Institution(ing)s: (Cultural) Institutions in Semiperipheries | Collective study visit | Economy Lab | Iasi&Chisinau
3rd of November 2025 | 19.30 – 20.30 | Iași
Pavel Brăila: Schoes for Europe, screening | tranzit-ro/ Iași (Sf. Atanasie 25, Iași)
4th of November 2025 |16.00 – 19.00 | Chișinău
Economy Lab | tranzit-ro/ Iași (Sf. Atanasie 25, Iași): Nora Dorogan & Nicoleta Esinencu (Teatru Spalatorie / Laundry Theater, Chișinău), Ioana Florea (independent researcher, Bucharest), Mick Wilson (HDK-Valand/CAPIm, Gothenburg)
5th of November 2025 | 15.30 – 18.30 | Iași
Collective study visit and public presentation | Economy Lab | Zpațiu, Zemstvei Museum (Alexei Sciusev, 103, Chișinău): Maxim Polyakov (3rd Space, Chișinau), Cătălin Gheorghe (UNAGE/Vector, Iași), Vladimir Us (Oberliht Association, Chișinău), Rusanda Alexandru Curcă & Elena Russu (Coalition of Independent Cultural Sector, Chișinău), Livia Pancu & Florin Bobu (tranzit ro/ Iasi)
Starting with the 1990s, the "independent cultural sector" in Romania and the Republic of Moldova is usually understood as having constituted itself as an excess that could not fully dissolve into state structures, claiming autonomy from the national state while paradoxically remaining, in many cases, economically dependent on it. Drawing on Gerald Raunig's concept of instituent practices—practices that maintain social criticism without pretending institutional exteriority while remaining self-reflexive without falling into institutional complicity—and on concepts such as unequal geographical development, we will collectively reflect on current aspects of the political economy of cultural institutions in the semiperipheries, where small art markets and limited private funding make the national state the predominant economic actor.
Detailed info here: https://institutionings.eu/posts/2025
PROGRAM
4th of November 2025 | Economy Lab | tranzit-ro/ Iași (Sf. Atanasie 25, Iași)
16:00 - 16:50: Mick Wilson, How Thinking Institutes? Geopolitical inflections in the study of institutional and organisational imaginaries.
17:00 - 17:50: Ioana Florea, Uneven territorial development, its relations and institutions.
18:00 - 18:50: Nora Dorogan & Nicoleta Esinencu, Choices. In the West, you say you're left-wing and in the East you say you’re right-wing.
5th of November 2025 | Collective study visit and public presentation | Economy Lab | Zpațiu, Zemstvei Museum (Alexei Sciusev, 103, Chișinău)
10:00 - 11:00: Pavel Brăila, Vol. II, retrospective exhibition tour, Lutnița Gallery, Ustia
11:00 - 12:00: Departure and travel from Ustia to Chișinău
12:00 - 13:00: Pavel Brăila, Vol. I, retrospective exhibition tour, Lutnița Gallery, Chișinău
15:30 - 16:00: Presentation by Maxim Polyakov, The Case of 3rd Space Studio
16:00 - 16:30: Public presentation by Livia Pancu & Florin Bobu, Institution(ing)s
Economy Lab#2,
16:30-17:00: Cătălin Gheorghe, The Turkish Bath Scam. The chronicle of a death foretold
17:00-17:30: Vladimir Us, Digital, printed and physical infrastructures for emerging artists and cultural workers in Moldova
17:30-18:00: Rusanda Alexandru Curcă & Elena Russu, Imagining Cultural Institutions of the Future
18:00-18:30: Open Discussion
The event will be held in English.
Institution(ing)s is a medium-scale collaboration project co-funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them. Co-funded by the European Union.
The main partner of tranzit-ro is the ERSTE Foundation.
