remixID
The cultural identities of Timișoara
Roots * Traditions * Urbanization * Remix
Comenduirea Garnizoanei Timișoara.
September 2021 – November 2022
Timișoara, also called „Klein-Wien“ (small Vienna), the biggest city in western Romania, is known for it’s colourful multiculturalism, created by 12 minorities in a tolerant, respectful togetherness.
But what defines those minorities?
Where do the particularities of their songs and dances lie, their craftmanship and ways of life that enriched todays Timișoara?
With remixID we provide an interdisciplinary artistic platform, that illuminates the cultural heritage of the minorities in the region of Banat, in which the cultural identity is remixed through the dialogue with folklorists, personalities and craftsmen of those minorities.
This dialogue is initiated by artists with a clear focus on ethnological and sociological research and will be documented for contemporary artists such as composers, graphic designers and actors who remix the documented with new technologies that resonate with a broad public interest.
This way remixID enables us to take a deeper insight into the authentic and original life of the minorities in western Romania and deliberately mixes this insight with contemporary approaches in art and culture.
With the project remixID the META Spațiu Association and the Viennese soundartist U.KUSTIK set a frame to establish a new frequency of dialogue between cultural minorities in the Romanian region Banat.
The dialogue frequency will be created between the feverish city and the calm village life. This frequency is created by established artists and cultural workers, who document the urban and rural sounds and songs and U.KUSTIK in collaboration with photo- and video artists who create a multimedial collage made possible by the overlap of those two cosmoses.
The result is a remix of sounds, music, voices and the immaterial picture of the ancient ways of life with the vibrating sounds and flashlights of the city, the insane hunt of everything new. This creates a bridge to the immaterial cultural heritage, with a deeper going resonance to where we are - here and now.
Ulrich P. Schleicher / U.KUSTIK http://www.ukustik.com/
Olga Török, Mirela Vlăduți / META Spatiu Association https://www.metaspatiu.art/
The sound artist Ulrich P. Schleicher was invited by the META Spațiu Association for a bilateral collaboration within the project remixID. Since his voluntary activities in Sibiu (2010-11) he takes good care of his contacts made back then in the Romanian cultural life.
Concerts in Romania till today have been for example the opening concert of WeltKulturCafe in Sibiu (2013) or as a frequently requested musician in the pub Bohemian Flow (2010-11).
On his album „Saitnkinisessions“ (2015) the original song „Pofta“ brings in the Romanian language besides Spanish, English and Austrian dialect.
As a cultural anthropologically interested producer Ulrich P. Schleicher plans to compose, record and produce four pieces of contemporary music. These pieces will be part in a public concert in Timișoara to make the products and the process of the project visible in public.
Suzana Dan Visual artist, cultural manager, manager Rezidența BRD Scena9 Jury member
"The history of the peaceful cohabitation of twelve ethnic groups in the largest city in Western Romania nicknamed "Little Vienna" is the basis of a cultural project that, beyond the differences between these cultural heritages, aims to restore new links between the various generational landmarks and their reconnection through exchange of information and experience. "remixID" has the significance of a cultural project that identifies the image of a city in the particularities of small histories, traditions and everyday life and this is extremely important especially in the construction of a future European cultural capital whose main beneficiaries should be, first and foremost, its inhabitants."