Opening conference of the Sibiu International Performing Arts Market 2024

In its twenty-seventh year, the Sibiu International Performing Arts Market (SIPAM) has significantly advanced the mission of the Sibiu International Theatre Festival. This dynamic event has positioned itself as a vibrant platform for global cultural exchange, engaging a diverse array of performing arts communities and markets.

The event's opening remarks were delivered by Constantin Chiriac, President of the Sibiu International Theatre Festival and the Sibiu International Performing Arts Market, alongside Octavian Saiu, professor, researcher, and theater critic, and Matei Vișniec, playwright and journalist.

The discussion was moderated by Cosmin Chivu, Associate Professor at Sands College of Performing Arts, New York, USA, and Oana Marin, Coordinator of the Sibiu International Performing Arts Market, Romania. Their combined expertise set the stage for a series of insightful conversations, highlighting the festival's role in fostering international artistic collaboration. The event was featured in the official program as Opening Conference of the Sibiu International Performing Arts Market.

I am delighted by the vibrant atmosphere here at Faust Hall for the opening conference of the Performing Arts Market. A warm welcome to each and every one of you. Thank you for being here. We are deeply excited about this moment, anticipated since the end of the previous edition of SIPAM.

Through this market, we hope you will find a platform for developing collaborations, generating new ideas and projects, networking, and forging connections. This is a time of joy, celebration, and friendship, aligning with the theme of this year's International Festival. In this context, I would like to highlight the meanings and guidelines that have shaped this current edition of SIPAM.

Our goal is to promote groundbreaking artistic endeavors and productions featured in our pitch project session, curated by an international panel representing major festivals and institutions in the performing arts sector. These include the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Avignon Off, Association of Performing Arts Professionals, Manchester International Festival, Anthony Sargent, Sibiu International Advisor, and the Sibiu International Festival.

I would also like to relate the conceptual fundamentals of this activity, this session, and this event, to one word: "encounter." This word embodies both the act of meeting each other physically and the discovery of the other, the discovery of otherness. It involves letting yourself be known and learning about others.

With that said, I am honored to be here with the distinguished speakers of today's opening conference. Among them is Mr. Constantin Chiriac, the president of the Sibiu International Theatre Festival and Sibiu International Performing Arts Market, and the director of Radu Stanca National Theatre. His commitment and dedication to the performing arts have made everything we experience today in both the festival and the market possible.

A very dear friend to all of us, I would like to invite Mr. Constantin Chiriac to share the story of the festival and the market.

Good morning, dear friends. When I started participating in international markets in 1997, I realized that the culture market, in my opinion, cannot operate outside the broader market framework. I have seen many cultural markets worldwide doing brilliant things but lacking the means to bring together the people involved in the creative process. It is crucial to share the tools to build a new audience, use technology, promote effectively, and discover funding resources. It's essential to be united.

Over the past 31 years of the festival and the culture market, we have focused on acting, cultural management, and fostering PhD studies and platforms in universities worldwide. Our goal is not to showcase ourselves as examples but to find ways to connect with the public. The public is not just a number of spectators but the unique individuality of each person.

In 2020, when the major decision was made to close countries and restrict freedoms, I spoke out because freedom comes from within, from nature, and cannot be taken away. We decided to continue the culture market and the festival, even in 2020, because of you. We held the market twice that year to maintain dialogue and engagement with the public. They need emotions, and we need them. It's vital to continue on this path.

Consider what the new festival, the new culture market, and the international festival of theater and performing arts schools mean. The volunteering program and all these projects come together in this grand festival, attracting 100,000 live spectators daily and millions online. The focus is the public.

Moreover, the artists and actors come together not only for themselves but for the public. Thank you for being here. I'm confident that the meetings on June 27, 28, and 29 will foster dialogue and shared experiences from various communities. It's important to support our communities and their cultural agendas, understanding and celebrating their unique heritage.

Thank you for coming. We are eager to hear about projects, partnerships, and solutions. A big thank you to the Romanian Culture Institute, President Liviu Jicman, and his team. Your strategic decision to promote Romanian culture worldwide is commendable. We also thank Alpha Bank, especially Cosmin Chivu and Oana Marin, for their hard work in bringing new solutions to the culture market. For the first time, we are selecting shows and dedicating a day to you.

With many important personalities from around the world, we are focusing on the unity of each individual and providing opportunities for the younger generation to learn from masters. This festival of universities within the larger festival allows them to learn, engage in workshops, and blend the past with the present to envision the future. Thank you for being here.

At the end of this session, I ask each of you to take 10-15 seconds to introduce yourself and your country, without discussing your project. This will help us recognize each other. There will be time later for detailed project discussions. Thank you, and enjoy the market and the shows. We have 82 venues and 830 different events. It’s an opportunity to showcase diversity, quality, and what the public means to us. Thank you for your friendship and for being here again.

