DRIŞCU, Mihai. "Art and city".

Exhibition: Decebal Scriba, Alexandru Beldiman,

Gheorghe Verona, Petre Vraciu, Geta Brătescu, Grigorescu Ion and others. Bucharest,
"Galeria Nouă", nov. 1974- jan. 1975. 21, no. 12, 1974, p. 14 (City, art - civilization)

"The exhibition can be summed up as a proposal to rethink 1) the function of art and the artist's
participation in building the new, contemporary form of Romanian urban civilization, 2) the role
and direction of social demand in this regard; the goal sought here was to clear the 'ground' for
approaching this wide-ranging problem which, ultimately, leads to the central question of
establishing a particular style of housing and living.
”Art and the city” can therefore be defined as a debate-exhibition, an exhibition full of
hypotheses and projects, insofar as it deals with modeling the modern city of the socialist age; as
such, it is an exhibition not of things done, but of things that should be done. Now that we have
succinctly defined the problematic framework, taking into account all rich and necessary
connections, we can better define, from this perspective, the subject of debate: a complex
modeling of the urban environment, with the direct and constitutive integration of artistic
creation, is felt as a social emergency; and understanding the artist's function as a social operator
becomes an emergency of art. This implies the preoccupation with elaborating a general
methodology. There is, however, an obvious rift between the goal-as-stated (or, sometimes, even
its theoretical acceptance) and practical activity in the field of urban restoration. Reality shows
us that, instead of an agreed-upon conception of the art-environment pairing, the true
involvement of art in constructing an optimal, rational and balanced environment is still less
favored than a partial and random 'embellishment' by simply implanting artistic objects.
"The exhibition rests on the basis of our artistic reality and therefore reflects the current state of
things, wherein the artist does not participate in configuring the great structures of the city.
Because of this, we must insist upon a basic condition for conceiving of the artist's role in urban
life: social demand (directions, competences, dynamics) must guide this activity, as it provides
us with the concrete situations that specialists have to solve. This is what truly initiates, fuels,
stimulates and, finally, valorizes the artist's solutions; therefore, in the absence of real social
demand, all preoccupations pertaining to this new field only find their grounding as an
informational platform, as an incomplete reservoir of hypotheses for the future."
[...]
"Despite some of the project approaches leaning toward utopia, many of the participants pay
heed to the fact that, as Léger said, 'the street can be considered one of the fine arts'. Some of
their hypotheses and conjectures consist of 'cultural appropriations' (due to the fact that they are
already regular practices elsewhere) and conceive of an ephemeral city in constant flux, offering
a precise measure to the so-called descent of art into the street. However, proof of the artist's
'availability' is the first step toward his full integration into the research activity that leads to
societal change of man and his environment, in which urbanism, the social sciencesand the arts
can all collaborate."
BOGDAN, Radu. Mathematics and sensitivity. Adina Caloenescu. The personal exhibition
"Constructive Concepts" organized within the exhibition "Art and City". Bucharest, "Galeria
Nouă", nov. - dec. 1974. 22, no. 1, 1975, p. 8

"Adina Caloenescu's exhibition Constructive concepts (Galeria Nouă, November-December

1974) poses the question of mathematical intervention into the practice of art. In itself, this is
nothing new. From Antiquity to the present day and running straight through the fertile history of
the Renaissance, the involvement of mathematics has proven its usefulness over and over again.
This phenomenon is easily explainable, given that, among other things, art is the expression of a
system of proportions and correlations, which sometimes makes calculation and measurement
possible."
[...]
"Adina Caloenescu's works ask to be understood on the basis of the impulse that generated them.
They are, in the strictest sense, exemplary proposals of aesthetic forms, with the potential to
serve as reference for future action to shape environments. At the same time, they are concrete
artistic objects whose corporeal qualities are dampened by the delicacy and transparency of their
material, specifically chosen to counteract their ponderous and voluminous effect with one of
free and airy unfolding in space, as well as to preserve visual focus on the melodious circulation
of lines. In just the same way that, by its configuration, natural form triggers both a sensory
reaction and a reflexive drive in the viewer."
[...]
