15 December 2026, 19:00 · Indecis artist run, Bastion 3, Timișoara
For nine years, La Două Bufnițe was one of those places where Timișoara’s cultural life seemed to gather almost naturally. The closing of the bookshop left behind more than an empty space. It made visible the fragility of places we come to think of as permanent parts of the city, even though their existence depends on an enormous amount of work, care and endurance.
As part of Work in Progress and the Tired Mass mediation programme, we return to the story of La Două Bufnițe from precisely this point: what does it take to build and sustain an independent space over time? What remains unseen behind its continuity? And what does it mean, for the people who kept it alive, to reach the moment when continuing is no longer possible?
“Dear Bookshop, the real story is different, and you deserve to know it, especially now that we have decided to close you. We are sorry that we had to make this decision, but it is the right one, because this is the only way we can save ourselves, the Owls. As we have kept telling all the grumpy readers over these past two weeks, the Owls are not going bankrupt; they are simply closing the Bookshop — you. And we have to admit, we managed to keep you alive for a very long time: nine years in owl years are worth as much as Anna Wintour’s forty years at Vogue. (…) You were always a rather sickly creature, never a gladiator. You made it through the pandemic, and then, when Russia invaded Ukraine, in that dark February, we almost had to close you. Back then, the Measure 2 subsidy saved you, just as our NGO had saved you during the pandemic. 2023 was the only year when you were in perfect health, because Timișoara was European Capital of Culture — an achievement made possible by the local and county administrations and by all the cultural operators who developed exceptional projects that year. From 2024 onwards, you became fragile again, then truly ill, and now we have to turn you into a place of memory so that we, the Owls, do not become ill too.”
Oana Doboși is co-founder and managing partner of the independent bookshop La Două Bufnițe and has more than 17 years of experience in cultural management, publishing and book distribution. She studied French and Romanian at the Faculty of Letters in Timișoara and holds a Master’s degree in Publishing Policies from Université Paris XIII. Over the years, she has editorially coordinated several catalogues published by the Art Encounters Foundation and currently oversees the editorial activity of La Două Bufnițe publishing house.
The presentation is part of the mediation programme accompanying TIRED MASS. Throughout the exhibition, we are organising a series of encounters and activities centred on three forms of labour that most of us perform, even when we do not always recognise them as such: physical, intellectual and emotional labour.