Charlie Ottley, special guest at Eforie Colorat Festival

Over 200 cultural events are going to take place this Summer, between July 4th – September 4th, at the Eforie Sud Summer Garden creative hub – all thanks to Eforie Colorat eco-art Festival! Developed in partnership with European cultural institutes, diplomatic missions and international film festivals, Eforie Colorat is an alternative meeting spot right by the Black Sea, as well as the first place on the Romanian seaside that is dedicated to contemporary art.

 Access to this edition’s events is free.

You can browse more infos about the festival HERE. 

Of long-forgotten times, the charming story of Carmen Sylva balneary resort could still inspire those who may wish to prolong a nostalgic summer’s dream into a concrete process of sustainable development. Eforie Colorat Festival brings back the memory, culture and appeal of a forgotten place that bears an immense, yet unexplored potential. “The oldest Romanian sea-side resort bets on culture as part of its rehabilitation process. We are creating alternative spaces, where creatives can meet their public and use art and dialogue as means of questioning society.” In addition, the themes of ethical exploitation of the touristic potential, sustainable development and growth opportunities, focusing on culture will be addressed by British journalist Charlie Ottely, well-known for his documentary series Flavours of Romania or Wild Carpathia. He will attend Eforie Colorat Festival as a special guest, taking part in a colloquy and attending a film screening in the month of August.

Gathering different genres and multidisciplinary views on contemporary art, the Eforie Colorat eco-festival’s second edition’s programme hosts as many as 200 events at the Eforie Sud Summer Garden. It is an attempt to bring up topics such as simplicity and nature in times when technology is changing everything, starting with the role and even sense of the artistic act, to the means of expression. Developed in partnership with European cultural institutes, diplomatic missions and international film festivals, Eforie Colorat hosts daily events such as film screenings, concerts, debates, art exhibitions, eco-themed performances and workshops – seeking to break the barrier between the artist and the public, as well as between the traditional exhibition venues and the public space. Poetry recitals and photography exhibitions round up this summer’s cultural programme, together with nights of classical, experimental and alternative music, blues and jazz concerts and CineConcert moments. There will also be a bar area, kids’ playground and a pop-ul library.

The festival starts on Monday, July 4th, at 6 p.m., with an acoustic concert – Alexandra (Focșa) & Rosta Man Acoustic Night – followed by the screening of “Tu, ăla cu mustaţă”, a nostalgic depiction of what football meant to every little boy that grew up in 90’s Romania.

Eforie Colorat brings back to the community a series of forgotten venues, such as the old Summer Garden, the biggest cultural space on the Romanian sea-side, that had been abandoned and had slowly degraded over the last three decades. “The festival came together due to the necessity for an alternative to the mainstream events. It speaks about the rejuvenation of abandoned cultural spaces while offering an example of good practices, which is extremely useful to the development of the community and local tourism. Our programmes have already made an impact on a higher, regional scale, and are currently bringing a broader audience closer to the contemporary art scene. It is an attempt to prove that art is the common ground through which change can happen.” says Emil Cristian Ghiță, one of the co-founders of this project. Bringing together environmental issues and hot topics of today’s world, this year’s edition takes place through four main, interconnected sections: film, alternative music, artistic exhibitions or interventions and debates regarding ecology and environmental awareness.

FILM. This year, the outdoor cinema will host over 50 film nights, adding up to more than 200 screenings: short films, animations, Romanian films or international art cinema, brought by cultural institutes, diplomatic offices, or European film festivals. As Mondays are meant for relaxing after a long and busy weekend, the film screenings begin every week on Tuesdays, starting at 8:30 p.m., in partnership with Short Film Breaks Festival, bringing a series of selected award-winning short films. Wednesdays are dedicated exclusively to Romanian cinema, including films brought by “Caravana Filmului Românesc”, such as “Octav” or “Funeralii fericite”, while Thursdays are assigned for animation films such as “Turning Red” or “The Secret Life of Pets”. On Fridays and Saturdays, there will be screenings of European films and documentaries, offered by cultural institutes. Sundays are dedicated to highly acclaimed films, such as “Bohemian Rhapsody”, “Grand Budapest Hotel” or “Dune”.

“I believe that a town without a cinema is a sad town. And I think that the Eforie Colorat team is full of dreamy ambitions in the efforts they make in order to keep the cinema open during the peak summer season.” says Aida Economu, actress

Music and visual arts  Bucharest-based gallery E T A J artist-run space is moving this summer, though its subspace E T A J on Wheels, to the Eforie Sud Summer Garden, where it will exhibit works of three contemporary artists: Mircea Modreanu, Lucian Sandu Milea and Ana Cristina Toma.

