1 timisoara2021.ro 2 Timișoara 2021 European Capital of Culture / Candidate City INTRODUCTION / GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS Why does your city wish to take part in the competition for the title of European Capital of Culture? urope relies on those cities where little sparkles can constantly generate trans-continental transformations. EFor this reason, TM2021 aims to become an open experiment which overcomes the passivity in today's Europe. TM2021 stimulates the individuals’ inner energy, which can shine through and unite their community, their city and the 1 whole continent powered by culture. What now? – Și acum? As a middle-sized city in the far west flagship of both the Banat region and of Romania with 319.272 inhabitants, neighbouring Transylvania, carrying How many times have we found close to the border with Hungary light throughout Romania and beyond ourselves or the people around us and Serbia, Timișoara is facing the its borders throughout the Balkans, in asking this two-word rhetorical difficulties many cities in Europe the south and throughout Europe to the question? It is the expression of our are also facing, but it is ready to act. centre, west, east and north. passivity as a comfortable habit The city wants to take a chance of of shifting the responsibility to translating the lost values of middle This application for the European somewhere else. Unfortunately, too class - which have always been part of Capital of Culture (ECoC) title does not often we come across this attitude its history in a contemporary scenario. want to look at the past. Instead, it is a among today’s Europeans. The city The people of Timișoara have lived call to action to make changes happen programme for the European Capital a life inspired by entrepreneurship, through culture in the Europe of today. of Culture in 2021 fights against this multi-confessionalism, multi- and It is culture that offers a safe place energy-draining apathy-inducing interculturality and active civic society left to develop creative solutions that attitude. while encouraging their comunities work on passivity and learn from each to follow the same values. In the other. Therefore, as European Capital consultation process we carried out of Culture, we will offer an array of Passivity is a main problem in the with citizens in the last years, they programmes founded on the inherent Europe of today have expressed the longing that it is transforming power of each individual time to retrieve those values which within their respective communities The gap in Europe between the poor gave the city the inspiration to be the across Europe. and rich widens, tensions between religions arise, there is an increasing distrust in democratic structures and participation in political life erodes further. The disappearance of middle class values is damaging the economic, social and cultural stability of our continent. Radicalism and xenophobia appear at the horizon. Instead passivity is comforting, while in relationships with others, only the opportunity of disagreement takes the individual out of the comfort zone. It is time to re- establish a dialogue, to take a critical attitude and to decide what kind of Europeans we want to be, which are our common and specific values as Europeans. timisoara2021.ro INTRODUCTION / GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS Shine your light can culture generate opinions and Europe, the first public lending library influence decision-making. In other and telegraphic and phone service in By accepting the challenge of the words, culture is the last free zone to what is now Romania, the first cinema Candidacy, Timișoara has asked its being a European citizen. screening, the first public swimming citizens about their current urgencies. pool and the first football stadium Issues which repeatedly emerged are in Romania, and the only European the lack of civic energy, intolerance Light up your city city with three state theatres in three towards marginalised groups, the different languages. In 1989 the sparkle Geographically situated at the loss of public space, the lack of an of the civic revolution toppled the meeting point of many cultures, international profile of the city communist regime in the country. and of the region defined by multi- from west to east and from south 2 and interculturality which is truly to north, Timișoara has a history of contemporary European, and the lack being cosmopolitan and ecumenical, Shine your light - Light up your city! Nowadays, Timișoara is at the forefront of medicine, technology and IT breakthroughs in the region. Thus it is the moment to recreate the history of the city in a new European scenario and to restore those middle-class values the city has always exported, such as cooperation and harmony, tolerance and civic responsibility, in a very contemporary context where entrepreneurship is to be understood within a network, where religions learn values and spiritual energy from each other and real freedom is in culturally-diverse relationships. For this reason, the Candidacy is about the relationship with the other, about how to build the bond between the individual and the community, and how to learn to be a European citizen of a common vision. Therefore, we with over 30 cultures and ethnic and light up the city through culture. have chosen to design our TM2021 community groups - including cultural programme around these Germans, Hungarians, Serbians, For the people of Timișoara, culture urgencies, starting with the inner Bulgarians having lived alongside is the wave to speed up change energy and inherent strengths of the each other for centuries. Orthodox, at political, religious, economic, individuals to make a difference within Catholics, Jews, Protestants, Lutherans, educational and social levels. their own circles of influence, be they Reformists and other religions have Therefore, the programme we propose their close family network, their far- freely worshipped together. The place for the European Capital of Culture away facebook friends as in Addictive was an engine in the region which will reach out into these areas. We Lights, their neighbourhoods, their offered people the opportunity to move wish to create a common platform schools as in Dare to Shine, their cities, forward and let others do the same. for culture advocacy which facilitates their countries and even the continent Furthermore, Timișoara’s diaspora rethinking of the system in terms of and the world like the closing event. has spread all around the continent, cultural and social engagement, acts on having the possibility to interact with increasing the local authorities’ budget The result of restoring this energy is other Europeans, by facing the same for cultural activities, and incorporates the transformation of the individual cultural challenges from a different the creative industries in the long-term into a citizen who is able to light up the perspective. economic strategy of the city and of the city. Therefore, in relation with others, region. just as you have a reason for dialogue Throughout its history, Timișoara has and interaction with the community, been a city of little sparkles that started you can shine the light. If the title of trans-continental transformations. European Capital of Culture is awarded The first city in the Austro-Hungarian to us, we intend to find more concrete Monarchy to have street lights and reasons for the individual to go out later the first city in continental Europe of their comfort zone into the public with electric street lights, the first space, to leave passivity behind and newspaper in what is now Romania experience engagement through and the first newspaper in German culture. Only in this common space in East-Central and South-Eastern Timișoara 2021 European Capital of Culture / Candidate City INTRODUCTION / GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS Does your city plan to involve its surrounding area? Explain this choice. ur approach to involve the surrounding area is not merely based on geographical criteria. Instead we are Oplanning to involve people who feel a deeply-rooted emotional connection to Timișoara. These are people from afar - the diaspora; from nearby - the people living in the Banat region (presently stretching over three countries: Romania, 3 Serbia and Hungary); and from here - the population of Timișoara. Since the 18th century up until the The first wave saw the emergence trained professionals and skilled Second World War, the city was a of the ethnic diaspora, who moved labourers, but also seasonal workers powerhouse fuelling the economic abroad in masses in the second half in Italy, Spain, Germany, and France. development in the Banat region of the twentieth century. The so- They will become our ambassadors with an echo through Central and called ‘Banater Schwaben’, more than for two reasons: they still maintain Southeastern Europe. This drive was 100.000 strong, are mainly German transnational connections with the also powered by the city’s openness farmers and one of the most important family left at home, and in migration to Western Europe, making Timișoara communities of the Banat region, their local pride is reactivated and they a quintessential European city. Thus, along with the Romanians and Serbs. become more civically oriented. our surroundings are the whole of During the communist period and Central and Southeastern Europe. after the revolution they gradually We approach them on three levels left the country. In 1992, there were Timișoara in the Region - Banat in representing the city’s ties with Europe, just over 13.000 Germans living in Timișoara the Banat region and Romania. Timișoara, while at the 2011 census On the regional level, we have there were 4.193. The once-thriving three frameworks which can help Jewish community numbered 13.000 us build connections and which Timișoara in Europe - Europe in persons after the Second World War, makes Timișoara an incubator Timișoara while today there are only 600.