Charles Villa-Vicencio – A Romanian Collage

Timisoara, 3 July 2009

A Romanian Collage

Dacia defeated by Trajan’s legions (106AD)
The intrigue of East-Central European history
Romans, Greeks, Slavs, Austrians, Hungarians, Turks, Russians
Wallachia, Moldova, Transylvania
Alexandru Ioan Cuza, Carol I, Ferdinand, Carol II and Milhai
Georghe Gheorghiu Dej and Nicolae Ceausescu
Iliescu, Iliescu, Constantinescu, Iliescu, Basescu

An architectural imprint
The Paris of Central Europe
An Arc de Triomphe
French intellectualism
Memories and structures wither
A politics of distancing
A last French speaking generation

Ceausescu’s megalomaniac designs
Tears at the heart of the city
To make way for the House of the People
Communist concrete slab housing blocks
Orthodox and Catholic cathedrals look on
Patriarchs, archbishops and believers resist and conform
Remembering and reaching ahead

A revolution delayed and begun
December  1989 in Timisoara (16-20) and Bucharest (21-22)
Ceausescu and Elena executed on Christmas day
Revolution, putsch or coup d’état?
The past refuses to die
Reconciliation struggles for birth

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