An exhibition and a catalogue including 14 recent projects that shorten the heavy official system and have already succeeded in getting the first substantive achievements in terms of creating public space, protecting the heritage, devising independent cultural centres and reaching social projects.
The Exhibition
Held at MNAC (The National Museum of Contemporary Art), on the 2nd floor shared by a provisional wall with the exhibition “Young Architects in Germany” brought to a same event, the Zeppelin Festival. A “white box” area in half a room to which an accessible-behind-toilets appendix has been added. It had to be put together 14 extremely different projects such as: Verona street pedestrian project, alternative projects to Bucharest and Roşia Montană disruptions or projects for the preservation of Oltenia wooden churches, Craiova Cluj independent cultural centres, community projects in difficult areas and so on.
At the beginning, we were all thinking of some large printouts, box and panel mazes, large texts exhibited on the walls …. it was completely wrong. We are talking here about small projects (or which at least start so), the smartness of using resources, do things together and build projects.
We have rather reset our way of thinking towards minimizing instead of expanding: we do not have any big images; on the contrary, we have many small photos glued on a hanging plywood pipe-system.
Explanatory notes associated with every project are printed on small format cards that hang from each of the wires supporting the pipes. You must get closer to read the notes, and then you can look at the photos that show just stages of some processes instead of grandiose endings.
We have had some heated technical discussions within the team about the pipes: whether they could be hung and would not swing erratically. Attaching one another in bunches makes them stiff enough, at the same time allowing them some horizontal idleness.
On the walls, next to each project, “witnesses” of the operations were set: products of Ţibăneşti blacksmith, a paddle pertaining to “Canotca” project, some seats got back from demolitions, some paving stones, and also two precious frescoes from Oltenia wooden churches broken out and restored at the National University of Arts in Bucharest.
Photo: Andrei Mărgulescu
Pdf catalogue, list of authors and other information: www.zeppelin-magazine.net
Projects in the exhibition: Verona Operation – Street Delivery; The Paintbrush Factory in Cluj; Club Electroputere; The Ark – Rahova Centre for Creative Industries; Ţibănești – traditional workshops; 60 wooden churches; Urban regeneration – Buzești–Uranus Axis; Ctrl‑S: Roșia Montană; Urban intervention in Ferentari – Livezilor Alley; Magic Blocks; Urban Kalaka; Mureş Face; Interventions in Harghita’s public space; Rowmania & Canotca
Period: 2.11. – 20.12. 2011
Place: National Museum of Contemporary Art, Bucharest.
Context: The exhibition is an event within the “Heritage as resource” program and part of the 2011 Zeppelin Festival.
Organizer: Zeppelin Association
Curators: Constantin Goagea, Cosmina Goagea, Ştefan Ghenciulescu, Mugur Grosu, Cosmin Caciuc
Graphic design: Radu Manelici, Dinu Dumbrăvician
Exhibition design (collaborators): Adrian Dobre, Andra Stan, Corina Marinescu
Zeppelin team: Raluca Marţiş, Camelia Ghiţă, Nona Beicu, Adrian Hariga, Gabriel Morariu
Translation: Dana Radler
Project supported by:
The Chamber of Romanian Architects under the architecture revenue stamp; Administration of the National Cultural Fund, ERSTE Stiftung, MNAC, Archis interventions SEE
Project teams: Cărtureşti Foundation, Dacian Groza, Luminiţa Klara Veer, Galeria Sabot, Brice Guillaume, Andrei Mărgulescu, Dragoş Lumpan, Daniel Constantinescu
