City Skills for Life calls in a team of architects, designers and video artists whose work celebrates the paradoxical nature of Bucharest: a welcoming urban chaos which moves forward as (un)planned. The individual projects document the psychological contract between the city and its dwellers. They aim to show how the 'unstructured structure' of the urban environment can in fact be welcoming - and possibly addictive: its random, organic growth provides bizarre but very substantial life-energy and skills.
Monday 21 June, 7pm @ ICR London Lecture, exhibition opening & screening
Two architects look at Bucharest's infamous building - Ceausescu's People's Palace - and attempt to unfold its grim history.
Augustin Ioan's lecture Resisting Interpretations: The House of the People's Dead Duck gives the political and sociological reading of the mega-building which occupies the imagination of all Romanians.
Anda Stefan's exhibition of large- photography takes us in the belly of the building, showing previously unseen spaces of surreal architectural achievement and neglect.
Eugen Ciocan & Gabriela Massaci's 17' documentary essay explores the uncanny ways in which people find gratification in living in Bucharest, whereas Dorin Stefan's 8' cine-verite piece captures 3 simultaneous layers of Bucharest (pavement; built space; skyline) in a labyrinth of the would-be forest not-surrounding the Peoples' Palace.
19 June - 4 July Outdoor installation: Bermondsey Square & Golden Square, London
Carmen Secareanu's outdoor installation Welcoming Fields of huge, white, wind-flowers creates a cooling field in the city, an invitation for people to enjoy the light breeze, to stop in the shade and maybe write their thoughts on the petals.
Click here to read the participant's biographies. (Word document)
The Romanian project at the London Festival of Architecture is curated by Gabriela Massaci.
When: Exhibition: 21 June - 3 July | Mon - Sat | 12-6 pm. Outdoor installation: 19 June - 4 July
Where: Romanian Cultural Institute, Bermondsey Square & Golden Square, London
Free entrance.