"The most telling example is the series of Fountains, where, by intuition and calculation, the
form is initially subjected to a strictly aesthetic norm, free of an extant premeditated object in
immediate reality (an architectural structure or urban edifice, for example), and yet obviously
works in comparative assimilation with such an object, precisely because the beauties intended
by the artist have a natural correspondent (here, the trajectory of spouting water), both in our
intimate manner of sensibility and the immediate everyday environment.
"Works like Model for a summer theatre or Model for a sports park, where this correspondence
is made with a preexisting human achievement, in no way alter the elements of the fundamental
problem at hand, but only the horizon for analogy. What remains essential is that Adina
Caloenescu's works, her 'constructive concepts', continue to draw substance from an objective
reality that is conditioned by the bio-psychological structure of the human organism itself, the
satisfaction of which calls for traditional, classical harmony. And herein lies the reason why, in
this case, the novelty of artistic practice does not constitute a break from the past, but instead
promotes an admirably pure solution for continuity, free of conformism and with full
accountability."
GHERASIM, Marin. "Urban I - II". Personal exhibition organized within the exhibition
"Art and the City". Bucharest, "Galeria Nouă", oct.-nov. 1974. 22, no. 1, 1975, p. 13

"Painting requires moral integrity. It requires this from its creator and imposes it on the viewer, it
binds one to meditation and to seriousness. "
"I have always felt the need for certain inner preparation in order to get closer to painting, in
order to practice it. When I do not have this preparation, I delay the meeting with her, I delay the
moment when I start my work. In fact, this is about a ritual of taking possession of her. As a
child, I would go to see the murals in my native Bucovina. At first, these were the hilltops with
black-green pines. The road. Then the Gate. The Gate that took me to a different space from my
usual one. You need to be ready to pass under these gates. Suddenly, I would be face to face with
polychromatic splendor. I always carefully prepare before encountering certain works, some of
which I know, others which I only feel. I mean to say I cannot and don't want to miss the rare
chance for bliss, or, on the flip side, for shock."
[...]
"The way I've found to express myself somewhat completely is a type of polar painting. My
images contain the signs of a confrontation, of an antithesis. I always feel the need to bring up
the arguments for and against my own existence, of its dialectic. I cannot and don't want to show
a side that is favorable to me. I'm not obsessed with pure and consistent style, only with finding
the correspondent of my truth. Every time I get close to an expression that would tend to make
itself permanent, I become restless. I feel something is lost. I'm afraid that such images no longer
contain the echoes of my life. I'm afraid of being prematurely frozen into a formula, of the
ossification and death of my spiritual life.
The Urban I series perhaps contained my state at the time most accurately. The concept of
surface itself, its breaking down into sections, was meant to express the succession of different
moments of my inner sensitive, psychic and intellectual experience. I wanted to establish
antagonisms between these sections, a deaf tension. The images had a syncopated cadence, their
leitmotif was rift, discontinuity. This was the only way for me to express my experience in the
city, the expression of the spirit that enveloped the modern megalopolis. Painting amounted to a
scream. To a memento.
"The Urban I series was born out of a moral crisis, the expression of an uprooting. It was
necessary for me to find my base again. "
"How long can we remain in the ephemeral, in the state of pure contradiction? How long can we
stay in the scream? Is the scream a solution or just a sign, a warning? Has the idea of permanence
lost all meaning – and what meaning can we find for it today?"
"The second series dedicated to the city is an attempt to answer these questions, by reevaluating
an old aspiration toward order and harmony through a new lens; it is an attempt to reach those
points where the beautiful and the good become a unitary whole, a moral ideal. Agora, the Gates
– I want to return to their initial meanings, by trying to add symbolic, archetypal, matrix
meanings."
"To me, they are the symbols of spiritual communion between people. I imagine a space for a
true community of humans. Instead of the amorphous, overflowing and heterogeneous, impure
city where people live separate, isolated lives without real communication, I imagine a space of
fraternal and harmonious coexistence. The image of the circular city was born out of these
necessities. Naturally, it is not an architect's project, but a poetical suggestion, a metaphor."
"In my later works, order has increasingly settled in; not a definitive order, but one emerging
from conflict, from duality in action. An internal movement always undercuts stagnation, the
definitive.
