Giants of Pantelimon: 5000 visitors in the weekend, 5km of colorful strings, 100 kg of paint, 6000 square meters of painted roofs, one neighborhood

The first street art exhibition on rooftops in the world, Giants of Pantelimon, opened on 13th October in Bucharest. Giants of Pantelimon Street Art Days which ended on Sunday evening were a blast and a premiere of this kind in the eastern neighborhood of Bucharest.
5000 visitors of all ages came to Make a Point. They climbed the Art Water Tower and threw colorful balls in the installation created by the Italian artist Biancoshock (Italy). They admired and voted for their favorite roof paintings made by Romanian and international artists and attended live dance performances and reverse graffiti art demonstrations. Pantelimon has thus been put on the cultural map of the world.

The artists TOM, Nomado, Nada Krstajić, Robert Obert and Alexandra Cristiana Comănici turned the stories of the neighborhood into gigantic art, supported by the art producer Ana Maria Dutu and over 60 apprentices. The winner artist of the popular vote was Cristiana Comănici, who wrapped a network of rainbow strings around the water tower. Visitors also showed great interest in the woman measuring radioactivity at Chernobyl (by Robert Obert), the urban “hora” folk dance painted by the Serbian artist Nada Krstajić, Nomado’s anamorphic vision of the bedroom community and the eco installation designed by TOM.

We felt much honored to have Martha Cooper among us, the American photojournalism legend, explaining her photographs and spending time with us in Pantelimon, doing what she likes most: taking photos of the artists at work. Martha Cooper gave us an insight into the history of graffiti and her photographs from 1947 up to present. She taught us the difference between graffiti and street art, and we also learned how to turn urban dirt into art from Moose, the famous English artist who invented the reverse graffiti.
The Danish artist Victor Ash and the French Ella & Pitr left their unique works on the roofs. We also enjoyed watching the dancers inside the tower every night – Petec and Sasha Dodo (from Russia). The 20 students of Carmen Nistor (Germany) went home bitten by the calligraphy bug and with their hands stained with ink and colors.
The Giants of Pantelimon exhibition is a world premiere, a 6000 square meter gallery on roofs, which we hope to grow bigger in the years to come.

Mădălina Roşca and Paul Arne Wagner, the creators of the project, express their gratitude to the team working for Giants of Pantelimon, to the artists for painting the Pantelimon stories on the roofs, to the volunteers whose contribution was essential to completing the gigantic art works. The apprentices are artists themselves and we are waiting for them to bring their own creations on the roofs in the years to come. Thumbs up for Fru Fru and Urban Monkey for having managed to keep everyone alive and healthy in the recent weeks.
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About Make a Point
Make a Point looks back on 10 years of experience in reconverting and reinventing industrial spaces, cultural intervention, as well as starting art projects in a place where the access to culture is limited by the lack of public infrastructure. At the begginings of Make a Point association stand the rehabilitation and transformation of a former industrial space into a cultural center. A former section of a textile factory became a modern exhibition space as well as projection space, and community library. In one of our last big projects, we transformed the old water tower of the factory into an unique art installation, at the same time keeping its utility and functionality.
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About Giants of Pantelimon
Giants of Pantelimon is a community art project by Madalina Rosca and Paul Arne Wagner, starting in 2016 with a pilot featuring the first painting on a factory roof in Bucharest. In the spring of 2017, the project continued with Andreea Dragan’s neighborhood story hunt followed by the international call for artists. Giants of Pantelimon Street Art Days will be the climax of the first (2017) edition of the project.
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Giants of Pantelimon is a Make a Point project
The project is financed within the cultural program “Bucharest Participatory City” by the Bucharest City Hall, through the Cultural Center of Bucharest ARCUB and co-financed by the Administration of the National Fund for Culture (AFCN).
Partners: Red Bull, Havana Club, Aqua Carpatica, Italian Institute of Culture, French Institute, Danish Arts Foundation, Frufru, Pegas Bicycles, Hotel Est
Mobility partner: Uber
Media partners: Radio Guerrilla, Scena9, Vice, Igloo, IQads, noizz.ro, Festivalier
(list in course of being updated)