an enacted form of hope. Some would call it resilience and associate it with skills and knowledges that have been around for long and keep resurfacing, upgraded following the challenge of the current times; or with trust in non-human species, which are most of the times doing their job in protecting each other much better than sophisticated and destructive chemicals produced in sealed labs; or they would simply see resilience as the bliss of sharing (crops, ideas, friends, predictions and uncertainties). Participants: * atelier d’architecture autogérée, r-urban, CASCO, nethood, Remix the commons, tranzit.ro; * Gilles Clément, Georgiana Strat; * Alex Axinte, Bogdan Iancu, Monica Stroe, Alexandru Vârtej; * GreenMogo, Legumim/ Gastronaut, Luca’s Farm, Nettle Garden, Țopa Farm, Soil and Soul, Seed Bank “Casa Semintelor”; * Vlad Basalici, Vlad Brăteanu, Adriana Chiruță, Eduard Constantin, Oto Hudec, Delia Popa, Sorin Popescu, Anamaria Pravicencu; * Ovidiu Țichindeleanu; * New Rural Agenda, Adelina Luft; * Carambach (Adriana Chiruță), Cecălaca/Csekelaka Cultural Studio (Oana Fărcaș), Crețești Studio-Garden (Delia Popa), Cucuieti Permaculture (Otilia & Radu Boeru), The Dendrological Park Romanii de Jos (V. Leac), Drenart (Stoyan Dechev, Olivia Mihălțianu), The Experimental Station for Research on Art and Life (Dana Andrei, Edi Constantin, Valentin Florian Niculae), The House of Light and Information (Matei Bejenaru), Intersecția Residency (Emanuela Ascari), Jan Hála House (Zuzana Janečková), LATERAL AIR (Cristina Curcan, Lucian Indrei), Muze. Gemüse Initiative (Maria Balabaș & Vlad Mihăescu), The Rajka Orchard (Martin Piaček), Rădești House (Irina Botea Bucan & Jon Dean), Reforesting project (Vasilis Ntouros, Dora Zoumpa), Siliștea Future Studios (Adelina Ivan, Ioana Gheorghiu, Virginia Toma, Ramon Sadîc, Robert Blaj, Vlad Brăteanu), Slon Residency (META Cultural Foundation, Raluca Doroftei), Solar Gallery (Ariana Hodorcă & Albert Kaan), Watermelon Residency (Daniela Pălimariu, Alexandru Niculescu), Na záhradke Gallery (Oto Hudec). A research exhibition comprising documentation produced in the C4R activities, as well as artworks and documents related to a localised understanding of resilience. The first edition of the exhibition took place in July 2022 in Bucharest and it is now moving to Sofia, in an adapted version, and with some works presented in premiere. In the framework of the C4R project, tranzit.ro has looked at practices that redefine the relationship with the countryside, with land and soil, with nature, with food and natural resources, with the rural communities and with people in the big cities who are looking for sustainable alternatives to their life styles. All the partners in this project have used a variety of tools: anthropological and cultural mapping, conferences, discussions and seminars as well as digital platforms, in order to highlight different forms of resilience in our societies, in the East, West and North of Europe, touching on issues from the circuit of organic food, to sustainable building materials, forms of commons and of governance, communities structured around ecological thinking and action, and not least artistic initiatives that seek for linking with nature and the countryside. Some of these different understandings of the concept of resilience are reflected in the exhibition Now the impulse is to live!. As part of a project that is still in progress, the exhibition offers a format for continuous reflection on the topics researched. CCA Toplocentrala is the new public cultural institute in Sofia, established in a close collaboration between the Sofia Municipality and the independent scene of contemporary art in Bulgaria. The centre provides a platform for performing arts and music and has an exhibition program, focused on contemporary art and its social, educational and community impact. The project is supported by the EC's Creative Europe - Culture programme. Exhibition title from a material on Luca’s Farm, by Alex Axinte Image: Zaharia Helinger: Watermelon, 1979, acrylic on cardboard. Presented by Watermelon Residency (Daniela Pălimariu, Alex Niculescu)

The exhibition "Travelling Farm Museum of Forgotten Skills 2022 Spring Collection" opens on the 28th of May at Casco, Utrecht, the Netherlands. Travelling Farm Museum of Forgotten Skills (TFM) was established by Casco Art Institute and The Outsiders in 2020 after our joint initiative to enliven and common a dysfunctional farmhouse in Utrecht’s Leidsche Rijn with multiple self-initiated activities of caring, learning and sharing. Once a vast, peripheral farmland providing food to the region, Leidsche Rijn is now occupied by housing blocks and over forty-thousand human inhabitants. Deprived of its surrounding farmland, the farmhouse reactivated by The Outsiders, Casco and many other neighbours and friends was eventually sold to a private developer and repurposed as a restaurant.  Yet our commoning journey has continued, in the same way one of our initial questions – ‘’do we know where our food comes from?’’ – remains ever more relevant. Departing from the farmhouse, Casco Art Institute and The Outsiders started travelling in the region and actively explored the agricultural past and present. We started connecting with old and new farming initiatives across Leidsche Rijn, creating the possibility to un/learn and share forgotten skills of living together with nature. The Museum architecture is a mobile vehicle that merges into its environment as it travels. It is a tangible repository for a growing collection of objects, knowledge, skills, and stories. Above all, it is a repository for the TFM’s relationships between farmers, citizens, artists and non-human beings. "Travelling Farm Museum of Forgotten Skills 2022 Spring Collection" is the first collection-exhibition of the museum held at Casco Art Institute. Here, we are metaphorically and literally spring cleaning – sorting out “things” stocked not only in the depot of TFM but also in the minds of many who were part of the journey of the museum. The exhibition “re-collects” what resources and relationships have been cultivated over two special years – coinciding with the pandemic – and shares these resources and relationships with a wider public.  The exhibition-collection presents cultural tools for resilient living in times of multifaceted crises with a focus on the commons, ecology, and heritage. Among the tools presented is a series of folding screens that function as a central weaver of re-collections. In East Asian cultural traditions, the folding screen often depicts nature and written literature. Serving multiple purposes, the folding screen may be used to exhibit, divide a room, or shelter against the wind. In the context of the TFM, the screen also re-presents what was seen and experienced in various farms or farm-related initiatives in the surroundings of Leidsche Rijn that the Museum travelled to – unfolding some of memory and stories from the journey.  The exhibition-collection also launches the Travelling Farm Museum of Forgotten Skills’ regular tour program that runs through August. Visitors are cordially invited to join the tour to experience and learn from the Museum. These tours allow us to get in touch with a territory beyond the urban grid, where ecological ways of living together are practiced.