"What insinuates itself in the place of the antagonistic clashes and manifest contradictions of my
previous works is a more profound and subtler dispute, a restlessness that comes from deeper and
more longstanding places in my consciousness. Instead of outward, pathetic gesture – a more
profound fervor, a secret smoldering. They contain the remembrance of history and the type of
thought which extends forward into the unknown. I think it's time the act of painting took on
other meanings than convenient ones. Painting can regain its status as a spiritual discipline, a
place for the synthesis between reason and feeling, a way toward moral enlightenment. At a time
when man feels the aggression of the abundance of objects he has created, art must become a
window that opens onto spirituality in order to create a rare possibility for moral regeneration."
"I would like for my recent 'cities' to fall under the purview of geometry, of the geometric spirit
understood as spiritual practice, not as vain scientist demonstration."
"Through them, I want to bring myself to order."
"Painting must once again become a solemn act."
"AGENDA
Among the activities organized by the bureau of the critical faculty of the Visual Artists' Union,
as part of the Art and the city – landmarks exhibition at the Galeria Nouă (42 Nicolae Iorga
Street), an evening of debates took place in December 1974 on the topic 'The Historical City and
the City of the Future', regarding the urbanism and architecture of Bucharest. At the debates,
which were conducted by the art critic Dan Hăulică, secretary of the bureau of the critical
faculty of the V.A.U., many architects, critics, visual artists and writers participated, among
whom: Radu Albala, Paul Anghel, Radu Bogdan, arch. Stan Bortnovschi, arch. Mircea Dima,
Vasile Drăgut, arch. Grigore Ionescu, arch. Constantin Joja, arch. Mircea Lupu, arch.
Gheorghe Petrașcu, Valeriu Râpeanu, arch. Aurelian Triscu. The debates were an opportunity
for an active exchange of opinion, based on the seriousness and authority with which they were
formulated and supported, having to do with the complex issue of integrating the historical
assets of the city into the program for the urban development of the capital. On the occasion of
Mihai Olos's personal exhibition opening (organized within the Art and the city – landmarks
exhibition) a meeting between the artist and the public took place on the 13th of December 1975.
On the 29th of January of the current year, the event An Unknown Bucharest took place,
organized in collaboration with the Directorate of National Cultural Heritage. There, art critic
Vasile Drăguţ, director of National Cultural Heritage, opened the event and the art historian
Tereza Sinigalia presented an itinerary of photographs of Bucharest (focusing especially on the
decoration of the façades of buildings and the ironwork on the old street lamps), supported by
slides authored by Adrian Ianuli."
Conf. univ. dr. Dan Grigorescu, "Socialism builds for man, the cities built by him are
measured on the scale of human life", in Contemporanul, no. 52, 1974

"It seems to me that the 'suggestions, hypotheses, proposals, possibilities and perspectives' found
within the exhibition at Galeria Nouă fortuitously expand on the meaning of its title: Art and the
City. In fact, I'm not so sure the word 'exhibition' is appropriate for this debate regarding the
higher-order functional integration of the urban landscape into the new, human space that has
emerged in the modern cities of this country. To me, this seems to be the clearest meaning that
comes across through the miniature projects, layouts and panels here."
"Once, I had the chance to flip through the catalogue of a similarly titled show at the New School
for Social Research in New York City, sometime at the tail end of the past decade. What the
American artists' projects (among them, for instance, Oldenburg, Anuszkiewicz, Chamberlain)
highlighted was the desire for a space where man could once again meet nature, amidst the deep
steel and concrete canyons of Manhattan."
[...]
"Naturally, Bucharest's residents are not faced with such realities. Their city has always been one
full of greenery, of trees generously shading the edges of boulevards, of peaceful parks at the
corners of great streets. In truth, they have sometimes found this blessing of trees dispensable.
They have cut them down and stretched out the asphalt in some areas, but these instances remain
rare. Today, Șerban Epure feels that, in these spaces, the city is barren, monotonous; and,
therefore, that the desire to animate it is quite warranted. He suggests a sort of enormous,
vibrantly colored pin wheel with lines in strong colors extending at the bottom."
[...]
"Nevertheless, 'animating space' remains a central problem for both the urbanist and the painter
to think about, in a city as full of color as Bucharest is."
