Each edition of SF(a) – Society. Film. Architecture brings together a distinguished constellation of voices from diverse fields, reflecting the project’s interdisciplinary spirit. Our invited speakers and guests include architects, artists, designers, writers, critics, historians, philosophers, curators, and educators from Romania and abroad, whose recognition and expertise enrich the dialogue at the intersection of cinema, architecture, and society. Their contributions—ranging from lectures and guided tours to workshops, round-tables, and exhibitions—expand the critical horizons of participants and audiences alike. By sharing professional insights, research, and creative practices, these guests embody the collaborative ethos of SF(a), offering perspectives that bridge disciplines and generations, while reinforcing the project’s cultural and academic relevance on both a national and international level.
Dan Perjovschi lives in Bucharest and Sibiu. He creates critical and humorous drawings directly on the walls of art institutions around the world, offering political, social, and cultural commentary on the everyday realities of global society. His black-and-white drawings function as visual editorials. He has held solo exhibitions at Tate Modern London, MoMA New York, MACRO Rome, Moderna Museet Stockholm, Reykjavík Art Museum, Van Abbemuseum Eindhoven, Ludwig Museum Cologne, Kunsthalle Hamburg, Nasher Museum at Duke University, and Kiasma Helsinki. He has also participated in group exhibitions at Centre Pompidou Paris, Tate Liverpool, Castello di Rivoli Turin, SFMOMA, MUAC Mexico City, MAM Warsaw, MCBA Lausanne, and MOT Tokyo. His work has been featured in Documenta 15 and at biennials in Istanbul, Venice, São Paulo, Moscow, Sydney, Lyon, Dublin, Iași, Timișoara, and Jakarta.
Guest speaker in Season 3 – 5
Lia Perjovschi. Born 11. 04. 1961 in Sibiu Romania, Study – Art Academy Bucharest 1987-1993, Currently lives in Bucharest and Sibiu. Founder and coordinator of CAA /CAA (Contemporary Art Archive and Center for Art Analysis) an organic still in process project (under different names since 1985) and KM (Knowledge Museum based on an interdisciplinary research project from 1999-today). Her activity can be summarized as a journey from her body to the body of knowledge and was shown in more then 700 exhibitions, lectures, workshops around the world.
Guest speaker in Season 5
Gelu Duminică holds a PhD in Sociology and is an associate professor at the University of Bucharest, Faculty of Sociology and Social Work, where he teaches courses on Roma people, minorities, and equity. He has been active in the associative sector for 25 years and coordinates the work of the Împreună Agency Foundation, one of the most active NGOs in the field of ethnic equity and diversity, with a particular focus on the Roma minority. He has remarkable experience in community-level intervention, with an emphasis on participatory community development programs. He has published numerous studies and analyses on inclusion, minorities, public policy, and equity, both as an activist and researcher and as a consultant for various (inter)governmental organizations (Council of Europe, European Commission, UN, etc.).
Guest speaker in Season 5
Mário Say Ming Kong holds a Master’s degree in Architecture from FAUTL, a PhD in Architecture in the area of Design and Visual Communication from the Higher Technical School of Architecture of Barcelona – Polytechnic University of Catalonia (ETSAB-UPC), with postdoctoral studies at ETSAB-UPC. Currently, he is a Professor with Aggregation (Habilitation) at FA-ULisboa, a Visiting Professor at ESELx, and a member of the Master’s Program in Art at FBA-ULisboa. He has produced publications, presentations, and training courses with the aim of disseminating the results of his research and teaching activities at national and international universities. His main research fields are: “Harmony and proportion in representation between the West and the East” and “Architectures in Paper and Sustainable Materials with their application in the Plasticity of Paper in the Creative Process of Architecture, Urbanism and Design, applying concepts of Origami and Kirigami to materials such as paper and bamboo.”
Guest speaker in Season 5
Federico Babina. I am an Italian (since 1969) architect and graphic designer (since 1994) that live and work in Barcelona (since 2007), but mostly I’m a curious person (since ever). Every day I try to rediscover a way to observe the world as through the eyes of a child. Children are able to have a vision of things totally uninhibited and without the conditioning of the experience. The children’s drawings are always amazing and beautiful in their spontaneous simplicity and clarity. I like trying to explain the world I see through different techniques of expression. I like the richness of the language and the diversity of its forms. I do not want to confine me in a prison of a style or shape. Drawing and illustration are for me one of the ways to recount and photograph the thoughts, feelings and emotions. Every picture has a story and every picture is a witness of a story.
