SIPAM 2025 opens with gratitude, vision, and urgency

The 29th edition of the Sibiu International Performing Arts Market (SIPAM), a key component of the Sibiu International Theatre Festival (FITS), opened with a powerful series of speeches that turned the festival’s theme “Thank you” into a profound exploration of connection, creativity, and cultural diplomacy.

The official opening brought together leading voices from across the global performing arts landscape, including Constantin Chiriac, President of the Sibiu International Theatre Festival and the Sibiu International Performing Arts Market; Octavian Saiu, President of the International Association of Theatre Leaders (IATL), Cultural and Academic Consultant, and FITS Conference Chair; Harold David, Co-chair of Avignon Festival & Compagnies (France); Liviu Jicman, President of the Romanian Cultural Institute (ICR) and of the European Union National Institutes for Culture (EUNIC); and Hege Knarvik Sande, Director of Performing Arts Hub Norway.

The event was moderated by Cosmin Chivu, Associate Professor at the Sands College of Performing Arts in New York, USA, and Oana Marin, Assistant Professor at Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu and Coordinator of the Sibiu International Performing Arts Market.

Oana Marin opened the session with a deeply personal speech, inviting the audience to rethink the act of gratitude not as a conclusion, but as a beginning. “Thank you for the encounter,” she repeated, echoing her great-grandmother's daily greeting and setting the tone for a gathering focused on dialogue and empathy. Marin reminded the audience that theatre is, at its core, a place where one can "open up, reveal themselves, their work, their inner world in a place of love."

Marin spoke of theatre as a site for difference and disagreement, but also for transformation. “When we don’t exchange or acknowledge different perspectives, disagreement hardens into antagonism, which can lead to violence,” she warned. She closed by paying tribute to Professor Constantin Chiriac, the visionary behind FITS and SIPAM, describing him as a leader whose time is entirely “dedicated to creativity.”

Professor Constantin Chiriac, President of FITS and SIPAM, took the stage to reflect on the market’s 29-year journey. "To have 100,000 spectators daily, in-person and online, in a relatively small city, that is a great achievement,” he said. He emphasized Sibiu’s cultural investment, noting that the city dedicates 14% of its public budget to culture, one of the highest in Europe.

Chiriac spoke of the importance of fostering competition and offering real opportunities to young professionals through the Festival of Universities and research platforms. "Everything is built through competition. That’s how we ensure continuity," he affirmed. Most importantly, he emphasized that the market was never meant to be transactional. It is a space of discovery, partnership, and community.

Liviu Jicman, President of the Romanian Cultural Institute (RCI) and EUNIC, continued by thanking Romanian artists for raising the country's cultural profile globally. He noted that RCI's financial model is based on partnerships, making SIPAM an ideal platform. “This is not only about showcasing Romanian theatre,” he said, “but about building partnerships for the future.”

Hege Knarvik Sande, Director of Performing Arts Hub Norway, introduced the “Norway Now” program, spotlighting Norwegian artists and organizations such as the National Theatre, Sami National Theatre, and Nobel Prize-winning writer Jon Fosse. “We are deeply grateful the festival chose to highlight Norway this year,” she said, reaffirming the importance of transnational artistic dialogue.

Harold David, co-president of the Avignon Off Festival, shared his emotional motivation for attending despite his own festival looming in two weeks. “In these troubled times, we must prove that war is not the only way to talk to each other,” he stated. “Cultural dialogue is our strongest tool.”

The session ended with a poetic and intellectually charged address by Professor Octavian Saiu, who challenged the very notion of "market" in the context of the arts. “I never liked the term,” he confessed. “It suggests something transactional. But here, it means togetherness.” He concluded with a call to honor absent colleagues around the world who cannot be present due to censorship, war, or repression. “Let’s celebrate this opportunity to be together,” he said. “Not with applause, but with silence.”

The opening speeches for SIPAM 2025 reaffirmed the market’s fundamental mission: to serve as a space where art is not merely presented, but meaningfully exchanged, an environment where cultural expression is valued not as a commodity, but as a shared human experience.