Something strange is looming today like a sort of dystopia: the city of private mentalities. A city that is run from a cell phone. The buildings of a better tomorrow pass our way like a rushing pell-mell while the freedom of reaction is less important than novelty which does not allow any time for reflection; novelty means a continuous activity, progress, the purely better part and victory.
Who can notice that an invisible exchange has been made? What was lost? There was nothing important – maybe just the memory of some places, maybe some chances for the future, maybe a little common sense. Who can get stuck on details, though? Driven by the logics of quick economic profit broken apart into thousands of separate interests, the private land follows a simple rule: everything has got a price, so there is no room for those who do not pay.
Certainly, the public administration deals with public concerns. Which public administration? The city hall, the local government, the municipality, the prefecture, the parks and gardens, the roads and infrastructure, the environmental protection, someone, the government, the church? Who? Who? Who? Many serious problems have remained unsolved as they have been too complex. They’re too trivial or long lasting, so they can go on like until now. On the other hand, it is quite abnormal to keep on blaming the authorities – sometimes they are too busy or lack resources, organizational abilities, know-how and above all some time for research and documentation. The civil society and the public administration should make a pact, and this pact needs to start somewhere.
In November, we are opening an exhibition about initiative, actions and urban interventions in Romania. The 14 projects selected rebuild in a way or another the public space components – parks, pedestrian lines, routes, urban rooms – or invent cultural sites. Others, no less than uncomfortable and remonstrative, aim at recovering heritage, oppose public property destruction and fall.
Nobody asked any of those people to do something; no one received a comission or a particular incentive. These projects started like inventions and continue like adventures. There are not too many models around, so everybody came through in their own way. Even so, all are long term projects and have already completed at least one stage successfully; they’ve scored a victory. Beyond their precise target, all these designs intend to be an impetus for future actions and reverberate as valid practice models. We do believe that in time they will come to change mentalities as well.
