| 07 September 2011
The social culture project cARTier, carried out between 2007 – 2007 by the Vector Cultural Association Iasi in partnership with Pro Helvetia / SDC - the Swiss Cultural Programme in Romania and having as collaborating institutions the City Hall of Iasi, the Pro Women Foundation and the Tatarasi Athenaeum, had as its first objective the creation of a community cultural space in Tatarasi, as a place for re-establishing social connections and for reinventing a public space.
Within the cARTier project several activities have been organised. In order to integrate the community members, with the assistance of the cultural animators, three initiative groups were organised – for children, youngsters and seniors – and throughout the project they have created cultural activities, both on the Oancea esplanade and in the Tatarasi Athenaeum. The children's group has organised exhibitions and has taken part in creative workshops, the young people have published the district magazine Linia 1/13 and have organised artistic events in the Tatarasi Athenaeum, while the seniors have tried, through photo exhibitions, to reconstitute the memory of Tatarasi from their personal memories. The cooperation with the City Hall resulted in the modernisation of a playground in the district.
Another type of activities was that of visual arts, from decorating each summer another façade of the apartment blocks, an activity that was very visible and very appreciated by the district inhabitants, to inviting visual artists to carry out projects in public spaces in Tatarasi, with the participation of the inhabitants.
The periodic festivals, cARTfest and cARTfilm, have gained an especially good visibility. The former, organised every summer on the Oancea esplanade in Tatarasi, became likely the first district festival in Romania, on the stage of which the inhabitants have had the opportunity to watch theatre plays, dance and music shows. Carried out in cooperation with the local station of the Romanian Television, cARTfilm is a documentary video film festival based on social topics which, apart from showing professional works, has organised a video film contest for young artists, as well as workshops and debates on the role of the video documentary in reflecting society issues.
These very diverse social and cultural activities, reflecting in fact the diversity of those living in the district, have had behind them the constant and tenacious work of the project's multidisciplinary team, made of visual artists, sociologists, philosophers and social workers.
cARTier team:
Matei Bejenaru, Livia Pancu, Sorana Lupu, Ioana Avadanei, Iulia Tencariu, Alex Bounegru, Vlad Morariu, Maria Bobei, Andi Gavril
