URME (in Romanian language means footprints, tracks) proposes the reactivation of the urban memory of seven European cities, through multidisciplinary studies that re-create the cultural atmosphere at different moments in their historical development. Using contemporary methods, URME intends to signalize urban sites as part of the literary and cultural history of the city.
The action will involve a large number of students and researchers, interested in or professionally focused on studying urban literature and cultural history. Their studies will cover various areas of research based on different testimonies, from fragments of novels that take part in city areas, to correspondence between artists, travel journals, memoirs, archives of artistic trends, newspaper clippings, photographs, documentaries, movies etc. and will be made available to the public of Europe in creative formats – as maps offering information about cultural routes, in a published album and on the internet in forms of travel journals and virtual exhibitions. The project will encourage interdisciplinary research based on creativity and cooperation and performed in a mobility system.
URME is also aimed at laying the grounds for a future European network of Centers for Urban Research and Creativity that will enable mobility in the fields of urban anthropology and literature studies.
The objectives of the project are:
- To re-activate the urban memory of seven European cities, through multidisciplinary studies that re-create the cultural atmosphere at different moments in their historical development.
- To support the mobility of the urban researchers for workshops and comparative studies of the European cities within the context of their belonging to a common literary and cultural European heritage.
- To create a European literary routes system with the urban elements and sites of heritage value from the partner’s cities.
- To improve the public’s access to the European cultural heritage and to encourage people’s creativity within specialized centers for urban researches and creativity.
