About the programme
Reclaiming Post-Industrial Futures is a multi-residency programme exploring forgotten industrial heritage sites in Romania as places for collaboration and community building. Developed by EUNIC Romania, the programme involves eight cultural institutions operating in Romania, each engaged in supporting one residency:
- British Council
- Czech Centre
- Embassy of the Netherlands
- French Institute
- Italian Cultural Institute
- Cervantes Institute
- Polish Institute
- Fundația9
EUNIC – European Union National Institutes for Culture – is Europe’s network of national cultural institutes and organisations, with 39 members from all EU Member States and associate countries.
The programme was framed by this consortium of European partners, in collaboration with Curator Ilinca Păun Constantinescu – PhD, President and Founder of the Ideilagram Association, Co-Founder of the Planeta Petrila Association, Co-Founder of the Architecture Office Ideogram Studio, Lecturer at Ion Mincu University of Architecture and Urban Planning Bucharest, Department of Theory and History of Architecture.
Situating industrial heritage
Industrialisation has profoundly shaped most Romanian towns and cities and has been present in all aspects of urbanity. After 1989, the majority of the industrial complexes were shut down and were brutally cut off from the cities. Former workers were left behind and the towns’ morphologies were left with voids, affecting social and urban life until the present day.
The former industrial facilities form a new type of cultural landscape – consisting of buildings, people and their stories – which is increasingly silenced and hidden in an invisible layer, soon to be replaced. Smaller towns face even more of an existential crisis, as the magnetism exercised by the big and prosperous cities makes us forget or disregard their sometimes extraordinary heritage and liveability.
But as happens in history, a crisis can be a source of creativity. Neglected buildings, people who lost their former role in the social hierarchy, and abandoned urban spaces all seem to be negative aspects. However, calls for a shift in the narrative and the rediscovery of existing, often unused values that can add value to urban life. Although it may not be obvious, these towns are sometimes surprisingly rich, not only in terms of built heritage and history, but also in terms of social networks. In the absence of top-down concerns (with few exceptions), bottom-up initiatives shed new light on the existing reality and work directly with the local communities that are trying to redefine their role.
In recent years, a solid network of such initiatives has taken shape in Romania.
Reclaiming Post-Industrial Futures is a programme that works with various representative former industrial sites and communities, providing a bird’s-eye view of the local diversity and astonishing nature:
- ORAȘUL VICTORIA – a garden city built from scratch in the 1950s
- REȘIȚA – the oldest steel industry since the 18th century
- DROBETA TURNU-SEVERIN – an unused 19th century shipyard by the Danube
- CÂMPINA – the world’s most modern pre-WW1 refinery
- TURNU MĂGURELE – a Danube port town laid out after an 1836 urban project
- PETRILA – the oldest mining site in the Jiu Valley
- and the hidden industrial layer of central BUCHAREST.
The programme is an invitation to explore the vacant and impressive industrial built heritage and the potential of these monumental hollow shells. Their spectacular spaces and the collective stories of work and life are still strongly connected, so this is also an invitation to connect to local initiatives and communities and contribute to their town’s future.
It is an invitation to explore diverse histories and cultural landscapes and meet local organisations active in the fields of architecture, urban strategy, history and art.
During their 10- to 14-day stay at the host organisation, the artists immerse themselves in the residency experience. Each resident will host a public event – be it a workshop, discussion, community gathering, cooking session or another interactive format – to engage with the local community or space. Throughout the residency, artists will document their process and experiences through journals in various forms: writing, audio-visuals, objects, drawings, sketches or new works. This creative documentation will be made publicly accessible. In autumn 2025, all residents will reunite in Bucharest for a two-day follow-up, where they’ll share insights and outcomes, adding to the project’s ongoing dialogue and impact.
Meet the hosts
Meet the residents
- Jos Boys [UK]: A feminist architect rethinks industrial space through care, access and art [Reclaiming Bucharest]
With decades of work in architecture, activism and social justice, Jos Boys explores how cities include some and exclude others. She co-founded the Matrix Feminist Design Collective in the 1980s and the DisOrdinary Architecture Project in 2007, linking disabled artists with built environment professionals. In recent years, she has expanded her practice into mixed-media, installation, film and collective performance – asking urgent questions about equity, belonging and the micro-procedures of everyday life.
- Štěpán Kus [CZ]: A Czech sculptor explores the hidden industrial layer of the capital [Reclaiming Bucharest]
Štěpán Kus is a Czech sculptor and visual artist whose work explores the intersections of architecture, public space and human behaviour. Through objects and spatial installations, he creates dialogues between historical contexts and the present moment. Currently completing his studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague, Štěpán’s work invites viewers to rethink the spaces they inhabit – what they once were and what they could become.
- Joel Blanco [ES]: A Spanish futurist rethinks a shrinking city’s identity [Reclaiming Turnu Măgurele]
Joel Blanco is a Spanish artist and designer whose work explores future imaginaries shaped by pop culture and networked life. He co-founded Business Serio, a consultancy that uses scenario-building and design fiction to help organisations envision alternative futures. Recognised by Forbes Spain as one of the country’s top 40 futurists in 2022, Blanco specialises in strategy, trend research and speculative methodologies.
Giulia Vitiello is a theatre maker, choreographer, performance designer and researcher. Her interdisciplinary work is rooted in collective memory, site-specific creation and applied performance methodologies She holds a First Class Honours BA in Performance Design and Practice from Central Saint Martins – University of the Arts London, and has trained in acting, physical theatre and dance across Europe. Co-Director of danscentrumjette in Brussels, she founded dancing from archives in 2023, exploring industrial heritage and memory through performance.
Before turning to art, Céline Berger worked for over a decade as a production engineer in microelectronics. After her company’s bankruptcy in 2008, she shifted paths, graduating from the Academy of Media Arts in Cologne in 2012 and becoming a resident at the Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten in Amsterdam. Today, her artistic work is deeply embedded in everyday labour and overlooked narratives.
Céline often places herself within non-artistic professional environments to explore ‘unspectacular’ stories – the small tensions and gestures that define how we work, adapt and endure.
Kamila Szejnoch is a Warsaw-based artist working at the intersection of sculpture, installation and urban intervention. Her practice is rooted in public space, where she activates historical memory, collective emotion and critical reflection through artistic gestures. She holds degrees in Sculpture from the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw and Social Policy from the University of Warsaw. Her postgraduate studies in the Netherlands at the Dutch Art Institute further shaped her cross-disciplinary approach.
- Darya Akhrameika [NL]: A spatial designer reflects on memory, borders and the river’s industrial past [Reclaiming Drobeta-Turnu Severin]
Darya Akhrameika works at the intersection of architectural design, visual art and critical research. A graduate of the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam, her work blends illustration, scenography and immersive spatial installations to examine the impact of global politics on the built environment – particularly in the shifting dynamics between Eastern and Western Europe. Her artistic process is deeply research-based, allowing her to translate complex geopolitical narratives into material experiences that invite reflection and critical engagement.
- Daniel Semenciuc and Ana Barbu [RO]: Two artists revisiting a socialist utopia through architecture, gardening and artistic resistance [Reclaiming Victoria]
Daniel Semenciuc is a visual artist and architect educated at Yale University (Architecture) and UNArte Bucharest (MA Painting). Daniel’s practice interrogates official history, personal memory and the desolation of the post-communist landscape through a visual language that is sober, poetic and incisive.
Ana Barbu is a multidisciplinary artist living in a village on the Bărăgan Plain. Ana’s work turns art into a gentle way of living, rooted in gardening, slow time and attentive observation. She blends ecology, documentation and essay writing to create acts of resistance and reconnection with the land.
