Hill. Reenactment

Hill. Reenactment is a participatory art project that acknowledges the irreversible losses caused by the totalitarian demolitions of the 1980s in Bucharest, bringing to the fore the story of the former Arsenal Hill, where the National Museum of Contemporary Art now stands. A large-scale sculptural model reproduces its topography at a 1:500 scale.

Concrete fragments of the model were carried by participants through the former demolished neighbourhoods (now Izvor Park) up to the museum housed within Ceaușescu's People's Palace. The route symbolically retraced, in reverse, the forced exodus of the 1980s, also evoking the absurd relocation of churches on railway tracks. The heavy concrete slabs were then laid on a bed of salvaged bricks, forming a hexagonal puzzle in front of the museum. A missing fragment at the centre suggests the impossibility of full reconstruction.

While the terracotta-coloured 'hill' remained outside, voices from the past resonated through the museum's passageways – a sound piece based on interviews with former inhabitants. Films document participatory actions in Izvor Park: a dinner on the site of a vanished house, film screenings, the making of the 'hill' and its journey through the city – ways of reimagining a once-inhabited space.

Left outside through winter, the object withstood the elements. In spring, cracks filled with spontaneously growing plants. The 'hill' became a living, resilient organism, a semi-permanent monument to the demolished districts.