site.btaTimisoara Offers Visitors Unusual Tram Ride, with Black Butterflies

European Capital of Culture Timisoara is offering visitors and residents of the city the chance of a rather unusual tram ride. Mexican artist Carlos Amorales has contributed his idea of a tour of the city in an old tram whose interior is covered with black paper butterflies.

"The history of the tram as a means of transport in Timisoara dates back to the 19th century. In 1868, the Timisoara Railway Tram Company, the future Timisoara Transport Company, was inaugurated and the first horse-drawn tram entered service. It carried passengers from today's North Station to the city centre," the tour organisers told BTA. They explain that a tram tour with Carlos Amorales' butterfly installation called "Black Cloud" is like an arc in time between the first attempts and the modernity of current rail transport. 

The installation is inspired by the annual migration of monarch butterflies from Canada to Mexico at which they cover some 4,000 km. Though it is usually presented in museum halls, the confinement of the tram space adds to the poetic yet ominous charge of the famous work.

On May 25 the installation of 4,000 butterflies will be taken to the Museum of Contemporary Art in Timisoara where it will remain until September. The event is part of the Art Encounters Biennial 2023, which opened on May 19 and in which four Bulgarian artists also participate.