The History of In Context Club
In Context Club is a NON FOR profit project by the Art Association In Context Slanic Moldova.
The project has its roots in the cultural- educational program running since in 2017 in the cradle of the Carpathian peaks and forests, in an especially scenic natural setting, whew streams in all its glory one of the most beautiful resorts on the Romanian lands, SLANIC MOLDOVA.
The settlement was founded and developed thanks to the numerous mineral springs with such varying compositions from the Slănic brook’s valley, which on a map printed at Vienna in 1856 is called the Slatini brook, due to the fact that it passes through a region with a soil rich in soluble salts, a “slatina” (a spring with salted water) or salt mine.
The therapeutic value of mineral waters from Slănic Moldova has been confirmed over time by medals won at international exhibitions in Vienna (gold medal, 1873), Frankfurt am Main (silver medal, 1881), Bucharest (gold medal, 1894), Paris (gold medal, 1889). For these reasons it was compared by specialists with the mineral waters from Karlovy-Vary, Vichy, AixlesBains and dubbed the “Pearl of Moldavia”.
The pure air, rich in resinous aerosols and negative oxygen ions, due to the mass of ozone air and forest-flavored aerosols, gives Slănic, besides its quality of a balneary resort, also the quality of a climatic resort, offering the visitors the possibility of air cures of a great purity.
Since then, Slănic Moldova was the site for the annual international annual cultural program In Context, meant to revitalize the geographic and tourist potential of the town, to re-socialize it through cultural exchanges and to raise the interest of the local community for contemporary art and for nature, ecological education and sustainable development.
In Context has organised three editions of international contemporary art residency, two editions of experimental music festival taking place in 11 spectacular venues in nature and reactivated historical buildings, more then 100 workshops and talks with topics related to the impact of humans on nature.
Artists and musicians from Brazil, India Iceland and Romania have created a series of 36 works and several actions and interventions designed to inspire a collective search for solutions and ideas for extending the life of the earth and the species of animals and plants that live it, in the context of the ecological collapse that we are experiencing increasingly accelerated by the unlimited exploitation of the planet’s finite resources. Using local materials, diverse aesthetic practices, from sculpture, photography and installation, to performing, monumental and interactive art with public involvement, artists explored concepts related to the impact of man and the neoliberal economic model on the earth’s ecosystems, – sensitization with nature, energies contained in organic matter (salt, stone, wood) as well as the potential of the art in revitalizing spaces and communities through collective participation. The created works have remained in the In Context.
Association’s collection, aiming to become a centre of contemporary art, ecology and human development, a transdisciplinary learning lab through art and science as complementary ways of exploring the world, a space dedicated to presentations, debates, film screenings, group readings and specialised workshops.
At the same time, concepts and various proposals to solve the ecological crisis evolved continuously through accumulations and exchange, as we today profundity understand the consequences of our actions on the earth.
Reflecting on the concern for the subject, the processes of investigation, representation and materialization of possible solutions took us to the conclusion that education has the highest power to generate change.
The project provides today a space for reflection and participation to illustrating and developing a methodology for raising awareness of the potential of contemporary art to address issues of global concern, mobilize society to collective action, innovate and generate ideas, and different solutions where current political and economic paradigms do not yet find any answers.
As a strategy for sustainability during COVID 19 crisis, In Context launched a circular economy brand La Centrala (as the name of the iconic studio building we have refurbished in an old power plant) , upcycling furniture and textiles discharged by the local community.
of this process and with a deep understanding of the acutisation of the effects of climate change, the team In Context decided to focus on extending the educational program in order to increase its impact and form new alliances for climate and generational justice.