Guest speaker in Season 2 (online)
Viola RÜHSE works as the head of the Center for Image Science and course director at the University for Continuing Education Krems in Austria. She studied History of Art and German Language and Literature at the universities of Hamburg and Vienna. She received her PhD with a dissertation on Siegfried Kracauer’s film writings (Viola Rühse, Film und Kino als Spiegel. Siegfried Kracauers Filmschriften aus Deutschland und Frankreich, Berlin/Boston: De Gruyter 2022). Her current main themes of research in addition to film theory are photography, modern and contemporary art, and critical theory. She also works as an artist/photographer. One of her critical essays was granted the Bazon Brock Essay Award.
Guest speaker in Seasons 2 to 5
Matei Bejenaru is an artist and the founder of the Periferic Biennial in Iași, Romania. Established in 1997 as a performance festival, Periferic evolved into an international, artist-run contemporary art biennial, conceived as a platform for discussions on the historical, socio-political, and cultural contexts of the city. In 2001, together with a group of artists and philosophers from Iași, Bejenaru founded the Vector Association, a contemporary art institution that supported the local emerging art scene and contributed to its visibility both locally and internationally. In 2015, along with a group of artists and professors, he founded the Center of Contemporary Photography in Iași. He currently teaches photography and video at the “George Enescu” National University of the Arts in Iași.
Guest speaker in Seasons 2 to 4
Dana Vais is a professor at the Faculty of Architecture and Urban Planning at the Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, where she teaches courses in the History of Modern and Contemporary Architecture and Dwelling. She received both her architecture diploma (1989) and her PhD (2000) from the “Ion Mincu” Institute of Architecture in Bucharest. She is a member of DoCoMoMo as well as of the Housing group within the EAHN (European Architectural History Network). In 2022, she was a visiting researcher at the Politecnico di Milano. Her areas of interest include post-war modernism, the architectural discourse of the socialist period in Romania, socialist housing, and the futuristic imaginary of the 1960s.
Guest speaker in Season 3
Ștefan Ghenciulescu, PhD, is an architect, curator and critic. He’s the editor-in-chief of Zeppelin, an architecture platform and print magazine, and an assistant professor at the “Ion Mincu” University of Architecture and Urbanism, Bucharest. He has been teaching at the TU Wien and at the National University of Arts in Bucharest. He is the author, or co-author and co-editor of 16 books and several awarded exhibitions and research projects. His main research areas are contemporary architecture and the city, historical modernity, Eastern Europe, public space and the commons, and, broadly, any crossover between architecture and human studies, activism and art. His architectural practice focuses mainly on the transformation of existing buildings, exhibition design, interventions in public space.
Guest speaker in Season 4
Anca Horvath is researcher with the Research laboratory for Art&Technology at the Department of Communication and Psychology at Aalborg University. In her research she investigates the relationship between emerging technologies, including computational design, digital fabrication, AI and bio-technologies, and creative practice, as well as their place in broader cultural contexts. Anca has a broad experience in research-based teaching using problem-based learning at bachelor, master and PhD level, has coordinated and taught courses on: digital fabrication, computational design, interaction design, concept design and creative robotics. In 2019, she was appointed Teacher of the Year for BA Art&Technology. Her co-authored paper on architects’ attitudes towards computational and AI tools for practice won the Best Paper Award at CAADRIA’24 (Computer-Aided Architectural Design in Asia), the largest conference on computer-aided architectural design.
Guest speaker in Seasons 2 to 4
Dumitru Rusu – cercetător în domeniul patrimoniului modern, membru fondator al BACU. Coordonează proiecte de documentare a arhitecturii secolului XX în Europa Centrală, Europa de Est, Asia Centrală și alte regiuni, cu focus pe perioada 1955–1991. A publicat ghiduri de arhitectură în seria “Socialist Modernism”, care includ aproape toate țările din fostul bloc socialist. În ultimii 9 ani, a realizat lucrări de teren pentru identificarea a peste 900 de clădiri socialist-moderniste neprotejate. Este Președinte al Asociației BACU, membru ICOMOS România si ICOMOS Moldova, Vicepreședinte al ICOMOS ISC20C și membru ICOMOS-ICOFORT. Prin proiecte precum Defense Architecture, Socialist Modernism și Soc Monumental Art, activitatea sa se concentrează pe documentarea și protejarea patrimoniului arhitectural al secolului XX.
