“Bucharest: maps on the move” in Madrid

The exhibition “Bucharest: maps on the move”, which depicts the history of the ever-changing capital, is presented by the Bucharest Municipal Museum in the Maruja Mallo Exhibition Hall (Retiro) in Madrid from January 12 to February 5.

For the last two hundred years, Bucharest has been an arena of confrontations between the “new” and the “old”, between the oriental city that stubbornly persisted and the modern city that struggled to take shape, write curators Adrian Majuru and Dan Pîrvulescu. The exhibition illustrates this tension and the different perspectives on Bucharest, from the Belle Epoque period, as reflected in the documentary material provided by the Bucharest Municipal Museum, to the city’s current face, in all its details, captured by photographer Dragos Asaftei.

The process of modernization of Bucharest began in the 19th century, being known in this sense the building-urbanistic successes of mayors Pake Em. Protopopescu (1888-1891), Barbu Ștefănescu Delavrancea (1899-1901) and Mihail I. Cantacuzino (1901-1906), and was continued in the first part of the 20th century. Mayor Dem I. Dobrescu (1929-1934) tried to give a new urban definition to Bucharest. His work was continued during the “Bucharest Month” (May 9 – June 9), which started in 1935 and ended in 1940.

In the photographs of 32-year-old Dragoș Asaftei, on the one hand, the timeless atmosphere of the winters and nights of Bucharest brings to life the fragrance of the interwar period and the grandeur of the symbolic monuments. On the other, the exhibition celebrates the energy of a living, modern and vibrant European city.

Photo (c) Bucharest City Museum archive