Rest assured, there's nothing overly conceptual in what I'm about to say; it will be as convenient and informal as it should be. It's truly a pleasure for me to be here. It is truly a pleasure for me to be here and as one has pointed out, I have been associated with this festival for already 20 years and I think of this period as one of friendship becoming deeper and deeper and more cyclical for me and for the people that I have been in touch with. And I would like to say with this in mind that there is something that is perhaps the most genuine and immediate expression of friendship.

We don't always think of it as such because it is commonly associated with something that is rather formal. But if you think of somebody that you like, if you think of somebody you consider your friend, there is something that almost unavoidably happens. I am going to get somebody to smile at me and that is the fact that you have a smile on your face. So I would like to consider this, the very basis for everything that is about to happen amongst the people in this room and invite you to do something together for just a few seconds which is simply when I say, no, look at each other with a smile on your face and you realize that something happens in this process.

And it goes back to a word that Oana mentioned earlier on which is „the encounter” and it goes back to the beautiful definition that was introduced here by Professor Constantin Chiriac, the idea of being here: theater is all about these two different aspects, being here and encountering the other. And there are so many ways of defining this art, but for me, the most profound, the most significant and at the same time the most poetic one is that provided by Polish theater director Jerzy Grotowski in the 60s. When he said, theater is the encounter between somebody who performs and somebody who watches. Now we don't perform but we adhere together and I'd like to invite you to just look at each other very briefly with a smile on your face and see what happens.

I think this really is the ideal starting point of something that I hope will be enriching for you, exciting and consequential. And I'd like to say that everything that is about to happen should and perhaps ideally will do something at the center that is invaluable. And this happens to be the motto of this edition of the Festival this year. And that is the notion of friendship. What you see here in this kind of arrangement is not just five people that work together, five people that have come to say welcome to all of you. You see actually five friends. And when I look at you, I really genuinely hope that I see as many friends as people in this room.

And that is the point of everything. Because this message that we carry for our friendship is important for the rest of the world. Which we cannot change. But which you can bring something to a level that is not be there. And this is the smile. The message of everything that is happening within the framework of this event is that we're putting the smile on people's faces. And we need that today more than perhaps ever before, or at least in recent times. The world is getting setter and setter. We are more and more despondent. And there are so many threats, some of them very, very close to where we are now. And there is no way for us, for our mission, for our activities, for our projects to change that. But what we can do is share this joy and this message of friendship with everybody else.

And I would like to invite everybody to consider this possibility. The possibility of doing something for one another and for everybody else through our joint projects. Through that sense of hope that is so desperate to live now in the world. And I'd like to remind you about the words that were the foundation of the very first festival chronologically speaking. That we all relate to one another. And that has some representatives here in this room. Which is Edinburgh International Festival. It was created in 1947. In a period when Europe was in its hardest period. When everybody was desperate. When there was no sense of humanity finding that possibilities of going forward. And at the initiative of somebody who has not forget the Nobel Prize for Literature and also his Winston Churchill. One small quaint sleepy town in Scotland was chosen for something that lectured be forever the landmark of what we call a festival.

And the motto of that first edition is something that sounds perhaps a little pretentious to date. But I'd like to invite everybody here to consider what it actually means. To provide a platform for the flowering of the human spirit. In a very simple translation that was the message of smiling. Nobody felt like smiling. What we can see the amount to be a major historical predicament is nothing by comparison to what happened back then. Also the revelation of two of the most atrocious events in human history. The concentration camps in the atomic bomb. And yet people found the power, the determination, the energy to smile. Now whatever happens here, however serious the topics will be that you will discuss. I was challenging the ideas might turn out to actually be. However engaging the debates will be. Do not forget. And I'm saying you know it wouldn't get me so technically to smile.

Because if you smile something happens. The person in front of you will smile. And as we know from the greatest discovery in recent psychology. If you smile, read. Read with your eyes, with the muscles of your face, with everything that involves expression. Something happens inside of you. And you can change that. And if you can change yourself, if you can change your own mood. Then that means that you can change everybody around you. So let's all of us try to carry a beautiful and inspirational message of friendship to something that is available to all of us. Which is our ability to smile. So with a smile, through my smile I want to say to everybody. The constant interjecting to whom we are all here. And to every single person involved in the festival, in the performing arts market. In everything that gravitates around this event.

I have ten minutes, and I will use them to talk about a project that can be called "Le Théâtre contre la solitude." “Le Théâtre contre la solitude” is something I have been interested in since I was a journalist. I have observed, as a journalist, the worrying phenomena concerning the impact of technology on young people. I have been a journalist for 32 years, I’ve written for the younger people for a long time and writing for them has become an emergency for the past years. 

