Petre Mogoș and Laura Naum (Kajet Journal)
The material conditions of living and working in Timișoara emerge from a complex network of historical political systems, dating back to Habsburg rule through today’s post-socialism and global digitalisation. Timișoara’s print industry not only documented and influenced this transformation but is also a product of interconnected industrial ecologies—from forestry to the chemical sector, from heavy industry to arts and publishing organisations.
‘The City is Spinning! Timișoara’s Print Ecologies Then and Now’ is a non-traditional timeline of Timișoara’s print industry, presented as a scroll that can be spun with interactive take-away paper sheets. Using the ‘Economy in Timișoara’ report as a starting point, the project reassembles data into non-linear chronologies, contextualised through archival research. This opens a conversation between previously overlooked chronicles, narratives, and local organisations in the print industry and beyond.
The patchwork of micro-threads that unfolds not only offers a more nuanced understanding of Timișoara’s industrial heritage, but also serves as a reminder that historical narratives and the futures they shape are as adaptable as rearranging the pages of a book or spinning events on a timeline.
Credits
Graphic design: Roos van Zijl and Hanna ShypovychInterviews: Ovidiu and Silvia Hrin, co-founders of Synopsis™; Sorina Vazelina, visual artist; Florin Fâra, zine-maker, and coordinator of Secret Garden bookshop and Sit and Read Art Book Fair; Cristina Dema from the Jimbolia Press Museum
Data Sources
Petrovici, Alexe, Bejinariu, 2023. ‘Economy in Timișoara: Territorial Distribution of the Economy in the Timișoara Metropolitan Area’
Bejinariu, 2023. ‘The Manchester of Hungary: Developments and Economic Policies in Timișoara between the Danube Empire and Greater Romania’. MA Dissertation, Babes-Bolyai University.
Archival research: Arcanum, Fortepan, Camera Arhiva, Wikimedia Commons