"towards MNAC"
arrow on the lawn in front of the Museum
The mnac is located in the backside of the "Ceaușescu Palace", while the Romanian Parliament decided a few years ago to move into the front part of the building.
view of the SW
corner of the Palace, with MNAC in the
center
It’s difficult to get to the Museum because its only access serves at the same time as side entrance of the parliamentarians. There is a lot of security everywhere and no parking lots for Museum visitors what so ever. The buildings overwhelming dimensions make it a long foot march to get there.
south fence
While Romanian parliamentarians enjoy the fairy-tale environment of the world’s allegedly second largest building after the Cheop’s pyramid and boast their feelings walking over endless red carpets, the rear side of this huge building is still not entirely finished yet already falling apart.
east "official" or Parliament side
west "backside", view from MNAC terrace
At our first visit to the Museum we saw two guards burning stacks of paper in a rusty oil barrel. They didn’t appreciate having their pictures taken and disappeared into their little booth, taking up their strange occupation sometime after we had left.
When we finally got through the whole security check and had safely deposited our cameras in the cloak room we met Ruxandra Balaci, the Museum's curator and Mihai Oroveanu, its director.
Here is a short summary of what we heard about access to MNAC:
The Museum has a problem with a certain
mentality of the Palace's guards. Namely,
even if there is a decision at the top
that one can move freely in a certain perimeter,
it's ultimately up to the soldier at the
gate.
There's also a clear difference in
behavior between one commanding officer
and another.
It's also the case that our
neighbors from the Parliament find it somewhat
hard to stomach there is art just on the
other side of a wall. I think we are making
progress however.
There is an officer,
a colonel, here that shows some interest
in what we are doing here. They are people
as well. They reside in that part of the
building [shows the South-West wing].
Also,
some of these days, I got a phonecall from
a senator, asking me if it's safe for his
daughter to come here. I think it's a good
beginning. If it was up to me, I would
make a swimming pool here [gestures towards
the bare field behind the palace where
in all likelyhood the humungous National
Salvation Cathedral will be build soon].
In fact, when [Adrian] Năstase [the former
Prime Minister] brokered the deal, when
we were given this space, a promise was
made to carv out separate access for
us. But this never happened, you know how
things go... That's why you had to go through
this whole metal detector nonsense downstairs.
But starting from next week, I'll start
to assert myself more clearly, because
the situation has become intolerable, even
those who work here are harassed.
Regarding Santiago Serra's performance last week,
it is the artist that chose to not let people
get into the building in a larger flux. He wanted them to
enter in smaller group, the difficulties getting in
were part of his concept. I didn't hear that there were
scuffles at the gate.
In order to get an idea how other people
made their way to this somewhat inaccessible
and mostly empty museum we asked several
Bucharest taxi drivers if they knew where
the National Museum of Contemporary Art
is. In each case we followed a consistent
line of questioning. If we noticed an initial
hesitation we "helped" the
driver by narrowing the possible location
of the institution. After asking the "where" question
we asked about what exactly the MNAC might
be about. Finally, we asked in various
forms what the driver thinks about the
whole Parliament House building, sometimes
provoking him by sharing a negative view
of its architecture or history.
Here are
some of the results (the questions themselves
were omitted):
•
Yes, I know the Museum, but it's not at all in the palace. It's near the Atheneum, it has big old paintings.
•
The Museum of what?
Yes, I know, it's near the Hilton Hotel. It's paintings, this kind of stuff. Very many foreigners come there. The building is superb. These guys [the contemporary politicians] didn't build one thing; he [Ceaușescu] gave people work and these new guys didn't do one thing. It's a superb palace.
•
Yes, yes, I know it, it's from the 13th side entrance. I know it because we have a customer that works there.
No, I don't know how she looks like, her father is an architect.
Sometimes she gets a ride to work with us.
No, I can't drive her all the way to the very entrance, it's restricted. I let her out near the pedestrian crossing.
•
The art museum of what?
Wait a minute,
I'll ask the boys over the radio.
Hey guys, do you know where the
National Musuem of Contemporary Art is?
[voice on the radio]:
Yep, it's right in
the Parliament House Building, you need
to get to the Izvor Side entrance.
See, the cab drivers know!
[another voice on the radio]:
Who's asking
about the Museum?
[yet another voice on the radio]:
Marin,
are you nuts, you want to go to a museum
in the middle of the night?
Yessir, it's a big building. Nice? - I don't know what to say. They better use it for something now that it's there.
•
Museum of Art, yes, I know, the entrance
is from behind but it's in the same building
as the Parliament.
They show very modern
art, paintings and such.
•
Don't know, don't think there is a museum there.
•
Yes, there is a museum there, it's made by Ceausescu, very nice. It's huge, many foreigners go there.
•
Not sure about the museum but the building
is amazing.
It is one of the largest in
the world. Can you imagine, about six millions
foreigners have visited it and only one
million of us, Romanians.
Well, I don't
know how many per day that means.
Yes, it's
gotta be after the revolution, before it
was impossible.
I have no idea how many
busses that means.
I don't remember that
many busses in front of the building, ever.
Well,
indeed, it seems like... yes, they said,
I don't remember who, maybe it was six
hundred thousand and not six million.
Anyway,
it's a great building but some don't like
it.
To everyone their taste.
•
No, I don't know.
But do you know that
they are going to build a cathedral back
there? It's going to be big. The priests
are greedy, they have eyes of snakes. It's
said in the scripture. In the parable of
the camel.
No, it's not about the Pharisees,
it's about the rich. Yet, Jesus gives
them a chance. It's not completely impossible
to enter the kingdom of heaven. But the
problem with the Orthodox Church is that
they don't have a pact with God.
•
Don't know.
•
It's accessible through the same gate as the parliament but the parliament is off-limits to visits, of course. It's part of the Parliament building. You have to see it, it's a beautiful building. You can take a guided tour. They are doing contemporary art things with foreigners there.
•
Sorry, don't know. But I think it must be a mistake; if there would be a museum there I would know it.
•
______________________________
resources:
location
file for the People's Palace (you
will need GoogleEarth -
a free download to see satelite imagery)
MNAC official site
