I Love Bucharest brings color to gray city

At a time when more focus is being put on the notion of branding in Romania, a group of young artists is embracing the concept of urban reinvention. Finances may be tight in the current economic climate, but the initiators of the I Love Bucharest program are rich in creativity. Who’s Mitica?, Bucharest metroArt, Book Street and Red Spot are just a few of the projects aimed at giving the city a long awaited and much needed identity.

Corina Dumitrescu

The I Love Bucharest program began life in 2005, since when it has concentrated on the regeneration of the capital city’s public spaces. “It was a group of artists, architects and philosophers who began this project. At the core of the program are two aspects: on one hand, there were the artists who emerge from their studios and become visible to the public (and the best place to achieve that is the public space) and, on the other hand, the fact that Bucharest, as gray as it is, really needed some form of intervention (the only colorful aspect of the city were the aggressive commercials),” says PR manager Mihaela Miron.

The Bucharest metroART project had its first outing in the Gara de Nord subway station, where the walls were painted with the theme of old and new Bucharest, previously chosen by metro passengers and approved by Metrorex, the Romanian subway company. The next stop was Victoriei station, where, so far, only a few projects have drummed up the necessary funding to be implemented. Zebrula was one such. The brainchild of artist Mara Patriche, the program’s artistic coordinator, Zebrula consisted of zebra-like benches in the metro station, indicating the proximity of the Antipa Museum, the National Museum of Natural History. Other projects presented on the program’s website, www.ilovebucharest.org, also supporting Bucharest’s cultural development, are now looking for financing. EUR 350,000 is required, Miron estimates. In order to attract more money, I Love Bucharest has also put on sale a set of postcards depicting images of the capital, created by visual artists, architects, students and Bucharest inhabitants, which are also available for sale on the program’s website.

The Adventures of Mr. Urban is one of the most recent projects in development under the I Love Bucharest umbrella. Illustrations in the form of comic strips, representing Mr. Urban, a character representative of Bucharest, have been painted on the book shelves belonging to the second-hand book sellers who ply their wares in downtown Bucharest, in the Universitate area. The adventures of Mr. Urban will be continued on the monitors in the city’s subway stations from October 15 to November 15.

The Adventures of Mr. Urban project is a sort of continuation of Book Street, a 2007 initiative in the same location, the Universitate area. In its first year the project consisted of banners bearing various quotations by Romanian and international cultural icons and popular traditional sayings from all over the world. As Miron describes it, the project was a success, making the “bouchinists” area at Universitate a point of attraction.

I Love Bucharest might help build an image for a city that has not had a strong identity since the 1940s, when it was perhaps last sincerely called “Little Paris”. Now, if such initiatives can secure the funds, Bucharest has the chance to become a town with its own tradition.

Corina Dumitrescu