On Wednesday we talk about the Someș, the river that flows through Cluj, an essential part of the city’s natural landscape, an axis of the urban layout and also of the local imaginary. Over the years the interpretations and thematizations around the Someș river have materialized in various interventions, the most numerous being “soft” interventions, hundreds of artistic and ecological projects dedicated to this space, and other “hard”, permanent ones. The rapidity with which the landscape around the Somes river changes often leaves us in a state of uncertainty and often confronts us with a fait accompli. Rarely do we have the opportunity to discuss the changing landscape. What is its impact on the social fabric of the city? How and in what ways is access to the riverbanks directed? What is the impact on the flora and fauna of this natural corridor?

We’ll discuss all this with our guests - architects, artists, activists, biologists and environmental specialists.

István Szakáts is an artist, curator, and- cultural producer from Cluj-Napoca. He is an advocate of social empowerment through culture, socially engaged art and active citizenship. As a multimedia artist, István has co-designed and realized a series of works, including “Samples” - mixed-reality performances on the theme of citizens’ rights, reappropriation of public space, included in the programs of several European capitals of culture such as Istanbul, Pécs, or Mons. He has taught various disciplines at the Department of Cinematography, Media and Television of Babeș-Bolyai University of Cluj-Napoca and Sapientia University from 2005-2015. István is a graduate of the University of Art and Design / Photo (2003) and the Babeș Bolyai University / Computer Science (1992).

Silviu Medeșan (b. 1984) is an architect, researcher and r-urban activist working and living in Cluj, Oradea and Petrinzel. He is a member of the Romanian Order of Architects - Transylvania Branch, the Romanian Register of Urban Planners and an alumnus of the Actors of Urban Change programme of the Robert Bosch Foundation (Stuttgart). He is the author of the book Forma urmează situației (Ozalid, 2020) and co-editor of the anthology CARTier. He currently teaches as head of the Department of Architecture at the University of Oradea, Faculty of Construction, Cadastre and Architecture.

Adrian Dohotaru is an author and environmental civic activist. His professional activity focuses on the concept of advocacy on environmental, social and urban issues, research activity, public policy proposals. He has also supported campaigns and civic initiatives on participatory budgeting. He is currently an expert in participatory budgeting within the project “PROCIVIS - Civic Involvement for Local Development of the Municipality of Reșița” and supports advocacy campaigns within the Association of Sustainable Organized Society S.O.S. of which he is president since 2021. Collaborates with several associations in Cluj for the Somes: green-blue corridor within the program “With Clean Waters”.

Szabó Anna is an expert botanist, biologist and associate professor at the Faculty of Biology and Geology, Babeș-Bolyai University, teaching ecological restoration at master level. She is currently working on mapping habitats and plant species in areas
In the past he was expert botanist of the Institute of Biology Bucharest of the Romanian Academy within the project “Restoration Strategies for Degraded Peatland Ecosystems in Romania (PeatRO)” and was curator in the Raul Tur Protected Areas.

Ana Horhat, landscape architect, graduated from the Faculty of Architecture of the Sapienza University of Rome and holds a PhD in Landscape and Environment. Through her projects she explores, at various scales of intervention, the dialectic between art and nature, garden and landscape and their reflection in contemporary trends of green space design. After ten years of studies, involvement in research projects on public space and urban landscape, conferences, exhibitions, workshops and national and international design competitions, she returns to Cluj-Napoca in 2017 and establishes the Ana Horhat Landscape Studio. Together with Metapolis and Atelier Mass, she won the solution competitions organized by the Romanian Order of Architects for the East Park Landscaping (2021) and “Cetățuia” Urban Complex Landscaping (2019), both in Cluj-Napoca and, most recently, for the Morii Lake in Bucharest. She is involved, as a collaborator, in several projects of parks and urban regeneration in Cluj-Napoca, Timișoara and Sibiu.

The discussion will be held in Romanian, with French, English, and Hungarian translation. The event is part of the training programme on architecture and urbanism proposed by the French Institute for members of its network in Europe.

The program will be live streamed on the Facebook of Tranzit House.

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