We have a problem: humanity is capable of inventing highly effective technologies that quickly become universal. Nowadays, everyone uses social media, but these same networks of socialization can also become networks of solitude. This is the great paradox of digital technology.

For a long time, we have been dealing with the same instruments that can promote happiness, communication, and sharing. However, these same instruments can also lead to isolation. With digital technology, we have created something that we do not yet fully master. Advances are outpacing our capacity to control and adapt them to education and civilization.

Imagine you go on holiday with your family—two parents, three children. Instead of looking out the window, you see your children engrossed in their devices. We must do something to combat these forms of solitude, which are forms of alienation.

In Romania, together with the Ministry of Education, we have created the Digital Education Programme. I have the honor of presenting three opening pieces in primary schools, middle schools, and high schools. The feedback from teachers and students has been extraordinary; they study the play first and then begin to work on the text.

When children learn to do what they cannot through social networks—come into contact with each other, understand themselves and others, overcome shyness, think, and analyze—they develop critical skills. Reflection is tremendously important because theatre can save lives. Whether we are playwrights, festival directors, politicians, library directors, or work in bookshops, we must unite globally to educate the youth and help them live meaningful lives.

We can use theater as a tool to teach young people how to live. I have discovered that the most important thing for young people is to become themselves. At what age does a child truly become themselves? During their teenage years? Later? The process is gradual, and it is often difficult. Children start by thinking with the perspectives of their parents and teachers, but gradually they begin to think for themselves.

Many young people today continue to think through the perspectives of those who created social media. I am talking about hundreds of thousands, perhaps even millions, whose thinking is influenced by Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook. I have nothing against these networks or the genius minds behind them. However, if young people cannot think with their own minds, how can we create a democratic society with strong critical thinking?

A person truly becomes themselves when they develop and manifest a critical sense every day. Only then can they engage in democratic debates and fight for freedom. This includes the freedom of arts and culture. I often return to young people to see if theatre opens their minds.

I wrote a play about young children who get stuck in a bookshop. This play is for an audience of twelve-year-olds and is about discovering the extraordinary world that books open up to them. This is the importance of books. To me, making theatre and writing plays contribute to ending young people's solitude.

This solitude is emotional. I wrote a book on the same theme because I remember how visible and clear-cut the enemy was in the past. Nowadays, it is much more difficult to predict outcomes and understand why so many young people dive into solitude. We need to find a balance in using digital platforms. Of course, we must use these extraordinary technologies, but we must also educate young people to navigate them responsibly.

The urgency of the moment is to educate young people about social networks. They need to learn to navigate these platforms and take responsibility.

Cosmin Chivu, Associate Professor, Sands College of Performing Arts, New York, USA

First and foremost, thank you for making everything possible today and for facilitating all the events. Thank you, Oana. Thank you, Constantin Chiriac, for being the visionary and for organizing everything that has led to the remarkable event we see today.

I completely agree with the power of a smile. One of my teachers, 25 years ago at drama school in New York used to say, "Smile or I'll kill you." I have some remarks, but I'll skip most of them since we'll have plenty of opportunities to share during the breaks. However, I do want to emphasize a few points as we embark on this remarkable journey together: let's remember the transformative power of the arts, let's foster understanding, and let's build friendships.

The collaboration, the spirit of innovation, and the enrichment of new ideas are why we are here. We understand your needs, and we will do everything we can to meet them over the next four days.

Let me briefly go over the schedule for the next four days. Starting on June 27th, we will cover various topics from Thursday to Monday. In the age of artificial intelligence, we have some extraordinary minds joining this panel, both live and via Zoom. Additionally, we have a wonderful exhibition launching tomorrow morning, backstage.

On June 26th, we will discuss cultural heritage tourism as a catalyst for innovative technology, featuring two extraordinary panelists who will share their extensive expertise. Thank you for making this possible and for bringing the Madrigal Choir to Sibiu for the first time during the festival. We will also hear briefly from the manager of Madrigal, who is with us today.

Also on June 26th, we will focus on building strategic alliances within local markets and networks. Alicia Adams from the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., and Anthony Sargent, an inspiration to many, will be key contributors. Our speed networking session, previously known as speed dating, will facilitate one-on-one meetings, each lasting eight to ten minutes, aimed at creating partnerships.

On June 25th, we have three distinguished guests listed on the screen. Additionally, our project pitch presentations on June 25th will feature ten companies selected by an international committee to deliver ten-minute pitches.

Tomorrow afternoon, we will present all the companies performing here. Today’s great event begins at 11 o'clock, moderated by Matei Visniec, with Shona McCarthy, the chief executive of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and Vicențiu Rahau, program coordinator for FITS.

Lastly, I remind you of the cultural conversations happening on June 24th, 25th, 26th, and 27th from 2 to 4 p.m. Today and tomorrow, we also have meetings and classes with photographers, as listed on the screen.

Thank you for joining us.