"One response to this problem (and, it seems to me, an extremely interesting response) are the
'painted walls' by Petre Săndulescu, Iosif Kijanovsky and Toma Roată. They are, I must say,
truly spaces to the sky. In a corner like the one dominated by the serenely noble buildings of the
University, of the Museum of City History, the Ministry of Agriculture and of the Colțea
Hospital, the angle closed off between two high walls, between the Boulevard of the Republic
and the 1848 Boulevard, would benefit from an addition of vigorous fantasy like the one
proposed by the three artists, at least for the time being, until a building integrated into the
ensemble may be built."
"What also provides life to our big cities – chief among them, Bucharest, of course – is the
dynamic harmony of buildings belonging to disparate epochs and conceived in different styles.
Naturally, like in any modern metropolis, as architects have solved complex problems pertaining
to systematization, older structures have often disappeared in the process. But the exemplary
rehabilitation of the neighborhood around the old royal court proves that traditional architecture
can be integrated into the contemporary cityscape without resulting in shrillness and ostentation.
At Galeria Nouă, the architect Constantin Joja proposes a newly surprising rediscovery of the
possibilities for a decidedly modern balance between old and new buildings. The result can only
be a stronger highlight on Bucharest's particular lyrical charm."
"Along those same lines, but using different tools, we find Barbu Nițescu dreaming up
architectural ensembles of robust poetry to place in green spaces. The rigorous, but graceful
fountains and towers conceived by the Sigma group would also surely lend our cities a daring
personal touch."
"There is another detail that I find particularly significant: our sculptors (and here I am not only
referring to the admirable creations of Constantin Popovici, Paul Vasilescu and Mircea Spătaru,
which are exhibited at the Gallery, but to others as well) have taken to heart the lesson that a
monument is not only a representation of spirituality or of a person of note, but that it is also an
architectural element which suggestively sets a rhythm to urban spaces."
[...]
"This is why I feel that the team made up of Beldiman, Verona and Vraciu, who authored a
project for a Visual Arts Center which is well thought out overall as a multifunctional museum,
should complete their idea for this doubtlessly necessary building with the addition of a sculpture
garden. It is in the open air, where natural light challenges shape, that sculptural volumes can be
fully considered and appreciated."
"I would venture to say that none of the projects featured at Galeria Nouă share in the
constructed utopias of painters (especially those in the Baroque period and after) who dreamed of
the ideal city. Socialism builds for man; the cities it erects are measured at the scale of human
life. And here, just as in any other aspect of existence, it confronts routine, the refusal to think
and the tendency toward the comfortable."
"This is precisely where I find merit in most of the 'suggestions and hypotheses' at Galeria Nouă,
which are irrefutable starting points of productive thought for our leaders in regard to the
function of this space – the city – in which soon most of the population of Romania will live."
The painter Octav Grigorescu, “Beauty in the city is not only constituted by the exteriors of
buildings; the real city is a unitary whole", in Contemporanul, no. 52, 1974

"One of these problems is the way in which the current urban context can be receptive toward
artistic creation and innovative proposals; as the current exhibition at Galeria Nouă
demonstrates, such proposals do exist and artists are indeed interested in the positioning of art as
part of the city's architectural structure."
"Most of our cities have a certain past. Sometimes, the vestiges of this history have been
intolerably obscured by newer, tasteless constructions, which crop up like walls of grey, blocking
the natural unfolding of the old urban landscape. I believe these errors aren't always born from
urgency, but often also from the 'fear of mistakes' which inevitably leads to drabness and
insignificance."
Mihai Drișcu, ***, in „Art and City”, catalogue, 1974, pp. 2-3

"The second exhibition organized by the bureau of the critical faculty seeks to explore some of
the ways in which visual artists can contribute to defining the urban environment in a
contemporary spirit. The enormous complexity and difficulty of the subject is obvious, but the
occurrence appears necessary – an emergency in the order of social priority. Between a
prolonged ignorabimus and a scimus as of yet incomplete, there can only be one choice. The way
chosen for this exploration to take place is an exhibition, very much a work-in-progress, which,
more than anything, serves as context for conversation, starting from some of the symptoms of
the potential integration of the visual artist in the urban milieu. It is one of many possible partial
approaches and not the only positive one, based on solutions that in no way aim to be exemplary
(so be it!) for demonstrative intentions."
