Chisinau Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art

Authors’ Comment

The proposed solution is the meeting place of several local, cultural and social problems. Chisinau is a city developed according to the model of monocentric cities and consists of an old, medieval and a modern city. The rational urban settlement was brutally annexed. The project seeks an adequate response to this problem. Being at the intersection of the two types of cities, the project tries to mediate them by weaving them.

The lack of a museum to exhibit the modern and contemporary art collection in the country is the main starting point of the project. The intention is to create a multifunctional sub-centre around the museum, connecting the other nearby functions.
The principles that support the intention of the project are: the interior street defined by movement and stasis at the same time. The labyrinth symbolizing multiple paths, without a precise end or beginning. And the articulation of various rooms that mark the evolution of modern Moldovan art. They defined a fragmented volume that provides an answer to both problems, undoing the massiveness and the way a classical museum is visited. Thus, the museum scenario is a chronological one composed of single-room spaces of various sizes that exhibit the most important works of art in the context of the period in which they were created.

After an extensive inventory of the most significant works of art, it was proposed that the sculptures, which mark modern art, benefit from their own natural light. The position of the sculptures is determined by sunlight at different angles, which highlights the features of three-dimensional art. The paintings benefit from natural light from the north, but also from artificial light, compensating for the amount of light needed.
The inner street is the starting point of a visit and at the same time, it connects the labyrinth of exhibition halls with an inner courtyard. It offers various urban scenarios animated by public functions, such as the temporary exhibition, event hall, library, lecture halls, workshops, bookstore, cafe and other multifunctional spaces, all open to the courtyard. The dialogue between interior and exterior is due to the large areas of glass and exterior natural stone paving that continues inside.
The inner courtyard was lowered one level primarily to evade the chaos of the area given by the universal market, the national bus station, shops and other various public spaces. Thus the present intention becomes the plinth for the exposed past.

The museum is contained in two layers, the upper one is composed of opaque volumes sealed by the layer of ventilated brick with which they are clad, housing the permanent exhibition. Also, the entire assembly is supported by concrete walls. The lower layer being covered by glass, they maintain a permanent dialogue with the city. Its transparency represents the contemporary idea of ​​breaking down the barriers that Bessarabian artists faced in various political contexts.
Finally, the museum responds to the fine arts school next to which it is located, offering five workshops for painting, sculpture, graphic design, ceramics and engraving. All these workshops are open to the inner garden, offering special outdoor work places. This green inner courtyard is also the starting point of a sustainable project, to which is added the accessibility to both streets that open to the museum, the continuation of the garden of the painting school with a space open to the city and the successive opening of the entire volume to the south complete the project with the most important element of a museum, light.

The main atmosphere represents a fragment of a traditional city with various buildings, united by sensitive joints and obviously, by the inner courtyard. The massiveness, monotony and boring repetition of a single volume is avoided, obtaining a controlled and necessary dynamism. The ultimate intention of this project is to merge the new and old buildings to give a sense of continuity and diversity.