Date:
5 November 2025, 15:30 - 18:30
(Cultural) Institutions in Semiperipheries | PART 2: Chisinau
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(Cultural) Institutions in Semiperipheries | PART 2: Chisinau
5 November 2025, 3:30 pm – 6:30 pm
Zpace (Casa Zemstvei, 103, Al. Sciusev St., Chisinau)
How do independent cultural scenes survive and evolve in contexts where the state remains the main funder?
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.
With contributions from: Maxim Polyakov (3rd Space, Chișinau), Cătălin Gheorghe (UNAGE/Vector, Iași), Vladimir Us (Oberliht Association, Chișinău), Rusanda Curcă & Elena Russu (Coalition of Independent Cultural Sector, Chișinău)
The consortium will be seen through the lens of one of its two Eastern European partners who will attempt to redraw its journey to this date. Trying to escape the essentialist construct of the Eastern European identity and its discontents, tranzit .ro / Iași will dive into the institutional mechanics connecting needs and interests that emerged and came through fruition by joining this European cooperation project.
Program:
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 Curcă & Elena Russu, Imagining Cultural Institutions of the Future
18:00-18:30: Open Discussion
The event will be held in English.
More info: https://institutionings.