"We are presented with a series of proposals. They are attempts that point to the current state of
the problem, an initial set of evidence for the capacity to analyze a situation that contemporary
reality confronts us with. It is necessary to recognize the anticipative nature of this undertaking,
despite the uncomfortable position of making a 'critical construction' on something that only
could or should be, to 'hunt' or, as much as possible, provoke these signs. Nevertheless, this falls
under the duty of criticism, in order to strengthen the artists' connection to life. It has always
been the constant policy of the Party to encourage the new in all fields of activity, to demand
'being a daring adventurer into the new, to always look forward, toward what is only emerging',
to be unwavering in 'the fight against inertia, routine, conservatism and all that has become stale'.
The Party's program holds to 'elevating the general level of civilization in the material and
spiritual life of the people, always situating man, as the determinant factor of all social life, at the
center of all Party and state policy, satisfying his demands and needs, which are constantly
evolving'. By systematically participating in the configuration of urban life and the
personalization of our cities, the artist can have a first-rate contribution to making an optimal
environment for man and for the unfolding of his multilateral personality, which is socialism's
great retort to the 'unidimensional' man of consumer society."
[...]
"Only by looking through the lens of the future can the artist's current productions find their
basis. That being said, terms such as the individualist artist's waiting for 'the judgement of
posterity' to deem his work a 'masterpiece' do not apply. The artist concerns himself with urban
renewal, he identifies anomalies and advantages, he corrects or protects existing structures, he
subjects his proposals to 'projects for improvement' and accelerates in cases of stagnation.
Interdisciplinary study, integrative approaches using data from different sciences, the
renunciation of 'titanic' work on one's own and the practice of teamwork are all part of a supple
and timely response to the obvious phenomenon of history's 'acceleration'."
"When attempting to make generalizations about the artistic content of this exhibition, one can
stumble into problematic criteria from the very start – the mechanisms of creation, which are a
difficult subject to approach, but by no means as ineffable as some artists or a great part of the
public may be inclined to think. We can easily see in most of the techniques used for work on the
projects that we are presented with 'stops' at various stages. Some of them offer fully satisfying
descriptions of the idea of creative lab and often clash with the commonly agreed upon standard
for what can be exhibited under the label of artistic product."
[...]
"In order to become an element of culture, any novelty must be accepted by society. Following
the steps of integration into the cultural circuit – innovation, social acceptance, selective
elimination, integration –, we can see that the public, which has previously played the part of
'neglected spectator', is given a new role. The visitor is no longer a quiet contemplator whose
habits and particularities may or may not be given any importance, but, as an urban consumer, a
possible user of the artists' proposals, he is called to collaborate, to participate democratically in
a 'collective invention' (Dialogue between specialists and consumers and opinion polls will be a
constant practice within the exhibition)."
"Another thing that needs to be remarked upon regarding this new and vast undertaking is quite
obvious: the artist's initiative is conditioned by social demand, far more than in the case of the
so-called 'constructed genres'. It provokes them, stimulates them and absorbs them. Organisms'
receptivity is generally quite fragile and arbitrary and does not hold to any coherent system of
thought which may be friendlier to novelty. For this reason, art is an added element, which does
not belong to the overall structure, and, in practical terms, 'art in the city' remains something that
pertains to the future. This is also a prime explanation for what the exhibition lacks in some
regards."
"The extremes of the exhibition are the representational painting and fragments of concrete
utopia by Mihai Olos. Marin Gherasim brings a personal exhibition (followed by another, by
Adina Caloenescu) showing the consistency of his thinking on the 'urban spirit'. By taking a
close look at the thematic nuclei, we can see that it is painting which guarantees the continued
connection with the museum. From the 'motif' overlaid with a personal stylistic matrix (a
'Venice' by Corneliu Baba), to imposing generalizations ('Ode to the constructive spirit' by Mihai
Horea), from relatively dispassionate, but openly polemical recordings (Grigorescu Ion), to
painting understood only as a means to explore modulation and interchangeability (Florin Maxa),
we find examples of different possibilities for registering and interpreting the urban landscape.
