Z9Festival

Quiet and picturesque, traces of Sibiu’s receded past reappear frequently from a history that is almost submerged – the shell of a disused Communist factory stands in the middle distance when you look over the city from the Bridge of Lies. The distinctively ocular windows, known as the ‘eyes of the city’, (once noticed they are suddenly everywhere), heighten a sense of historical surveillance, the presence of a watchful past. The outlines of an alternative reality seem to inform the smartness and vigilance of these writers. Despite huge transitions, poets in Romania remain concerned with insinuating the truth of their situation, which, with the increased presence of technology and social media, has moved closer to that of Western Europe or the US. / Sam Riviere in The Quietus (July 2015)