What is more, Irina Botea (artist) does many types of performance and experimental video documentation, giving a new artistic meaning to local landmarks. Thus, the famous Techirghiol mud becomes a theme for performative intervention, inspires a party or mud graffiti workshops. There will also be ceramics workshops, led by ceramic artist Ana Stroie and creative, recycling workshops for children. Emblematic figures of Spanish cinema and works of Swedish designers are two of the themes of the photography exhibition. When it comes down to music, artists Diana Miron and Laurențiu Coțac turn local sounds, recorded in natural surroundings such as the bay area, natural reservation of Lake Techirghiol and the nearby forest, into experimental music. Moreover, this summer will be accompanied by the sound of classical guitar concerts, classical music, and blues.

10 Days of ECOLOGY. AggressiON/OFF: public, private, natural: A series of debates, colloquies and performative interventions that touch on topics such as ceasing the aggression towards nature, in the broader context of the new consumerist behaviours, or the geopolitical changes and the effects that they will most likely have on the understanding of concepts such as ecology and environmental awareness. The stillness of meaningful debate can be found in an objective space, that cancels any sociocultural attribute and welcomes people as simple beings, together with the sand, the grass, the snail or the birds. Artists with an activist background, such as Lia and Dan Perjovschi, or professionals on the matters of environmental issues like Cristian Neagoe, together with journalists and designers discuss actual solutions to reaching the net zero target in the context of the current global energy crisis.The devastating effects of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the humanitarian crises generated by it reveal multiple layers of aggressions, on different levels, in regards to people, states and the environment. Globalisation, this process paved by ecological, pandemic and geopolitical tensions, is the broader context in which man, found in countless states – from that of the aggressor that mindlessly consumes, to that of the creator of the surrounding reality, or even the ideal one of contemplative being, that abandons it sociocultural identity in order to return to nature. AgressiON/OFF segment of the project takes place in the Summer Garden but also on different spots on the beach and promotes environmental awareness and the involvement of the community in ecological endeavours.

“Eforie Colorat touches on important matters, issues that are globally discussed – thus this place is synced to everything that is currently going on in the sensible world.” says Dan Perjovschi, visual artist

SEASIDE MUSEUM. The rehabilitation of Carmen Sylva Archives. From its foundation, in 1889, up until today, Eforie Sud resort went through changes of name and regime, all of which left their mark on both the community and the infrastructure. Seaside Archives project is a collaboration between an interdisciplinary team, consisting of artists and theoreticians, anthropologists, biologists with knowledge of the endemic flora and professionals in the fields of archiving, digitalization and conservation of documents and heritage. “We have documented over 50 buildings with great architectural value, and we have gathered over 300 artefacts that allowed us to study the town’s development stages. During this process, we have come across charming stories, alongside a series of documents that allowed us to track back the history of the family that had founded this town. In the future, we wish to extend this project to the nearing resorts as well, and we are in need of a strong partner, so as to make The Sea-side Museum happen.” say the festival’s organisers. The Seaside Museum, an initiative that documents the resort starting from the late 19th century up until the communist and post-communist era, is part of a greater plan that aims to strengthen the cultural system of the Romanian seaside and redefine it as a strategic point of great economical, multicultural and touristic value.

Eforie Colorat Eforie Colorat festival was launched in 2021 as a complex cultural programme, dedicated to both tourists and the local community, as well as to artists and environmentalists –  who also take part, every year, in a series of artistic residencies at Eforie Sud. Organised by Forumul Artelor Vizuale NGO, in partnership with Czech Center Bucharest and Eforie Sud’s City Hall, Eforie Colorat project aims to rejuvenate the cultural spaces found on the Black Sea’s shore, through contemporary art. Eforie Sud, once a hotspot for Bucharest’s elite and one of the most visited resorts in Europe, had become a marginalised, almost abandoned place in the mists of the consumerist frenezy. The Summer Garden, the region’s biggest outdoor theatre, in the possession of the largest screen, had slowly degraded through the last three decades and eventually became a ruin. Brought back to life thanks to organisers’ determination, the space is now able to take back its original glory. Eforie Colorat gathers the artistic community, the local and central administration representatives and activist organisations, and brings them together in a common endeavour to formulate solutions for rehabilitation, so as to bring back the charm Eforie Sud once held.

“Probably one of the brightest festivals I’ve ever been to. I have enjoyed Eforie Colorat, which besides the cool organisation, also delivers this concept of bringing the public back to forms of cultural and artistic expressions that are suited to today’s sensibilities,” says Robert Obert, visual artist