Artown NOW answers: Is Ploiești the capital of urban art?

Artown NOW, Romania’s only urban art annual, announces its fifth edition, which will take place in Ploiești between September 18 and October 4, 2026, under the theme “The Grammar of Freedom.” At the start of autumn, the public is invited to discover the city on foot, through the lens of art. Murals, sculptures, urban installations, workshops and events will transform Ploiești into an open-air museum.

The community will come together for workshops, exhibitions and events at the UZUC Factory. Between August 24 and September 12, this industrial space becomes a temporary museum, with artists from all over the world turning the site into an artistic work-in-progress open to the public.

Artown NOW, the urban art annual, is a statement about how art shapes the city, the community and the present. This year’s edition brings to Ploiești over 100 local and international artists, who will create 25 murals and sculptures, plus another 50 street interventions throughout the city.

Over four editions, the event has brought to Ploiești more than 400 artists from 40 countries, across 6 continents, in front of over 15,000 visitors in 2025 alone. With 100 murals created so far, 2 renovated parks, more than 350 public space interventions and 11,000 sqm painted, Ploiești is becoming Romania’s unofficial capital of urban art. The mural map can be explored at artown-now.ro/map.

Romania’s only urban art annual, with a manifesto theme

The theme for this year’s edition is “The Grammar of Freedom.” In a fragmented world, where freedom is often reduced to personal comfort or isolation, the event takes on a necessary moment: to question what freedom means today, where it begins and where its boundaries lie. Through murals, sculptures, installations, street interventions and exhibitions, the city becomes a space for meeting and reflection on freedom, understood as an experience built through one’s relationship with others, with the community and with the surrounding environment. Each intervention invites the public to presence, dialogue and participation.

This year’s theme completes a five-year curatorial arc: after previous editions invited the city to feel, to speak, to imagine and to belong, the anniversary edition expresses itself through the verb that encompasses them all – to be.

In a context where democracies are vulnerable, Artown NOW 2026 aims to map, together with artists, curators, the community, the private sector and public administrations, a possible grammar of freedom, and at the end of the edition an open handbook will be produced — a set of questions, gestures and practices that can be carried forward into the city, the community and civic life.

“Five years after the first edition, Ploiești has become the place where street art is gaining legitimacy, gesture by gesture. We’re not stopping at decorating the city — we want to build, together with artists and the community, a space where freedom is practiced, not just discussed,” said Livia Florea, founder of Artown NOW.

The UZUC Factory becomes the (CONtra)TEMPORARY Museum

The UZUC Factory, with a history of over 120 years, built on 100,000 sqm, is the only industrial site in Romania remodeled through art on this scale. Between August 24 and September 12, 2026, artists will work on-site, turning the halls into an artistic work-in-progress open to the public. Unlike a classic exhibition, here the process itself is the exhibition and can be followed in real time: the public has access during the production period, and the finished works will be presented starting September 18. The Urban Zone of Unconventional Culture project, co-financed by the National Cultural Fund Administration, aims to transform the factory into a (CONtra)TEMPORARY Museum – a museum where art is produced in the presence of the community.

The edition also extends beyond UZUC: Democracy Park receives new sculptural installations inspired by Brâncuși, and Ploiești’s Gara de Sud (South Station), the only train station in Romania restored through art, receives new artistic interventions.

A 10-year-old co-curator

This year’s edition brings onto the curatorial team Matei Nițulescu, a 10-year-old passionate about culture, already experienced in theater and performance, as well as in producing an artistic interview show with artists. Curious and sensitive, he is the ideal co-curator to shape the theme of freedom at this age. He will lead guided tours and be the voice of several community events within the annual.

Three extended weekends, just 45 minutes from Bucharest

What this year’s edition brings:

• Continuous Studio – artist Dumitru Gorzo moves his studio into a hall at the UZUC Factory for a month and a half, opening the artistic process to the public, with weekly events, talks and workshops;
• murals, sculptures and public space interventions, created by artists from Romania and abroad throughout the city;
• guided tours, workshops, music, concerts, recitals, DJ sets, discussion panels, theater, performance, listening sessions and short film screenings;
• public program from Thursday to Sunday, with each Sunday dedicated to the community;
• The Grammar of Freedom Handbook, the edition’s manifesto publication

Artown NOW is organized by Asociația buchARTest and co-financed by the National Cultural Fund Administration. The projects do not necessarily represent the position of the National Cultural Fund Administration. AFCN is not responsible for the content of the projects or for how the results may be used. These are entirely the responsibility of the funding beneficiary.

The event is supported by Shopping City Ploiești, NEPI Rockcastle, Kaufland Romania, Kraftanlagen & IPIP, Cemrom, and carried out with the support of the Ploiești City Hall.

About Artown

NOW Artown NOW is the urban art annual organized by Asociația buchARTest. Since its first edition in 2022, the project has brought together over 400 artists from more than 40 countries and six continents, transforming public space in Ploiești through 100 murals, more than 350 street interventions, seven sculptures and 11,000 sqm painted. Through this accumulated work, the city has become Romania’s unofficial capital of urban art, with the UZUC Factory – Urban Zone of Unconventional Culture – as the central landmark of this transformation. Artown NOW’s ambition is to continue becoming a benchmark of contemporary art in Eastern Europe.

About Asociația buchARTest

Founded in 2019, Asociația buchARTest is a non-profit organization that develops projects of urban and human regeneration through art, under the mission Building Coherence Through Art. The association creates and implements public art initiatives that connect artists, communities, institutions and the private sector, contributing to the transformation of cities and communities through culture. Its projects include Artown NOW, the urban art annual in Ploiești; Mural Rural, a program that brings contemporary art to rural communities and highlights local identity; and Artist on the Go, a mobility and cultural exchange platform for artists and communities from diverse contexts. Through these initiatives, buchARTest promotes art as a tool for dialogue, social cohesion and sustainable development.