Light, Sound and Interaction: Polish Installations at the RADAR 2025 Festival in Romania

Bucharest is once again transforming into the capital of new media art. The sixth edition of the RADAR festival will take place from 3 to 15 October 2025. Under the slogan “Light Borders”, the festival will bring together artists from eleven countries, presenting groundbreaking projects in virtual and augmented reality, video mapping, artificial intelligence, and interactive light art – all set in unique urban spaces. The Polish collective panGenerator will showcase two interactive installations exploring the relationship between light, sound, and the viewer.

How Does Light Define Space? Light Borders at the RADAR 2025 festival in Bucharest

The sixth edition of Romania’s largest new media art event will take place from 3 to 15 October 2025. Launched in 2019, the RADAR Festival showcases innovative digital installations across Bucharest. Each year, a carefully curated selection of digital artworks — including VR, AR, video mapping, artificial intelligence, and interactive and light installations — offers a dynamic overview of the global new media scene. With contributions from both local creators and renowned international artists familiar from the world’s major festivals, RADAR transforms unique urban spaces into vibrant centres of digital creativity. This year’s programme includes an AV stage, where visitors can experience a live fusion of visualisation and electronic music, and RADAR KIDS — a special section for children and families featuring interactive and educational installations.

The RADAR 2025 Festival examines how digital art sculpts visual experiences through contrast, brightness, and darkness. The theme of this edition, Light Borders, explores the role of light as a tool that defines space, perception, and identity. Light not only reveals but also shapes spaces, directs perception, and creates new realities. Light installations become ephemeral borders, transforming the environments they inhabit. Works by artists from eleven countries will be presented. The shows and installations will be located at Casa Presei Libere, in the Sala de Marmură and Scânteia+ spaces.

Interactive Installations by panGenerator: Bloom and Wall of Sound at RADAR 2025 in Romania

The sixth edition of the Romanian RADAR Festival will feature two installations by the Polish collective panGenerator, exploring the boundaries of light and sound. The first work, Bloom, is an interactive light installation based on kinetic modules that respond to changes in light with rotational movement, revealing their shimmering, colourful surfaces. The installation consists of two main elements: a hexagonal structure with rotating modules and a fixed light source. Visitors are invited to play with shadows, combining analogue, lo-fi techniques with digital media. This subtle interplay of light, movement, and perception creates a platform for dialogue between technology and sensory experience.

The second Polish installation is Wall of Sound – an interactive sequencer and sound sampler that invites passers-by to compose music collaboratively, creating an open platform for musical expression. Hexagon-shaped modules enable the recording and playback of sounds, and their interconnections allow for almost infinite combinations of sequences involving the voices of passers-by. Each interaction introduces a new sound to the installation, resulting in a pulsating, evolving composition shaped by the urban community.

Polish Art in Romania – A Cultural Bridge as Part of the Poland–Romania Cultural Season 2024–2025

The presentation of Polish new media installations at the RADAR Festival is part of the Poland–Romania Cultural Season 2024–2025. This is a unique initiative aimed at deepening cultural cooperation between the two countries. The entire programme, running from June 2024 to November 2025, is organised jointly by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage in Poland and the Adam Mickiewicz Institute, with the support of the Polish Institute in Bucharest, the Romanian Ministry of Culture, and the Romanian Cultural Institute.

Under the slogan “We Share a Common Language”, a wide variety of artistic events are presented, including classical music, theatre, visual arts, literature, and design. In 2025, the programme will feature a concert by the Vołosi string quintet on the occasion of Polish–Romanian Solidarity Day, concerts by Sinfonia Varsovia during the George Enescu Festival in Bucharest, a concert by the band Błoto at the conclusion of the Jazz in the Park 2025 festival, an exhibition of photographs by Justyna Mielnikiewicz in Suceava, theatre performances as part of the News from Polska Festival in Bucharest, the presentation of the play “TOACA” at the International Theatre Festival in Sibiu, and a presentation of Polish design at Romanian Design Week in Bucharest and the Łódź Design Festival. The events take place in various locations, including Bucharest, Iași, Sibiu, and Suceava, engaging a wide audience and promoting Polish culture on the Romanian art scene. The Poland–Romania Cultural Season 2024–2025 is a fascinating journey through a variety of artistic experiences, combining tradition with modernity and bringing our societies closer together.

Polish Projects at the RADAR 2025 Festival of New Media Art in Bucharest

• Dates: 3–15 October 2025

• Venue: Romania, Bucharest, Casa Presei Libere, Sala de Marmură, Scânteia+

• Tickets and more information are available at: www.radarnewmedia.art

• Polish installations: Bloom and Wall of Sound by the panGenerator collective

• Part of the Poland–Romania Cultural Season 2024–2025.