Matei Bejenaru on Periferic Biennial's Legacy and Funding Challenges in Iasi

Matei Bejenaru founded the Periferic performance festival in Iasi in 1997, which evolved into an international contemporary art biennial by 2001. The Vector Association was established that same year to institutionalize the project, aiming to promote contemporary art and develop the local scene. Initial funding came primarily from foreign cultural institutions like Pro Helvetia, the Center for Contemporary Art Soros, and the French Cultural Center. Later support included grants from the European Cultural Foundation, Romanian entities such as the Ministry of Culture and the National Fund for Culture, and Iasi's City Hall. Bejenaru notes that foreign funds consistently constituted the majority of financial backing. The biennial's audience comprised local students and young intellectuals alongside Romanian and international art professionals. Despite its impact in placing Iasi on the global art map and fostering a connected local scene, Vector operated as an artist-run initiative, hindered by economic constraints and provincial attitudes from hiring professional staff. Bejenaru, who directed Periferic until 2008, emphasizes that sustainable cultural development in Iasi requires long-term institutional programs with educational components, funded by local administration and independent of political or commercial influence. He advocates for continued pressure on Romanian institutions to support contemporary art for cultural workers' livelihoods.