The in:vzbl Festival emerged from the need to bring together artists from various fields who could directly interact with diverse audiences. The purpose of this gathering is to expose everyone – artists and the public alike – to different perspectives on reality, initiating a dialogue through which what is sometimes "invisible" in society can begin to become visible through art, in a neighborhood of Timișoara which has come to be likened to a "periphery" from all points of view. The festival, which had its first edition in 2019 and enjoyed success both among the public and in artistic circles, responds to the needs of cultural access for the population of the Fabric district and beyond.
in:vzbl also addresses the expression needs of the independent cultural sector, which requires support for production and access to new audiences. In 2022, we offered cultural operators and international artists the opportunity to participate in the festival through a series of open calls. The third edition of the festival included 8 international performances, 5 national performances, 5 performances by Teatrul Basca, 2 international artistic residencies and one national residency, a feature film, and 4 short films. For the cultural capital year, we aim to produce a new performance to kick off the 2023 cultural program, to co-produce the Cargo Timișoara performance together with Rimini Protokoll, and to continue the series of open calls and invited performances for the in:vzbl Festival.
The 3rd edition of the in:vzbl Festival helped us test the organizational capacity to attract audiences to cultural events that share the festival's values and to prepare the cultural program for 2023. We strengthened relationships with national partners (e.g., Replika, Reactor) and international partners (e.g., Art Bureau), attracted new audiences (e.g., homeless individuals, refugees, children with disabilities), developed cultural mediation capacity through post-performance discussions, and continued our journey towards social inclusion through culture by offering artistic workshops to local communities (e.g., contemporary dance workshops, circus, music). In 2023, we aim to continue the artistic research in local invisible communities and develop a musical about Timișoara in recent years from the perspective of various female characters from diverse social backgrounds, which we will present at the opening of the cultural program.