It is important for Timisoara to cultivate its outward focus, to have a European profile and the awareness that it can generate valuable cultural content itself.

I joined the Timișoara 2023 Curatorial Team at a later stage, having been involved, before that, in the Cultural Capital programme through the Paul Neagu exhibitions. A Retrospective and Mircea Nicolae – Small Things, Precious Things, the latter being organised as part of the opening event in February.

It has always seemed important to me that Timișoara should cultivate its outward orientation, to have a European profile and the awareness that it can itself generate valuable cultural content, entering into dialogue with other contexts, whether neighbouring or more distant, in a spirit in tune with the demands, urgencies and dilemmas of the present. These are the frameworks that construct the meaning of the territory of Connections.

I would like this moment of the Cultural Capital to act as a catalyst for rethinking and reforming the cultural system as a whole, because it has been proven, as clearly as possible, that sustained investment in culture can create and transform institutions and practices, making them relevant, and this valuable gain must be maintained and further targeted, at local and national level.