The suggestions for animating city spaces have various degrees of complexity, ranging from the
'Sigma' group's project for an informational tower, to the merry-making sculptural elements by
Barbu Nițescu. The proposals for painted walls, supergraphics (Toma Roată's water towers) and
the temporary events (collective spaces – surprises for holidays, imagined by Ion Condiescu and
Șerban Epure) also aim at animating urban space. The ceramic modular elements for
architectural decor make for a plainly applicable proposal. Commemorative or symbolic
monuments, which can become integral marks in the urban structure (as spatial syntax control,
growth axes, islands, checkpoints), are only hinted at here, seeing as their production is already
widespread, although very much perfectible. Eugen Tăutu, whose proposals have been integrated
into systemization plans in Sibiu, is interested in creating meditative, 'cosmically integrated'
spaces. One example of model utopia (unique, to our knowledge) is Mihai Olos's urban
prospective in the form of 'a project for a universal city', the basic unit of which was 'revealed' to
him by the structure of the 'zurgălău', a traditional decorative element added to spindles used in
Maramureș. The proposals for urban furniture (Decebal Scriba) and play areas (Antonio Albici)
introduce the problem of a general methodology of forms for human environments and of
overcoming the 'splintered' state of affairs within product design."
[...]
"Despite the fact that our graphic artists seem aware of these problems, as well as the particular
differences between propaganda and promotional posters, the great number of 'unique' pieces
exhibited (a paradox to say the least as far as the nature of the poster is concerned) so far proves
little potential for social impact – a reflection of 'demand' – and constitute a loss for urban
ambiance. The project for a visual arts center proposed by the architects Beldiman, Verona and
Vraciu is based on an economic system with great potential for expansion and will undoubtedly
spark interest. The documentation research of the architect Constantin Joja reminds us of the
possibilities to harmonize contemporary architecture with the city's old architecture, aiming at
the configuration of a specific style for these geographical sectors. The exhibition is also
'sprinkled' with small docu-didactical areas that feature photographic material either showing
similar problems from around the world, or regarding the old city atmosphere, which is not
limited to its inherent picturesque quality (differences of time and place notwithstanding), but
also draws attention to the rich visual experience the passer-by would have been presented with
at the time of Caragiale or Luchian."

"This exhibition seeks to stimulate artists to reconsider their role in the city – the perpetual
education to mediate between the individual and society – and to awaken the urban consumer,
the collective, to their important contribution. Through various forms of 'social demand', the
artist asks that he be reinstated as an aesthetic decision-maker. Although the exhibition may fall
short of satisfactory in certain regards, we think that this primum movens has reached its goal.
Dissatisfaction is a discovery in itself, as it can be an anticipation of further rational, harmonious
and systematic work."
* * *. Always an open question: the colloquium exhibition "Man-City-Nature", Iaşi, 23-25
nov. 1981. 29, no. 1, 1982, pp. 25-32

"This exhibition, more of a work space or laboratory than a set of finished 'works', set up in
somewhat of a hurry, but supported by a vast and dense catalogue (92 pages), featured a
selection of inquiries and reveries, as relevant as they were succinct, on the possibility for a new
integration of the three terms of our triad – terms which architects have usually approached in a
general way, with specific (and understandable) emphasis on the concepts of settlement,
constructed space or city, while painters, graphic artists and sculptors, as well as those working
in the area of design, have rather looked into the relationship between nature and a certain kind
on man who, regardless of his freshness or naivety, is a more or less willing city dweller. Our
urban artist, who is savvy about the avant-garde and post-avant-garde worldwide, still holds on
to rustic nostalgia which often shines through in the ecological projects based on 'operational' or
'structural' realisms, in the object interventions or the 'action' recordings that took place in 'green
spaces', as well as in the architectural or urbanist documentations and utopias. Overall, there is an
attempt to establish meaning in certain places, certain objects or spaces or, at least, to move
toward such an establishing, wherein lies the bountiful tension that permeated the exhibition as a
whole."
"One of the most striking formulas for a new conception of nature ('new' in the sense of
frankness, abandoning of mimetic and contemplative prejudices, as well as sentimental
complacency) comes, as we've seen before, from Horia Bernea, who sets his sight upon
surrounding nature and human nature in equal measure, moving forward by conquering: Mark
for the infinite uses the four cardinal points (or directions), with their piercing (I'd say,
dangerous) branches and their volumetrically tense nodes. In this preemptive utopian project, the
spot is not only marked, but pierced through and connected to human meaning, inciting
verticality, a height and a depth, in the virtual inhabitant of the 'zone'. Civilization plants itself in
nature, lending meaning to its expanse."
