Articles published by: Nickname

I would have never believed to pick up again the topic of Buzesti-Uranus axis that soon (see issue 91). “The Platform for Bucharest”, other NGO’s and the media have brought before justice a decision of Bucharest Municipality and the court pronounced the Master Plan of the operation illegal.

Exhibition at the National Museum of Contemporary Art – Bucharest, 14.05.2011 – 31.07.2011
Curator: Ruxandra Balaci

Dust poisoning, dreams and stereotypes cut out off the media, everyday experience among Berceni blocks of flats, some contagious humour, destabilized framing, light-headed stylistic collages, mixed cultural allusions and colour hallucinations are part of the aesthetic ammunition of artist Nicolae Comanescu whose paintings propose unusual trips among actual urban deeds and collective imaginary.

A cemetery extension located on an island between Venice and Murano seeks to redefine some of the original qualities of this place, while offering a greater sense of the lagoon context.

The San Michele Cemetery, Venice’s principal cemetery, is located on an island between Venice and Murano. This historic site has been in continuous development for over four hundred years but has recently evolved to a point where the romantic image of its outer face is in contrast to its interior municipal character.

Do it yourself (or DIY, the equivalent of “Fa-o tu insuti”, or FTI in short) stands for a popular culture, a kind of vernacular attitude on top of an industrial system. Although it does not get its own resources or technologies (similarly to the vernacular sytem), FTI-DIY is that way of making things following simple instructions (such as cartoons), on cheap tools and technologies (low-tech) – screwdrivers, hammer, drills etc. and a finite number of people to move and use the tools, components (e.g. the members of a family).

The “Canotca” – a model of innovative tradition recovery. Rowmania project initiated by Ivan Patzaichin Association – Mila 23 aims at supporting locals and traditions specific to the Danube Delta.

Romania seen from a boat may look like a better world. However, the chance of this world consists in ever preserving and recovering normality which defines it, its non-contamination and some natural gestures, as discreet as possible, less invasive and more thoughtful.

Alba Carolina Citadel – a story about world heritage destruction advertised as cultural valorisation and supported by EU funds.

Recently, in our 93 issue, I was pointing out a highly questionable intervention carried out on the Alba Carolina citadel from Alba Iulia, important reference for Vauban citadels. The previous text was especially impugning the concept of the project conceived by arch. Gheorghe Lancrajan-Franchini assonant to the European level principles.

Anish Kapoor’s installation for Monumenta 2011 is a true architectural piece of work, an exceptional discourse about interior and exterior, limits, structure, and scale.
Ever since its opening during the World Exhibition of 1900, Grand Palais was a major exhibition space in France’s capital.

I am referring to those few hours when the pedestrians and bikes were allowed on the bridge. No one knows why, but even the wedding party from the little church nearby came to have their pictures taken on the bridge. Many curious people rushed in for a couple of hours. Bikes came out of the blue. And the roller skaters too!

More or less on Aurora and Bucharest, on factories and blocks and on art as a sophisticated riddle.

One room on Plantelor Street. After 20 minutes of talk with Cristi, am so absorbed that I almost forget we are recording it. We talk about film and architecture, what is beyond definitions. He speaks about the cinema beyond the clichés of a dictionary, while I talk about the unspoken side of architecture, the void.

The architecture of this block of flats is mostly due to the critical reference to an unfortunate context and to the negotiation between the individual and the collective.

Developed in one of the famous satellite-dormitory-cities of Bucharest, quiet yet lacking any character – besides the one given by some expensive and anachronic self-referential buildings, appearing from behind some giant fences – this project was from the very beginning marked by a critical-ironical detachment from the context.