#Art Encounters Biennial & Foundation

The Timișoara Art Encounters Biennial is an international event taking place in Timișoara since 2015, organized by Art Encounters Foundation in collaboration with Timișoara City Hall, Timiș County Directorate of Culture, Triade Foundation, and Timiș County Council.

The extended format of this year’s Biennnial as well as parts of its public program have been developed in partnership with „Timișoara – Capitală Europeană a Culturii” Association and are co-financed by the Ministry of Culture and National Identity and the Timișoara City Hall.

The Biennial is seeking to create a space of dialog between artists, publics, institutions and ideas through a wide-ranging program of art exhibitions, debates, workshops, performances and art in public space.

The main objectives of the biennial are:

  • to create a platform of dialogue between the local, national, regional and international art contexts
  • to become a meeting place for different artistic practices, generating experiment, collaborations and solidarity on a long term
  • to activate the city of Timisoara and transgressing disciplines in order to create an artistic climate in which various cultural fields intersect
  • to reveal spaces and sites that become temporary hosts for the biennial’s exhibitions, thus integrating industrial heritage sites which may otherwise be forgotten
  • to develop an educational mission focused on breaking the barriers between contemporary art and the general public
  • to integrate historical research of unknown narratives of Romanian art into contemporary art exhibitions
  • to support young generations of artists through new commissions
  • to highlight the historical richness and the socio-cultural context of the city of Timișoara

Art Encounters Foundation Timișoara

We believe art plays a key role in understanding today’s society, strengthening the local community and stimulating creative ideas for a more inclusive and a more sustainable future.

The vision of the Art Encounters Foundation is to become a meeting point for people, ideas, cultures, communities, and to create an open platform for contemporary art in connection with both the city of Timișoara and the global art scene. The public is encouraged to explore the field of art and to engage in a permanent knowledge exchange.

The Art Encounters Foundation aims to deliver an institutional model tailored to the needs of the local context and which is equally engaged in contributing to the international art scene.

Founded in 2015 by art collector and entrepreneur based in Timișoara Ovidiu Șandor, Art Encounters Foundation is an initiative aiming to enrich and support the development of the contemporary art scene in Romania. Its core mission is driven by the aspiration to foster dialogue, learning, research, and experiment. The foundation’s activities are carried out over the following main directions: organizing the Art Encounters biennial in Timișoara and the exhibition program taking place at its permanent space in Timișoara or other places; fostering education and audience development through public programs; developing a solid series of artistic and curatorial residencies. In conjunction with the permanent programs of the Foundation, the private art collection of Ovidiu Șandor, the president of the Art Encounters Foundation, functions as open resource for exhibitions, institutional collaboration, and research.

Starting with January 2018, Art Encounters Foundation carries out its daily activity an exhibition program in its permanent space located at Casa Isho, 46C Take Ionescu Street in Timișoara.