[...]
"Wanda Mihuleac told me, on some other occasion, that through her ecological projects she
wants to create a state of integration, while also giving nature back its right to common sense,
which allows us still to look at lakes and sunrises without the fear of kitsch. The Landscape
modules with water mirrors pose the two-ended question of reflection and symmetry (the axis is
implied) with such direct realism, that, in my view, it transcends the sphere of the aesthetic to
become a dispositional attitude."
[...]
"A state of integration is also at stake in the experiments, actions and rituals that Constantin
Flondor conceives and films, with himself as director and performer, participating in the
intervention into the natural environment (preferably, forested or mountainous) and signaling
some of the analogies between disparate structures and behaviors. Within this undertaking, one
can intuit an impatience to rediscover the earth and the sky, the air and the light, in their aural
freshness, through gestures of invocation – capturing – immersion."
Vasile Drăguț, "Art Magazine in Iași", in Art, no. 1/1982, p. 2

"By nature, those present did not only understand rustic, Arcadian nature, which is so threatened
in its own right, but also and especially nature made by man, the historical nature of our dwelling
places that allow us to recognize our spiritual identity as individuals and as a people in their
temporal and value perspectives. Through their contributions, writers, essayists, composers,
visual artists, architects and art critics all showed their unanimous preoccupation for the
preservation of our urban and architectural national heritage, in a harmonious relationship with
the sun, the trees and new constructions. It is obvious that aspirations of prosperity and progress
cannot be served by erasing historical memory; on the contrary, only by virtue of a full
understanding of cultural heritage can the creative capacity and the tendency toward the future be
nourished."
"The debates that took place at the colloquium in Iași, where – alas! – the locals had only a
modest degree participation, were still able to reveal a fact of encouraging perspective: the
younger generation of architects is beginning to understand the drama of those human
settlements where irretrievable urban assets, architectural monuments of true nobility, charged
with cultural and historical significance, were sacrificed to the urgency of rebuilding. Who could
forget or forgive the horrible demolition of the Michaelian Academy in Iași, of the street
surrounded by columns in Tulcea, of the Gherla bazaar, of the Duiliu Zamfirescu and Maior
Șonțu houses in Focșani... and the examples could go painfully on and on. The comfortable way
of solving the problem of development, by demolishing and then building on the empty lot, the
lack of effort put into establishing an organic juxtaposition of the various ages of a city – ages
marked first and foremost by architectural monuments – here are only two of the causes that led
to the loss of edifices of reverent note. A handful of young architects, carrying the burden of
being professionally bound to solve the problems of the urban environment, have demonstrated
by their contributions that they reject the non-cultural attitude of those contemporary patricians
that believe Romanian architecture was invented only yesterday and that everything begins with
them, or of those who believe that beautiful means embellished, picturesque or 'ethic'."
[...]
"The demolition of old, modestly-sized houses and their replacement with multi-level
constructions seems to be a comfortable and economical solution, but this isn't always the case.
Recent studies done by the UNESCO commission for cultural heritage demonstrate that
rehabilitating and valorizing vernacular architectural structures is incomparably more
economically sound (first of all, because this does not affect the water supply and electrical
infrastructure systems in place), not to mention the incalculable moral and historical benefit at
stake."
[...]
"Another important instance of the Iași plan was the opening of the exhibition Man – City –
Nature at the Victoria hall. With a deliberate experimental bent, this exhibition brought together
visual artists and architects from the entire country with the explicit goal to put forth and
stimulate ideas for the establishment of wide-ranging action to retrieve and guarantee the vitally
necessary harmony between man and the surrounding universe. Despite the fact that many of the
works suffered from an all-too-obvious desire to be unprecedented – a desire that, by itself, only
leads to gratuity –, the exhibition overall [... ] Here we fulfill the pleasurable duty to pay tribute
to the visitors in Iași who approached the many meeting engagements with passion and warmth;
it is difficult to describe the omnipresent attention and hospitality of those among us: Rodica
Popescu, secretary of the Municipal Party Committee, and Victoria Andrieș, president of the
Committee for Culture and Socialist Education of Iași."