Everything we do is about people

How we understand the value of others in our lives – this is the idea from which, in 2016, it started UNFINISHEDthe festival that set out to bring completely different people under the same umbrella who normally don’t intersect. From 2016 to now, the UNFINISHED festival has had more than 250 guests, including Alvy Ray Smith, co-founder of Pixar, Virgil Abloh, artistic director of the Louis Vuitton men’s line, multi-award-winning artist Marina Abramovic, Duncan Wolfe, the digital strategist during the administration Obama, the musician Nicolas Jaar and Esther Perel, the best-known psychotherapist specializing in couple relationships.

Year after year, hundreds of people apply before they even know what the program is; they understood that UNFINISHED is not about headlineribut about cultivating curiosity and the courage to get out of your own box. To be different. To innovate. To be truly engulfed in a transformative experience.

In a world where it’s increasingly difficult to talk about real connections, face to faceUNFINISHED succeeds in making us question how we choose to encounter each other and decide to participate in communities that transcend geographic boundaries and shared interests. The festival, which is not a festival in the classical sense of the word, happens year after year thanks to dozens of collaborators from different industries – from creative industries and sciences, to project management and law. But the long-term vision emerges from the teamwork of the artists Cristian Movilă, founder, and Capucine Gros, who became the artistic director of the festival after participating as a guest artist in 2017.

“Our goal was to create, to build a community, not a business. The real building of a community takes a lot of time and a lot of effort. We sometimes fail in the eyes of the world. If you are very honest with your own community, then it also gives you a lot trust. Those who come get to be our own ambassadors,” he says Cristian Movila.

“I believe, from the bottom of my heart, that today and in the future, this area of ​​communities and micro-communities will be worth more than those very large concerts with tens and hundreds of thousands of people. For the simple reason that here, in a small community, in who are all kind of influencers for the communities they come from, you can send your message much more directly,” he explains Mound.

Only now, in its ninth year, is the festival starting to more easily attract partners with shared beliefs and values. The secret? They managed to convince CEOs of large companies to come to the festival and experience the contagious energy for themselves. This turned them into true festival ambassadors to their marketing teams. They deeply internalized the themes of the festival, understood the value of such a community through their own experience, and saw UNFINISHED beyond the commercial association.

One of the reliable partners of the festival is IQOS. Even though they operate ostensibly in different fields – one that aims to build a smoke-free future and another that uses multidisciplinarity to evolve and keep pace with world changes – both IQOS and UNFINISHED are concerned with building and growing communities diverse, vibrant, interested in the future.

“I found a partner in IQOS Romania because it relies on the role of multidisciplinarity in trying to form communities of adults who believe in change and progress and are actively involved in it. This is what we also do at UNFINISHED, creating a dynamic space where experts, artists, entrepreneurs, musicians and innovators in their fields meet. It’s a place where diverse voices come together to create something greater than the sum of its parts,” he adds Cristian Movila.

“Everything we do is about people.”

This year, the community UNFINISHED meets between September 27-29, in Bucharest, at the House of Ideas (University House and Garden). Pianist Faraj Suleiman, poet Ben Okri, Peter Conrad, founder of the Slowness platform, Lara Schütz, bread sommelier, Barbara Soalheiro, founder of the MESA program, Alin and Tibi Useriu, founders of Via Transilvanica, Grace Boyle, multisensory artist, and many others will explore the theme edition – PRAXIS, i.e. the embodiment of philosophical thinking in concrete actions – experiencing different ways of turning one’s thoughts into practices. Monika Jiang, community builder, Adelina Toma, founder of the slow-fashion workshop ițe urbaneRăzvan Petri and Dan Adamescu, founders of Politică la minut, Lauren Celenza, technology designer and Daniel Jones, editor of the Modern Love column in The New York Times are part of the guests of the ninth edition of the UNFINISHED festival.

The support of UNFINISHED by IQOS partners is perfectly justified: we are pioneers in our fields, we go off the beaten path and reimagine what is possible. IQOS very ambitiously aims to transform a large and complex tobacco industry through cutting-edge technology with a focus on sustainability, while UNFINISHED challenges the boundaries of arts and technology to inspire new ways of thinking.

“Our future plans are built around the idea that different industries can be united by a common vision and generate real social change. And we are glad to be able to refine them together with IQOS. The initiatives we are actively working on are UNFINISHED Future — a think tank that explores the ways in which different industries of the future can develop, UNFINISHED Institute – which aims to unite several educational initiatives cross-border and UNFINISHED Residency – a multidisciplinary residency in the heart of Bucharest for global citizens. These projects represent the next steps in our journey and the possibilities that await us,” says the founder.

Cristi and Capucine, together with their small team, wanted to make UNFINISHED a true expression of their art, and what happens in the structure of the event to be equally a statement. And it worked out for them every year. Every experience, from start to finish, from guest presentations to activations or shared meals, is designed in this spirit for all 3,141 people present, chosen by the organizers following a form that they fill out with openness and vulnerability. 3,141 was not chosen by chance either. It is inspired by the value of π, the number with infinite decimals that continues the spirit of UNFINISHED.

Held under the high patronage of the European Parliament, UNFINISHED is the first multidisciplinary festival in Romania and was created by the Eidos Foundation as an experience in continuous evolution.

Material supported by IQOS.
IQOS is not without risks. Releases nicotine, which is addictive. IQOS is intended for adults who would otherwise continue to smoke or use nicotine products.