From furnace hall, to the art scene: the Arcade Building pre-inaugurates FITT (The Transylvanian International Theatre Festival)

The Arcade Building, symbolic structure of the former industrial platform Carbochim, is set to become a center dedicated to performative arts and events within the RIVUS project. The future art hub will host, on Wednesday, September 16th 2026 from 20:00, a new cultural event. Titled “Site of our Days”, the play was created specifically for this space, and it will pre-inaugurate the Transylvanian International Theater Festival (FITT).

In national premiere, a mixed-use urban reconversion project will include a cultural hub for the artistic community of Cluj-Napoca. This mission to sustain and promote the cultural environment is becoming reality from the earliest stages of construction. RIVUS is once again opening up to culture and to the people of Cluj, by partnering with FITT. The Arcade Building, the industrial building that is to be transformed into a live arts center, will host in premiere a theater play that marks the festival’s pre-opening. Other special events have taken place in this space before, such as a contemporary dance performance, artistic workshops and art exhibitions. This time, it becomes home to a spectacle of poetry, dance and music. In addition, access will be possible only when accompanied by authorized personnel, as the spectacle will take place in an active construction site.

“Our lives are a construction site — never finished, never perfect. There is always something to build, repair, leave behind, or take with us. The encounter between RIVUS and FITT stems precisely from the concept of a space in transformation. The Arcade Building is opening temporarily to the public to offer a preview of both the upcoming four-day festival and the building’s future role as a cultural space integrated into the life of the city. ‘Site of our Days’ (Șantierul zilelor) is a performance created for the Arcade Building,” said Elena Ivanca, founding president of FITT.

In the performance created by artists Elena Ivanca, Oana Bonda, Adrian Lup, and Dora Mariș, the group enters a space currently under transformation to craft, with humor, poetry, and candor, an experience centered on the human spirit. Within an industrial hall itself undergoing redevelopment, an actress, a dancer, and a cellist blend various artistic dimensions — poetry, dance, and music — into a performance rich in emotion and vision. The show also incorporates musical interludes featuring songs from the repertoire of Maria Tănase.

The Arcade Building is one of the structures preserved and integrated into the RIVUS project. Its transformation entails not only the revitalization of a building with a significant local history but also a change in function: shifting from a space dedicated to industrial production to one open to the community, culture, and the performing arts. Events organized here prior to the project’s completion offer the public the opportunity to gradually discover this transformation. Contemporary dance and visual art — and now theater, poetry, dance, and music — are already bringing into the former hall a taste of the experiences the space will host in the future.

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