Bukarest2 (2006)
By Rainer Ganahl
From the castle of Ceausescu - the former, fallen (executed) dictator of Romania built himself a phantasy castle which is now called the Parlament Palace - via the "bolshoij prospect / Grand Boulevard" to a gigantic Apartment block at the other side of this axial street and back again towards this idyosyncratic megalo-construction built in the 1980s, I ride the bicycle in the middle of the one way lanes against traffic, against and with the sun without holding the streering wheel. The outcome of this rather dangerous enterprise (Do I have a death wish? or am I just an ecolo-political romantic/ rule-disobeyer) is a video of 22 minutes made for the Biennial of Bucharest. (2nd edition, though there was never a first edition keeping to the tradition of local surrealisms - yes there have been many, and some just read below: PS2) The chosen path on the axis of Ceausescu's power translated into urbanism is quite extraordinary in its size and symetry in a city that didn't undergo a Hausmannisation program earlier. It not only comes with this big long and totally streight Avenue - called Bulevardul Unirii -, the delirious kitch palace (it is said to be the second biggest bulding in the w…
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