Block Party

The story of a very successful urban project

Ana-Maria Cononovici, 23.10.2018, 12:00

Books
placed on a spectacular installation and advertised in the street, reading of
contemporary poetry and guided tours of the neighborhood, food cooked by chef
Liviu Lambrino for a common, open-air diner, dancing in the middle of the
street with artist Paul Dunca and Jim Felix’s music as well as films screened
on an open-air screen were some of the attractions of the first block party
organized in October on a street in downtown Bucharest. Edmund Niculusca, the
president of the Romanian Association for Culture, Education and Normality,
ARCEN, is the initiator of the event:

We are transforming the street into several layers of spaces. For almost
12 hours, the I.L. Caragiale Street in Bucharest will witness lots of events
such as part of the exhibition that represented Romania at the Venice
International Architecture Biennial, Mnemonix, and ‘Around the block’, a
project that gathers all childhood games in one book. Games, dance and dialogue
are actually the key ingredients of a Block Party event.

Against
the backdrop of carpets laid out in the street, of armchairs in which you could
cuddle up covered in a blanket, visitors could enjoy the experience of an extensive
living room, among book shelves. A book installation invites people to read. The
installation is made up of metallic sticks at the end of which you can find a
plate on which a book is placed. When removing the book from the plate, you
discover 5 lines written on the plate which explain the reason why you should
read that book. Next Edmund Niculusca will tell us about the idea behind the
project.

Bucharest needs a historical, cultural
centre, and the area around Icoanei street could be this very historical,
cultural centre, because it is located in the center, it is a historical area
and has cultural potential, because, once it enters a network, it has the
potential to generate another type of life inside the city. It’s a different
kind of old city.

In this
area, history has cultural potential, says Edmond Niculusca:

At first, when we conceived the project,
we wanted to name it ‘The downtown neighborhood’, which had to be a different city
center, but eventually we named it ‘District 40’, while preserving the
philosophy of creating a center with a different urban rhythm. All the partners
of District 40 namely the French Institute, the Central School, Residence Scene
9, Point, Carturesti and Cinetics will be present on the I.L. Caragiale street
with their events. For the European Night of Museums all these institutions
staged their events in their own spaces, but now all these cultural spaces will
come together on one street, proving that cooperation is possible and that what
seemed at first impossible eventually became possible.

Poet
Nora Iuga joined the project and she read out from her poems. Among the
participants there were also people involved in town planning projects, such as
Romeo Cuc, the curator of the MNEMONICS project, architect Serban Sturdza and
Serban Radu, the founder of Carturesti book network. ‘Catalog 40’ was one of
the projects debated in the street, which is a successful project meant to
familiarize those interested with Bucharest’s protected areas. Alberto
Grosescu, the vice-president of ARCEN, explained:

Of all the ARCEN projects we have had so
far, this one has been the most dynamic and has changed a lot. In 2015 we
inventoried another 2 protected, constructed areas. It was a demo version. And
this dynamics and permanent change of the urban landscape and of heritage
elements, put in connection with the information we had when analyzing the two
protected constructed areas, made me aware of the speed at which the city is
changing, of how little knowledge people have about protected areas. We have
tried to save all these areas at the level of image, inventory and information.
In 2016 we planned to inventory the 98 protected constructed areas. We
estimated a number of 14,500 buildings. It took us 8 solid months to draw up
the methodology, and with the help of teachers of architecture from the Ion
Mincu University, of experts from the Heritage Institute, from the Order of
Romanian Architects in Bucharest, we managed to come up with a first version.
In March 2017 we started the inventory. Among the first areas inventoried,
there was the Icoanei area, and, at that time, we had no idea that a project
like ‘District 40’ was to be born.

We
mingled with the visitors to find out their impression about the Block Party. We
asked 43 year-old Dana, who was accompanied by her son, why she came to Block
Party.

I found out about it on the Internet and we
wanted to see what it is all about. And we discovered people like us, we discovered
books and a lot of peace and quiet, which is quite rare in Bucharest.

Dana’s
son, Radu, is 13, and he also shared with us why he came to the Block Party:

I was curious to see what happens here,
I find it a nice place for relaxation on a Sunday afternoon, to loosen up in an
armchair and read. But I don’t think many of my colleagues would come to such
events.

Both
Block Party evenings ended with people dancing in the street, warmed up by artist
Paul Dunca. Some of the existential questions asked in the songs played at the
party attracted our attention: ‘How long do you intend to live?’, ‘Age has
changed in time, hasn’t it?’ In spite all of that, the time spent at the Block
Party actually suspended … time!

(Translated by L. Simion)