Temporary exhibition “Twisted Histories - Rewritten Destinies. The Built Heritage of Bucharest under the Communist Regime”

Authors’ Comment

The temporary exhibition within the historic monument of Cotroceni Palace entitled "Twisted Histories - Rewritten Destinies: The Built Heritage of Bucharest under the Communist Regime" is limited to the Medieval Spaces of the Museum located on the ground floor, covering an area of approximately 200 square meters.

The exhibition concept involves targeted interventions with transparent or kinetic display elements, aimed at visually conveying the constant process of change that the heritage underwent during the communist era or overlapping its various manifestations. From the process through which the residences of prominent personalities before the regime were assigned to officials or occupied by multiple families simultaneously, to their complete destruction, the exhibition design illustrates how the space has been fragmented and irreversibly altered and how the societal changes of that time complicate today’s process of recovering historical and architectural heritage. Bucharest is analyzed through these lenses, being a city profoundly marked by the new communist aesthetic.
The exhibition route focuses on the Cotroceni Ensemble, where various heritage objects are designed to be displayed integrated into transparent panels, as emptied objects, suspended in dedicated niches. Following this, there is a kinetic installation that alters the visitor's relationship with the space, both fragmenting and completing it through movement. Then, the two elements—the illuminated totem and the plexiglass cylinder—scenographically enhance the presentation of the stories of people and homes on the display panels. The exhibition concludes with a multimedia installation of holographic projection that will overlay images or archival films.