The people next to you

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Aug 112009
 

Versiune în română

If you follow Arthur Verona Street from Magheru Bouvelard to Pitar Moş take a look at the yellowish building on the right. Up in the false windows of this building there are 19 photographs, portraits of people, left hanging there from last year. The exhibition is by photograph Dan Hayon and is called “The people next to you”. They were installed in July 2008 as part of an event called Street Delivery which started in 2005 and has become an annual event. During Street Delivery one street is closed to traffic for two days and becomes a pedestrian promenade; their slogan is “Closing the street for cars and opening it for people” All sorts of events and activities take place, some with themes like urbanism and environment, activities for children, crafts, art installations, exhibitions, concerts, movie projections, book launchings, street art etc. The effect of the portraits is quite striking and I’m not sure that my photo does them justice.

Victory Road at night

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Aug 102009
 

Versiune în română

Friday evening I took a stroll along Victory Road (Calea Victoriei in Romanian) and admired some of the lit buildings along the way. And of course, my camera being always with me since I started this project, I took pictures. This photo shows the art deco building of the Telephone Palace to the left and the Novotel hotel on the right. The hotel, a cube made of glass looking like the standard business hotel has one thing that sets it apart: its entrance. Although it seems weirdly stuck to the glass structure behind it, the entrance reconstructs that of the old National Theatre which was destroyed during a WWII bombardment in August 1944. I think choosing this entrance was an interesting idea, celebrating a connection to the city’s past.

Run, run

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Aug 092009
 

Versiune în română

“Run, run. Run as fast as you can!” That was my interpretation when I saw this sculpture on Victory Road (Calea Victoriei in Romanian). So I smiled when I found out that the name of the sculpture is – what else – “The Runners”. Maybe I should switch careers and become an art critic 🙂 To my surprise, the artist is a French sculptor, Alfred Boucher which was, according to wikipedia, a mentor to Camille Claudel and friend of Auguste Rodin.

Give a leu …

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Aug 082009
 

Versiune în română

A group of tourists is listening to their guide in front of one of Bucharest’s most beautiful buildings: the Romanian Athenaeum. This concert hall was built in 1888 in neoclassical style after a design by the French architect Albert Galleron. The project was conceived by the diplomat Constantin Exarcu and a portion of the money for the completion of the building were gathered in a public collection in which people were asked to “give a leu for the Athenaeum” (The “leu” being the currency of Romania). With its 40 m high dome and the eight Ionic columns it resembles an ancient temple. The Athenaeum is the place to hear classical music in Bucharest. The resident orchestra is George Enescu Philarmonic.

The Deluge

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Aug 072009
 

Versiune în română

Yesterday’s photo of Noah’s Ark was like a premonition, cause yesterday evening Bucharest has seen one of the strongest storms of this summer. Many streets were flooded and some cars were hit by falling trees. The rain caught me without an umbrella, downtown at University Square where I tried to find some means of transportation to Titan to meet some friends for dinner. Not that an umbrella would have helped much, the wind was so strong that umbrellas were useless. The bus closed its doors right in my nose and there was no taxi in sight. In the end my husband Cris came to pick me up and we headed for the restaurant. When we got there we realized Cris had forgotten the umbrella too so we spent the next 15 minutes in the car, 50 meters away from the door of the restaurant, waiting for a break in the rain – with no luck because it was pooring like crazy. The weather in Bucharest has been pretty moody this summer, with frequent violent storms.

Noah’s Ark

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Aug 062009
 

Versiune în română

I’ve noticed this installation as soon as it was put up in front of Cărtureşti library but I didn’t think about its meaning until I heard someone mention “the ark in front of Cărtureşti”. And then it hit me. Of course, it’s Noah’s Ark. I searched the Internet and found out that it was made by the Romanian artist Virgil Scripcariu for the Europalia, Agorafolly 2007 festival, when it was placed for almost a month in Place du Musée, in the courtyard of the palace of Charles of Lorraine in central Bruxelles. I like how the giraffe is located in front of the ark looking like the mast of a ship.

The Zodiac Fountain

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Aug 052009
 

Versiune în română

Carol Park has gone through many changes since its inauguration in 1906, including a change of name, being called Liberty Park (Parcul Libertăţii) during the communist regime, but one of the attractions that has withstood the passing of the time is the Zodiac Fountain. Located in front of the park’s main entrance, the fountain dates from 1935 when it was built for the first edition of a popular celebration called “The Bucharest Month”. “The Bucharest Month” had only six editions being held every year between May 9 and June 9 until the starting of the war in 1940. The fountain, looking like a huge footed serving bowl was designed by architect Octav Doicescu and erected by the architects August Schmiedigen and Dorin Pavel. Its name comes from the twelve mosaic representations of the zodiac signs made by scultptor Mac Constantinescu.

The White Church

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Aug 042009
 

Versiune în română

This photo opens up a hopefully long series of photographs of churches of Bucharest. The reasons for this is that first, many Bucharest churches are among the oldest and most beautiful buildings in the city and second, many of them have a very interesting history. The White Church is located at 110 Calea Victoriei and will have to qualify for the beauty contest because I wasn’t able to find out too much about its history despite reading through 10 books on Bucharest history and architecture and doing extensive searches on the web. What I was able to learn is that it’s called The White Church because it was always painted stark white (duh!). It was built at the beginning of the eighteen century under the guiding of priest Neagu Dărvaş and was restored a few times since then. I hope that one of these days I will be able to take a picture of the interior which was painted in 1873 by one of Romania’s foremost painters Gheorghe Tattarescu.

Iuliu Maniu Statue

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Aug 032009
 

Versiune în română

Iuliu Maniu (January 8, 1873 – February 5, 1953) was one of Romania’s foremost politicians, serving as the Prime Minister of Romania for three terms during 1928–1933. He was an adversary of Russian influence and for this reason he was imprisoned in 1947 when the communists came to power. He died in 1953 in Sighet prison. His statue, the work of artist Mircea Spătaru is located in the Revolution Square, in front of the former Communist Party Headquarters which are now housing governmental offices. I like the statues because it is modern, expressive and full of pathos, something different among the standard 19th century statues which fill Bucharest.

University Square follow-up

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Aug 022009
 

Versiune în română

As a follow-up of from yesterday’s post, today’s photo is a close-up of the University roundabout. You can see the exit from the underground passage, the one on the southwestern corner which leads to the Bucharest History Museum. In the little green island in the lower part of the picture a few stone crosses that pay homage to those killed during the 1989 Revolution.

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