“Jukebox City. Bucharest today. Histories and architecture” Exhibition

Will take place between 18 October and 18 November 2007 at Met-room Architecture Gallery in Barcelona. It comprises a selection of Romanian pieces of architecture between 1990 and 2007. They are to be featured less on architects or offices, but rather on types and contexts of their achievements. Therefore, for the relation with the memory of the city we have tendencies to recover the interbellum modernism, an enthusiastic undertaking of contemporary international patterns, and also efforts to reinterpret the specificity of the city.

Two separate sections on professional or spontaneous changes brought to that part of the city built in the Socialist era and the evolution of city periphery. Finally, a major section presents elements of architectural and urban history – features to provide an identity for the urban evolution of Bucharest compared to Western metropolises. The title – Jukebox City – is an allusion to an incredible collection (not so much known outside) of works and urban fragments of the modern age, turning Bucharest into a city-witness of the last 150 years of European history: what was preserved from a pre-modern city as a background to all later changes, the original adaptation of French patterns, the most massive modernist heritage on the continent, the effort to re-synchronize features of the 60s and the 70s, perhaps the most delirious totalitarian operation in the world, and, finally, a frantic explosion of energies in the years of transition and the ways to reinvent a city.

Authos of Jukebox City Exhibition: Constanting Goagea, Stefan Ghenciulescu, Cosmina Goagea, Justin Baroncea, Felix Arranz.

Organisers: the Union of Architects in Romania, “Architecture” Review
Partners: the Order of Architects in Romania, the Ministry of Cultures and Cults, Met-room Gallery – Barcelona, Centro de Enlace – Barcelona

Project carried out as part of Promocult programme

Met-room Gallery: Calle Nou de Sant Francesc no.6, Barcelona
Open from Tuesday to Sunday between 12.00-20.00