Carol Factory

The city is moving. Even on the other side of Unirii Boulevard: a new green area in Văcăreşti, galleries, art and design centres appear in old factories, cool bars and restaurants and vanguard entrepreneurship. The isolated and forgotten South breeds today one of the busiest areas.

We explored the southern side of the capital, with two specific themes in mind: new cultural, social and business initiatives and transforming industrial spaces. As a result, in Carol Factory there were three events on October 21st:

• Str. Dr. Constantin Istrati no. 1, Bucharest (opposite of Bus station Filaret, next to Park Carol)
• Saturday, 6 of june, from 9:30 P.M.
• Gates open at 7 P.M.

The first Saturday of this summer comes full of Norwegian, Swedish and Danish movies – a rare opportunity to enjoy the Scandinavian cinema at Carol Factory (Halele Carol), but also to celebrate the national day of one of the invited friends, Sweden: on June 6th, just after sunset, the lights of the northern cinema arrive in southern Bucharest, in the former factory next to Carol Park, continuing our program of activating the old site.

creativity workshops for children

6 & 7 June 2015

Children had the opportunity to turn detective and architect and to shape the stories that we tell them or they create themselves.  We worked with photographs, drawings, objects, models and stories that animate children.

Exhibition and conference – Friday 22 May 2015

•  18:00 – Opening: 5 installations -interventions in the public space of Halele Carol, realized by artists and architects from Norway and Romania

Curators:  Evy Sorensen (USF) , Cosmina Goagea and Ştefan Ghenciulescu (Zeppelin)

• 19:00 – Conference with presentations by the authors on their design of the site-specific intervention in the context of their work practice.

Marit Haugen (No)
Erlend Blakstad Haffner (No)
Finn Eirik Modahl & Arne Revheim (No)
Meta van Drunen (Ro)
Constantin Goagea (Ro)

Exhibition open five months from 22 May – 30 October 2015

Text: Constantin Goagea
Photo: Silviu Dancu, Meta van Drunen

Hesper S.A.. is a factory in the southern part of the central area og Bucharest, formerly known as Wolf, then Steaua Roșie (Red Star) Factory. For over two years now, Zeppelin works, in partnership with Hesper, to a model of rehabilitation for these spectacular buildings built in 1887: two years of research right on the site, in the Netherlands, Norway, Germany and Russia about how such a place can be transformed, meetings and discussions, business plans, strategies and not as the least important, action.

During the White Night of the Art Galleries, in the busiest week of the year – Romanian Design Week – there were so many great events, that only the preparations fever helped us not to panic every time we wondered if the public will get through to the dusty Filaret, from the glamorous city centre. Across from the bus station known especially to those leaving to Basarabia, we had put a new landmark on the map : Carol Factory – the name by which the old industrial areas of Hesper Factory will be reconverted into a cultural and events centre. Perhaps the most beautiful of our project so far, totaling more than two years of efforts with our partners from Eurodite.