RE-MARK – Art and Culture Revitalizing Rural Farmers’ Markets and Communities
RE-MARK is a European cooperation project exploring how art and culture can revitalise rural farmers’ markets and strengthen local communities. Across four European territories, the project transforms traditional markets into Rural Creative Markets — vibrant spaces where local production, artistic creation and community life come together.
Through artistic residencies, participatory processes and cultural events, RE-MARK brings together artists, farmers, citizens and local institutions to imagine new futures for rural public spaces.
By combining culture, creativity and local economies, the project aims to foster social inclusion, strengthen community identity and support sustainable rural development across Europe.
PROJECT
RE-MARK at a glance
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Countries
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Rural markets
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Partners
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Months of activities
About RE-MARK
RE-MARK – Art and Culture Revitalizing Rural Farmers’ Markets and Communities is a European cooperation project that explores how artistic and cultural practices can contribute to the regeneration of rural territories.
Across Europe, many rural communities are facing significant demographic and social change. As populations shrink and age, local services disappear and opportunities for cultural participation become increasingly limited. Farmers’ markets, historically at the heart of rural life, are also struggling to maintain their role as places of exchange, encounter and community identity.
Yet rural territories also offer unique opportunities. Their strong local identities, cultural traditions and community networks provide an ideal environment for testing innovative approaches that combine culture, creativity and local participation to strengthen social cohesion and rural resilience.
RE-MARK builds on this potential by reimagining traditional farmers’ markets as Rural Creative Markets—hybrid spaces where local production, culture, creativity and community participation come together. More than places of economic exchange, these markets become platforms for artistic expression, storytelling, social interaction and collective experiences that strengthen local identity and community life.
The project is implemented across four rural pilot territories in Italy, Spain, Hungary and Bulgaria. In each location, artists, cultural practitioners and local communities will collaborate through participatory workshops, artistic residencies and site-specific cultural interventions. Together, these activities will transform local markets into vibrant spaces of encounter, creativity, inclusion and rural regeneration.
Beyond the local interventions, RE-MARK promotes transnational collaboration between artists, institutions and rural communities. The project will culminate in a collective exhibition and a series of cultural events that connect the experiences of the four territories.
Through these actions, RE-MARK seeks to demonstrate how culture can play a strategic role in rural regeneration — supporting social inclusion, strengthening local economies and creating new opportunities for artists and communities across Europe.
Project partners
CLUST-ER Economia Urbana (Project Coordinator)
Municipality of Bertinoro
Municipality of San Cebrián de Castro
Y-CSOPORT
Ideas Factory Association
Pilot territories
RE-MARK is implemented across four rural and remote territories in Italy, Spain, Hungary and Bulgaria. These areas share common challenges, such as demographic decline, limited access to cultural opportunities and the progressive weakening of local economies. At the same time, they hold a rich cultural and natural heritage, strong community ties and a deep connection to local production.
In each territory, the project engages local communities, artists, public authorities and producers in a shared process of culture-led rural regeneration. Rural markets become the starting point for experimentation — spaces where economic, social and cultural dimensions intersect.
These territories act as living laboratories for rural cultural innovation, where art and community participation contribute to reimagining public spaces and strengthening local identities.
Bertinoro – Italy
Bertinoro is a small hilltop town in the Emilia-Romagna region, known for its strong tradition of hospitality, its wine production and its vibrant cultural identity.
Like many rural areas, Bertinoro is facing challenges related to ageing population, youth outmigration and a gradual decline in everyday life within public spaces, particularly in the historic centre.
RE-MARK focuses on local markets as key spaces for social interaction and cultural exchange. Through artistic residencies, community-based activities and cultural interventions, the project aims to revitalise the market as a place of encounter and to strengthen its role in the cultural life of the town.
San Cebrián DC – Spain
San Cebrián de Castro is located in the province of Zamora, one of the Spanish regions most affected by rural depopulation.
The area is characterised by a significant historical and landscape heritage, including the medieval site of Castrotorafe — an abandoned village that still plays an important role in the collective memory and identity of the territory.
RE-MARK will activate this symbolic place as a meeting point for community, art and rural markets. Through participatory processes and site-specific artistic interventions, the project seeks to reconnect people with their local heritage and to reimagine the role of markets within the territory.
Komló – Hungary
Komló is a medium-sized town in Baranya County, southern Hungary, shaped by the landscape and natural resources of the Mecsek Hills. Its identity is closely connected to coal mining, but also to the area’s rich geological and natural heritage.
Following the decline of mining, Komló faces challenges related to population loss, ageing, social fragmentation and the legacy of a mono-industrial economy. At the same time, Komlói Kaptár, with its theatre and community spaces, and the Komlóverzum visitor centre form a compact cultural network where community life and heritage interpretation come together.
Through RE-MARK, the recently renovated Komló market hall will become a new node in this local network – an inclusive cultural space where local produce, natural heritage, mining memory, Roma cultural visibility, and youth creativity can converge, strengthening community identity and broadening cultural participation.
Lazhnitsa – Bulgaria
Lazhnitsa is a rural village in the Blagoevgrad region, in south-western Bulgaria. The local community belongs to the Pomak minority and preserves a rich cultural heritage, including traditions related to crafts, food and social practices.
Despite this cultural wealth, the area faces challenges such as youth outmigration and limited visibility of local cultural expressions.
Through RE-MARK, markets and public spaces become places for artistic experimentation and storytelling. The project will work closely with women, young people and local cultural actors to highlight local knowledge and traditions, strengthening community identity and cultural participation.
RE-MARK activities
RE-MARK follows an integrated, place-based and participatory approach that brings together local communities, artistic practices and European cooperation to regenerate rural markets through culture and creativity.
The project unfolds through four interconnected phases — Engage, Create, Connect and Amplify — moving from local co-planning and artistic experimentation to transnational exchange, dissemination and long-term impact.
ENGAGE
Listen, involve, co-plan
RE-MARK starts by engaging local communities and stakeholders in each pilot territory. Through participatory workshops and capacity-building activities, they explore local needs, resources and opportunities and co-develop a shared vision for the cultural regeneration of their markets and communities.
CREATE
Experiment, co-create, activate
Artists are invited to immerse themselves in the pilot territories, engaging with local communities, places, stories and traditions. Through artistic residencies and co-creation processes, they develop site-specific cultural interventions that activate rural markets through art and creativity.
CONNECT
Exchange, learn, build a shared narrative
The four local experiences are connected through transnational exchange and artistic collaboration. Artists, partners and territories share practices and perspectives, contributing to a common European narrative that brings together the different RE-MARK experiences through a travelling multimedia exhibition and local “Markets as Festivals” events.
AMPLIFY
Share, transfer, sustain
RE-MARK brings its experiences and results beyond the pilot territories through communication, networking and knowledge sharing. Sustainability and transfer activities support the long-term impact of the project and explore how its approach can inspire other rural communities across Europe.
NEWS
Save the Date | RE-MARK Transnational Workshop
Registration is now open! Join the RE-MARK Transnational Workshop on 10 September 2026 for a European exchange on culture-led rural regeneration. Bringing together the RE-MARK partnership and invited organisations from across Europe, the workshop will provide a space for knowledge exchange, peer learning and strategic reflection on the role of culture in revitalising rural [...]
Co-funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the granting authority. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.