: what kills me is the following problem: the Sydney opera plus other contemporary architecture monuments on the tablecloth found in a holyday house at Sirnea. The sky is covered with huge roses in an easily recognizable oriental style. Where in God’s name do I classify this phenomenon? What record? What chapter? There is an incredible contrast between Jorn Utzon’s opera and this cheap thingy. And then there is the context, and let this be no minor issue since in Sirnea there is a five meter wide beaten country road made in stones and dry mud, in any case a poor sight for the eye, barely worthy to be called pastoral in some English imagery reminder… What can I say, this contrast blows my mind… hermeneutically speaking.
: at the North Station in Bucharest, close to a cracknel-shop, lies an air conditioning unit on top of two rusty irons protruding from the wall at eye’s level. Its careful owners, or someone else with a grand heart, took the pity to wrap them in a dirty cloth. No headaches. However, in one week’s time one of the cloths was torn. Maybe someone took it to wipe out the blood from his or her shirt. One must pay the appropiate price for comfort, development, urbanity…
: Oh, and let’s not leave out The Carol Park (the one with the cathedral) that proudly presents a new lightning equipment dangerously available to any passer-by aged 3 to 99 years old who might want to climb up the travertine pedestal to get at least one good photo shot or wave a hand. I am sweating in waves just thinking of the thousands watts lightning bulbs, or the cables, or the electrical joints and conducts arranged ikebana style, from which the meanings spring out in metaphors. I got it now.
: at Histria Castle (what a shame it was foggy so I don’t have a good picture) an electrical switch box reins on top of the Greek columns. It is colored in yellow for easy recognition and of course it’s at eye level for ergonomics’ sake. Farts with no effort. At IT. It is also so well exposed that one might think it was discovered in the 5-th century AD and It also commands the garden dwarfs that light up the ruins. The dwarfs were however covered in plastic being “conserved”. Or maybe It serves the villas situated in a strangely tight proximity to the otherwise beautiful archeological site, villas belonging to certains someones with the proper approvals. What a joy would have been hadn’t they built that museum so close to the site. Massive while being surly, dare I call it brutal, not very functional and in any case rather confusing. Sounds familiar?
: Anca Petrescu at Reality TV (that could have easily been OTV), in a special edition of the “Arhitectonic” show, dedicated to People’s House. A sum of platitudes, senseless ideas, all gathered up from super market queue but recited with a patriot’s tremble. In short the House is cool because: 1. so claims Mrs. Petrescu; 2. the foreigners say so, them being the big international specialists (no names because they might also be trashed); 3. it was made by the Romanian people through millennium efforts; 4. and the strongest point: it has tones of stuff (concrete, gold, iron, bronze, carpets, sweat). The mediator’s voice expedites in one proposition the critical opinions being nothing but pure envy while, he says, the big Thing also has good details. Like the lady architect said, people worked a lot for it. The national football team said the same thing after a tough game for some big cup: “it was a tough game, worked a lot and hope to qualify”. For those still thinking that there is no link between the footballers’ enthusiasm and the love for People’s House here is the revelation: sensational! Football decorations have been found at the People’s House fountains.
: 20 mini-cities in Romania and Turkey, built by the Norwegian government for approximate 100,000 retired people that want to live in a warmer climate. A 20 billion euros project aimed to raise social protection. Maybe Constanta, maybe Medgidia. I think this is hot. Very hot.
: we enlarged the magazine’s format, we redesigned the logo, we changed the graphics, it is year 101, here comes the Kroupa exhibition, we organize the Remix in Bucharest, other several exhibitions, everyone wants to change a little something here and there.