Guest speaker in Season 5
Ioana Cecălășan holds a Master’s degree in Architecture (2006, UTCN) and has been a PhD candidate in Architecture since 2024 at the Technical University of Cluj-Napoca. Field of study: architecture. She has been a teaching assistant and researcher at the Technical University of Cluj-Napoca since 2023. Previously, she worked in design and industry, contributing to residential, office, industrial, religious, and heritage restoration projects, as well as to research on renewable energy systems. Her current and past research interests include architecture and film, BIM, sustainable design, adaptive reuse, heritage conservation, renewable energy integration, and architectural pedagogy.
Guest speaker in Season 5
Emanuela Ilie is a literary critic and associate professor at the Faculty of Letters, “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University of Iași. She has published eight books, along with numerous studies, articles, and literary reviews in both cultural and academic journals. Among her published works are: Hieroglyphs of the Poets (2008 – Debut Award from Convorbiri Literare magazine), The Critical Dictionary of Iași Contemporary Poetry (2011 – Literary Criticism Award from the Iași branch of the Romanian Writers’ Union), Fantastic and Otherness (2013), and Bodies, Exiles, Therapies (2020 – Literary Criticism Award from the Romanian Writers’ Union, Iași, and the Award for Interdisciplinary Critical Studies from Ateneu magazine). She is a member of the Romanian Writers’ Union and A.L.G.C.R.
Guest speaker in Seasons 1 to 5
Dimitrios Raptis is associate professor at the Computer Science Department at Aalborg University where he acts as group coordinator for the Human-centered computing group, as well as the department responsible for Lifelong Learning and the education coordinator for the M.sc in Digitalisation and Application Development – a master program aimed at providing computing skills to students from humanities and social sciences backgrounds. His research deals with human-computer interaction, and specifically with user experience and interaction design, including technology mediation for interacting with cultural spaces, provocative design, and interaction design for energy efficiency in domestic spaces. He has been principal investigator in Digital PBL (problem-based learning) for students with no Programming Experience and is currently principal investigator for Digitalization Activities for DAD students (funded by IT Vest).
Guest speaker in Seasons 4
Andrei Cozlac is a video artist and lecturer at the “George Enescu” National University of the Arts in Iași, specializing in photography, video, and computer image processing. He is an experimentalist with a strong passion for new multimedia technologies, actively involved in independent visual projects, video mapping, and live projection performances. He has created video designs for productions directed by renowned figures such as Silviu Purcărete and Radu Afrim. For his contributions to the field of visual arts, he has received numerous distinctions and awards.
Guest speaker in Season 4
Roxana Vasiliu is a lecturer within the Department of Sociology, Social Work, and Human Resources, Faculty of Philosophy and Socio-Political Sciences (“Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University of Iași). She pursued doctoral studies in Sociology, during which she was a doctoral fellow of the Romanian Academy, Iași Branch (June 2014–September 2015). Beyond her academic activity, she has been involved as an expert in the implementation of numerous projects and has an extensive portfolio of sociological research carried out in collaboration with non-governmental organizations and public/private institutions.
Guest speaker in Season 5
Radu Cucuteanu is a historian, translator, and book editor, currently working at Junimea Publishing House in Iași. He has published numerous scholarly articles, interviews, reviews, and book critiques in both cultural and academic journals—some of which he has also edited over time. He oversees the magazine Suplimentul de cultură and is a member of the editorial boards of the Romanian Journal of Modern History and Scriptor. He enjoys laughing—even when there’s nothing to laugh about.
Guest speaker in Seasons 1, 3 & 4
Adrian Mironescu is a strategic designer and the founder of Optimism Works, a branding and strategic design studio for civic and urban projects and impact-driven organizations. He works at the intersection of branding, systems thinking, and urban development, with internationally recognized projects (Gold at the Transform Awards for the city branding of Buzău, where he was also named an Honorary Citizen, and Merit at the REBRAND Global Awards for the rebranding of ApaVital Iași). He believes that design is a form of active optimism, and that the future is not awaited, but built.
