About
The Experimental Station for Research on Art and Life is a collective project initiated in 2021 by a group of artists, curators, theorists, economists and others, who, together with tranzit.ro Association, are the stewards of a plot of land in the village Siliștea Snagovului, 40 km north of Bucharest, in the proximity of a protected natural area (forest and lake). Situated in a long-duration perspective and throughout a participatory, open process of building and contextualizing, the Station is a prototype for a cultural institution grounded in its specific locality, yet open for alliances with other life-cultivating communities; it is situated in a post-development narrative and based on ecological and ethical principles.
The Station develops organically, integrating different communities in the process. It grows over time, which allows for people to sediment it into their consciousness. It is collective work that addresses also our limits, not only our wishes. It is a learning site, where we try to act what we preach, and a test site, where we don’t have to constantly produce and deliver.
The Station’s co-founders include the following people and institutions: Anca Benera, Andrei Gavril, Arnold Estefan, Dana Andrei, Eduard Constantin, Florian Niculae, Iuliana Dumitru, Livia Pancu, Maria Eichhorn, Marius Babias, Olivia Mihălțianu, Ovidiu Țichindeleanu, Raluca Popa, Raluca Voinea, Stoyan Dechev, Thomas Poeser, Vlad Basalici and tranzit.ro Association.
From the beginning, the Station functioned as an evolving, open community and many people joined with work, energy, inspiration, contributing to the spirit of the place. Some have offered advice and support from the very beginning, some of them being later involved as authors of different constructions and projects that came to happen at the place. Among them, architects Doina Petrescu & Constantin Petcou (atelier d’architecture autogérée), and Cristi Borcan & Alex Axinte (studioBASAR), curator Anna Smolak, artists Alexandra Pirici and Andrei Dinu. Others joined in the early stages, when there was hardly any infrastructure on the place, and then came to shape the place in a fundamental way: curator Adelina Luft, poet V. Leac. The plans for the Cosmos Garden were imagined by landscape designer Georgiana Strat, and they helped to offer a long-term vision, while artist and art educator Octavia Anghel stepped in to research every plant in the garden. In time, the community around the Station grew: in 2022, another group of artists acquired an adjacent plot of land, where they are planning to build studios: Adelina Ivan, Ioana Gheorghiu, Octav Buta, Raluca Croitoru, Robert Blaj, Virginia Toma & Ramon Sadîc.
In 2024, when more lands were bought to expand the possibilities of the Station, the idea of a real community appeared as poignant, with questions about how its needs could respond to the place while giving it character. This is how The Spring Entrance Community got a name, from the little street name by the side of which the lands are situated. The Community includes, besides the Station, ASK (Amaranth Seed Kollective), a group formed by sound artist Mihai Mitran, artists Dan Vezentan, Mihaela Moldovan, Eduard Constantin, cultural manager and performer Maria Mora, curators Raluca Voinea, Adelina Luft, and architects George Marinescu and Daria Oancea; and the Three Ashes Foundation, established by curator Charles Esche.
In addition, each person who visits, participates to projects, creates interventions, leaves a trace, works or contemplates on the place, comes to become part of the extended community.
Not least, for the hard work in the beginning and throughout, for technical advice and help with all sorts of crises, we have benefited from the support of close friends and family: Madalin Geana, Simion Constantin, Cristian Voinea (1952-2025), Margareta Voinea, Georgeta Constantin.
At the Station, we are happy to engage in a long-term relationship building with our neighbours: Cristina Trelea, Alexandru Stoian and his family, doamna Diana, Edi mic, Rudi and his horses, Motoc the dog and his friends, and others who will come.
The Experimental Station for Research on Art and Life
Intrarea Primaverii nr. 10, sat Silistea Snagovului
Comuna Gruiu, jud. Ilfov, Romania
web dev & design: Bureau Castel
