The place
\nis an anthropic lake in the V\u0103c\u0103re\u0219ti neighbourhood, in the south-west of the
\ncity. Spreading nearly 200 hectares, the lake was originally designed as part
\nof the complex engineering works on the river crossing Bucharest, D\u00e2mbovi\u021ba, and
\nwas supposed to be part of the flooding defence system designed in the
\ncommunist years.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Its construction
\nrequired the demolition of one of Bucharest’s most beautiful religious
\nbuildings, the V\u0103c\u0103re\u0219ti Monastery. The original project went unfinished after
\nthe fall of the communist regime in Romania in 1989. In the years that
\nfollowed, the area was reclaimed by nature, and turned into a genuine delta-with
\ndiverse vegetation and animals ranging from birds to fish to foxes, rabbits,
\notters and so on. The V\u0103c\u0103re\u0219ti Delta grew into a stable ecosystem, and a habitat
\nfor protected species. In 2015, the V\u0103c\u0103re\u0219ti Delta was declared a nature park
\n(V\u0103c\u0103re\u0219ti Nature Park)-a protected nature area and the first urban nature park
\nin Romania.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
This October
\nthe V\u0103c\u0103re\u0219ti Nature Park played host to a project entitled Decaying Landscape,
\ndesigned to bring people, nature and art closer together. We talked to the
\nproject manager and curator Gabriela Mateescu about the organisation of the
\nevent and the ideas on which it was based: <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Gabriela
\nMateescu: Placed in the urban nature scenery of the V\u0103c\u0103re\u0219ti Delta, this
\nproject called Decaying landscape is a cross-disciplinary artistic
\ncooperation and at the same time a research effort resulting in performances, land
\nart works and site-specific installations. The event was organised by Nucleus
\n0000 Association and co-financed by the Bucharest City Hall via ARCUB, as part
\nof a programme entitled Bucharest: open city 2021. Bucharest is a city
\nsuffocated by concrete. But among the heavy slabs outlining the city, nature
\nclaims its place. On the site of the long abandoned, communist-era artificial
\nlake of V\u0103c\u0103re\u0219ti, an ecosystem has formed over the past 30 years, with no
\nhuman intervention whatsoever, right at the heart of the country’s largest
\nurban settlement. Grown into a true delta, an autonomous ecosystem in the
\nmiddle of Bucharest, the V\u0103c\u0103re\u0219ti Park is the right place to contemplate the state
\nof nature and the effects of human intervention.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Condensing an
\nentire universe into a micro-space, artists from various fields have deconstructed
\npost- and trans-humanist theories in the language of contemporary art. Gabriela
\nMateescu told us more about the participants in the Decaying Landscape
\nproject:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Gabriela
\nMateescu: On the 24th October, people were invited to walk
\naround and discover the works of female artists Roberta Curc\u0103, M\u0103lina Ionescu,
\nGabriela Mateescu, Andreea Medar, Kiki Mihu\u021b\u0103, Marina Oprea. Lost in the
\nlandscape were also the students of a performance workshop called microRave -
\nattempts at becoming a landscape, coordinated by Andreea David, Maria
\nBaroncea, on music written by Chlorys. A week before the event, we invited
\nyouth from Bucharest interested in art to come to the Delta for a dance
\nperformance workshop, taking advantage of the last sunny days of autumn. To help
\nthe visitors in their search, we put together a map with the GPS coordinates of
\nthe works, and mounted them at the Delta entrances and among the works. We also
\nhad 3 guided tours where the public walked the arts route together with the
\nartists and the organisers. The installations were collected the next day, to
\nkeep the area unaltered.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
The artistic
\nconcept involved a hybrid space-brought to life by both the daily urban excitement
\nand by the noises of the delta in the heart of the city. This area was
\ntemporarily revived in order to plead its own cause-a cultural function, to be
\nprecise-as the most appropriate place for contemplation, a means to reconnect
\nwith nature, a possible meditation on the harmful effects of improper human
\nintervention on nature. Gabriela Mateescu also gave us some details on the public
\nand their responses to the project in the V\u0103c\u0103re\u0219ti Delta:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Gabriela Mateescu:
\nApart from the regular public of artistic events, we had people simply going
\nout for a walk on a sunny day, who thus had an opportunity to see random works
\nof art, which they were amazed with and interested in. And their curiosity was met
\nby the explanations given by the artists and the project team. (tr. A.M. Popescu)<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
One of the most interesting and unexpected sites in Bucharest is the V\u0103c\u0103re\u0219ti Delta<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":139,"featured_media":163525,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[44685],"tags":[33514,28915,36289,43235,42949,44114,39320,44680,45090,43045],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-163523","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-of-culture","tag-art","tag-bucharest","tag-delta","tag-installations","tag-nature","tag-park","tag-performance","tag-protected","tag-urban","tag-vacaresti"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n