Guest speaker in Season 5
Vlad Enculescu is an experienced designer and a member of UAP Romania (Union of Artists’ Associations), with a degree in Graphic Design from the “George Enescu” University of Arts in Iași. He has been recognized for creativity and skills, receiving Special Mentions from the Allegorithmic/Adobe team for the Meet Mat contest in 2017 and winning the Modo Contest organized by Foundry.com in 2018. His work has been showcased in solo exhibitions such as 3D 2D Unde? and vlad + A Word in Design, as well as in group exhibitions including Oaia cu Tu peux!? and 30 DESIGN UNAGE IAȘI. With a diverse experience, membership in UAP Romania, and innovative design abilities, he/she brings valuable expertise to any project or team.
Guest speaker in Season 2
Silviu Teodor-Stanciu is a designer and Senior Lecturer at the Faculty of Visual Arts and Design, “George Enescu” National University of the Arts in Iași (UNAGE). He is actively involved in the cultural scene of Iași through a variety of artistic and design projects. Among the most notable are Iași – The City of Painted Trams, TramArt, and Papatram and Company—initiatives developed under the umbrella of the Tramclub Iași association, which he has coordinated since 2013. In collaboration with the Iași Public Transport Company, he laid the groundwork for the creation of the Iași Public Transport Museum, a space dedicated to the preservation of rare vehicles that stand as true landmarks of Romanian industry and design.
Guest speaker in Season 3 – 5
Ramona Costea is an architect and a memory enthusiast, researching the discourses of Iaşi and the many unfoldings of memory in architecture. She is a Teaching Assistant at the “George Matei Cantacuzino” Faculty of Architecture, part of the “Gheorghe Asachi” Technical University in Iaşi. In 2020, she was awarded the PhD title for her thesis – The culture of memory. A method for an architectural introspection. Memory is the main focus of MEMORAT, a project she developed together with architect Tiberiu Teodor-Stanciu and geographer Cosmin Ceucă. She believes that the rational and emotional find their common grounds gracefully through architecture, offering, in return, the resorts which grant human memory the quality of an unique apparatus to measure quality in architecture.
Guest speaker in Season 4
Marius Revent is one of the most active film critics in Romania and a true cinema enthusiast. Through his cultural projects and media appearances, he brings a fresh, well-documented voice to the field of film criticism. He blends visual culture with personal reflections, and his analyses often offer unique perspectives on both mainstream and independent films. Beyond his passion for cinema, Marius has a rich background in entrepreneurship and marketing, primarily related to Advertising, HoReCa, and Romanian Retail.
Guest speaker in Season 4
Alin-Enver Hoblea is an architect and lecturer at the “G.M. Cantacuzino” Faculty of Architecture, “Gheorghe Asachi” Technical University of Iași. He holds a PhD in Civil Engineering (2015), with a thesis dedicated to total performance in construction, and has accumulated over two decades of professional practice in architecture and urban planning, coordinating more than 2,400 projects through his own architecture office. He is the President of the Romanian Order of Architects, Iași Branch, and a member of the Romanian Register of Urban Planners, as well as a certified verifier of projects across several essential quality requirements.
Panelist in Season 5
Mihai Bulai is a PhD lecturer at the Faculty of Geography and Geology, “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University of Iași, where he has served as vice-dean since 2016. His research and teaching focus on Tourism Geography — the spatial distribution of tourism actors, the territorial development of tourism, and destination promotion. He is known as one of the most active promoters of Iași’s tourism potential and a coordinator of destination strategy and development projects, including through international partnerships.
Panelist in Season 5
At SF(a) – Society. Film. Architecture, the dialogue never stops. Each edition is enriched by the voices of architects, artists, writers, designers, philosophers, historians, and cultural practitioners who bring their expertise and imagination to the project. Yet the platform is conceived as an open, evolving space, constantly seeking new perspectives and relevant voices that can expand the conversation between film, architecture, and society. We actively invite researchers, practitioners, and creative professionals from Romania and abroad to join us in future editions—as speakers, mentors, or collaborators—helping us cultivate a living laboratory where critical ideas, speculative imaginaries, and collective creativity meet.