Cluj Cultural Centre, together with the partners from the project Stronger Peripheries: A Southern Coalition, are happy to announce the results of the open call ‘Right to the Future’. Launched in April 2022, the call was dedicated to artists from the performing arts field working in theatre or hybrid, transdisciplinary forms around theatre – living in Romania. The selected artist will work in tandem with Cluj Cultural Centre and Reactor (Cluj, Romania), Pogon (Zagreb, Croatia) and L’arboreto (Mondaino, Italy) for the production of a new creation under the topic ‘Right to the Future’.
Catinca Drăgănescu is the selected artist to benefit from international residencies and support for international collaboration which will result in a co-production to be launched in 2023.
Catinca Drăgănescu (b. 1984) is an emerging theatre director, playwright, and researcher from Romania. Her studies include training in advertising and PR, as well as a BA and a MA in theatre directing (2012) and a PhD in theatre studies (2019). Since 2020 she works as a researcher at the National University of Theatre Arts and Cinematography in Bucharest, focusing on social design, innovation for social change, degrowth and applied research.
Her artistic work is very much connected to the independent theatre scene in Romania and since 2020 she is the managing director of a cultural NGO called Idea77 and the initiator of Independent Exterior – a Romanian independent theatre and dance showcase meant to build a bridge between local creators and the international theatre scene.
The co-producers appreciated the robustness and maturity of Catinca Drăgănescu’s work, the artistic quality of her previous projects as well as a solid exploration of participatory practices and interest in context-based work. Her interest and commitment to research-based processes, as well as the coherence in the themes she approaches have also been considered a perfect fit into the context that the project builds.
Together with Catinca Drăgănescu, four shortlisted artists have also been selected to participate in the tandem workshop on the topic ‘Right to the Future’, which will be organized in Cluj-Napoca from October 4th to 7th 2022:
Robert Bălan (b. 1978) divides his work into two main categories: autobiographical performances (in which also fiction is present) and theatre performances focused on \”private life\” and the way the social influences it. He co-founded the organization Art No More, which works with various artists. He also has a background in journalism, working as a cultural journalist for around 10 years of his career.
Alexandru Berceanu (b. 1978) conducts interdisciplinary research through artistic practice at the intersection of immersive environments and neuroscience looking for new healing narrative perspectives. His practice has as core the potential of art and game as emotional and social development environments. Alexandru Berceanu conducts Games and theatrical game, which provide a special immersive medium for development and natural learning. His main research methods besides artistic research come from neuroscience, neuro-aesthetics, and experimental psychology.
Oana Hodade (b. 1985) is an artist, performer, author, working mostly in theatre and the performing arts. The main focus in her practice is on memory, archives and language, as means to understand and define communities, and her research oftentimes crosses with anthropology and philosophy. In her works, she explores fragility, intimacy, personal space, urbanism, rituals & routines of the everyday life, with the help of performance, image, text, and sound.
Mihai Păcurar (b. 1978) is a visual artist. His work spans across several interlinked media. A graduate of the National University of Arts in Bucharest as a stage designer, his main field of work so far has been theatre. He worked as a stage designer and video artist on over 60 productions, in independent and state venues alike. His video work has also been developed outside of theatre, and his installation work also consists of a series of object-oriented projects. Having concluded a two-year master’s programme in theatre directing, he started working on his own material, usually turning installation into theatre pieces, or vice-versa.
Out of 28 applications received for the call, 14 artists are working in Bucharest, 6 in Cluj-Napoca and 8 reside or work in other cities in Romania. The selection was conducted by the co-producers of the tandem Right to the Future (Cluj Cultural Centre and Reactor – Cluj, Pogon – Zagreb, L’arboreto – Mondaino) with the participation of partners in the project Stronger Peripheries: A Southern Coalition.
Stronger Peripheries: A Southern Coalition is a large-scale cooperation project, gathering 14 partners from 10 European countries, which is co-funded by the Creative Europe Programme and the European Union.
