Romanian Creative Week, the largest event dedicated to the creative industries in the European Union, returns between October 2 and 8 with the second edition of RCW X Bucharest, the autumn capsule of RCW.

The event continues in Bucharest a consistent part of the projects presented in May in Iasi, reconfigured for other spaces and contexts, along with projects designed specifically for the Bucharest edition.

An important part of this capsule is dedicated to the Arts pillar of Romanian Creative Week. Photography, installation, sculpture, fashion design, exhibition architecture and participatory art build, for seven days, a route that passes through galleries and cultural institutions, but also goes out into Bucharest's parks and squares. The common thread is the theme 'RCW 2026, JOY', explored not as a simple aesthetics exercise, but through the relationship between the viewer and the work, between body and space, between nature, technology, memory and identity.

The Arts programme starts on Friday, at 15:00hrs, at The Group, with the opening of the exhibition and Portraits by Alex Galmeanu. The exhibition is open throughout October 8, by invitation only. The exhibition setup, made after a project conceived by Alex Galmeanu, is by architect Mihai Birtu.

On the same day, from 17:00 hrs, in the Art Gallery of the Dimitrie Brandza Botanical Garden, 'PORTAL' will be inaugurated, a fashion design installation, object and participatory experience by Mihaela Glavan. Admission to the opening is by invitation only, and later the exhibition will have free admission, open throughout October 8. The project follows what happens when fashion detaches itself from the logic of the show and approaches the body, matter and silence.

Also on Friday, at 17:00hrs, in the Botanical Garden, the sound installation Hidden Realities, signed visual artist Andrei Cozlac, will be inaugurated. Admission is free, and the exhibition stays open throughout October 8. Starting from Nosce te ipsum - Know thyself -, the work builds a series of resonance points in which Tibetan bowls, water, the gesture of the spectator and sound relate immediate reality with the more difficult to reach areas of perception.

Also in the Botanical Garden, on Friday, from 17:00hrs, the 'Hydrophoria' opening takes place, curated by Caterina Pruteanu, set up by architect Carina Lacatusu.

The evening of the first day continues at Scanteia+, where 'Metaphor', the central exhibition of RCW 2026, is reconstructed for Bucharest in a One Night Only format. The exhibition curated by Marian Palie, exhibition design by architect Robert Marin, brings the same selection of almost 20 artists in an architecture with a radically different identity and memory.

The evening events start at 20:00hrs, with the opening of 'Metaphor', continues at 21:00hrs with the performance '.aetherium,' featuring Andrei Budescu, and at 21:30hrs, Charles B takes over the evening with a DJ set.

In the Arts events on Saturday, at 15:00hrs, at Atelier 35, the opening of The Mirror Stage happens. Curated by Marian Palie, the project is the result of a six-year research process and investigates the cultural, psychological and aesthetic effects of the mirror on the human subject.

From 16:00hrs, in the Romanian Athenaeum Park, 'Milestone Stones' will be inaugurated, a project curated by architect Andrei Bodnar and open to the public, with free admission, for the entire RCW X Bucharest. The project uses the mirror as a signal in a space that the inhabitants cross daily. In the same place and at the same time, artist Miki Velciov presents 'Synthetic Daisy.' The installation turns a daisy into an artificial object in the landscape and puts in tension nature and industrial production, organic and manufactured copy, in a reflection on the proliferation of plant simulacra and the fragility of the contemporary relationship between man and the natural environment.

At the Central University Library, on Saturday, at 16:30hrs, 'Fragile Thoughts powered by Pepsi' is scheduled to inaugurate, an installation by Georgea Dura and Andrei Cozlac. The work explores the fragility and ephemeral character of the present through the contrast between a massive, static hand and an airy, unstable matter, transforming the tension between the human desire to control time and the changing nature of reality into a large image.

At 17:00hrs, in George Enescu Square, 'Kaleidoscope powered by Pepsi', curated by Silvan Cimpoesu and Karina Luncasu, builds a labyrinth of colour, movement and direct encounters, to celebrate the 60th anniversary of Pepsi in Romania. Also in George Enescu Square, on the same day, from 18:00hrs, the 'Inflatable Theatre' is unveiled, a project by Andrei Ivanovits and Ionut-Valerian Ursachi. The installation, open to the public on October 3 and 4, proposes a temporary structure intended for performance and encounter in the urban space. The day continues at 19:00hrs, in the Court of Honor of the Royal Palace, with the opening of 'Fantastic Posse', the installation of the new media artist Sebastian Comanescu, consisting of three monumental inflatable sculptures that translate the theme of JOY into a group of fantastic 'creatures,' conceptually starting from the famous speech 'This is Water' by David Foster Wallace.

The full schedule of RCW X Bucharest 2026 is available on www.romaniancreativeweek.ro. AGERPRES (RO - editing by: Petronius Craiu; EN - writing by: Corneliu-Aurelian Colceriu)