From Escapism to Activism: Two Forms of Architectural Dissent in Romania

Abstract

This article draws a comparison between two different forms of dissent against the dominant architectural system during and after communism in Romania. Martin Pinchis’ “urban fictions” in the 1960s and the “theoretical subversion” of the 1980s are brought together and then considered in relation to instances of more recent activism since around the 2000s.

The argument is that in spite of the totally different conditions during and after communism, resistance might be understood similarly in both situations: architects escape direct confrontation with negative realities by producing new margins of action and enlarging the limits of architecture itself. The two attitudes are very different: one whole and utopian, the other acupunctural and circumstantial. Yet they both develop lateral fields of action beyond usual professional practice. The apparent “paradoxes of dissidence” - that the more architecture opposes reality the less able it is to change it, or that architecture opposes itself - are surpassed by this escapism.

Keywords:

• dissidence
• paradox
• 1960s utopia
• architectural activism
• Romanian architecture

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Dana Vais

Dana Vais is Associate Professor at the Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism, Technical University of Cluj, Romania, where she teaches theory, modern and contemporary history, and architecture studio. She earned both her architecture degree (1989) and her Ph.D. (2000) at the University of Architecture and Urbanism “Ion Mincu” in Bucharest. Her visiting appointments include the University of Cincinnati, USA (Fulbright fellow), École d'architecture Paris Belleville, Inst. Sup. d'Architecture Saint-Luc de Wallonie Liège, Technical University of Budapest, and the University of Novi Sad. She publishes in the fields of theory, criticism and recent history in architecture and urbanism.