Page 8 - FISART 2016

Industrial space, in colours

The Timisoara International Street Art Festival (FISART) is now at its sixth edition. I wrote about the first
edition, perhaps the most spectacular one of them, a premiere in Romania. Sergio Morariu, a photographer
and also an engineer returned from Germany to the city of his alma mater, and Corina Nani, a young assistant
of the Faculty of Arts and also a talented artist awarded in 2015 by the Romanian Union of Fine Artists for her
works of urban art, were those who initiated and supported the Festival.

The art critic Alexandra Titu provided the theoretical background for the first edition. She also initiated
a real debate on this topic, opposing the skeptical voices with convincing arguments and eventually gained the
financial support of the municipality for this extraordinary event.

In fact, the festival brought in Romania a kind of art genuinely experimented abroad, especially in the
United States. Since only a thin boundary separates urban art from graffiti, the shadow of a doubt was easily cast
on the festival, making some wonder whether this was not just another form of protest art. And basically, this is
what the festival does, because the art interventions reclaim deserted spaces, heal the wounds of abandon, find
new senses to less inspired urban assembling, reassess industrial areas in decline or, simply, as happened in 2016,
turn an industrial space into an exceptional show of colours.

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