2015
Performance, 50min.
The Palace of the Parliament in Bucharest (RO), built during Ceausescu’s regime, is one of the world’s largest and most expensive administrative buildings for civic use. Today, more than a quarter of a century later, the Palace houses the Romanian Parliament, the International Conference Centre, and the National Museum of Contemporary Art (MNAC). It has also become a major tourist attraction, drawing thousands of visitors each day.
A guided tour takes guides visitors through a selection of rooms and introduces them to the vast quantities of marble, crystal, gold leaf, carpets, and other materials that decorate the building. The tour also highlights the Palace’s international rankings in terms of volume and surface area, conveyed through a stream of statistics and comparisons.
44.4275°N 26.0874°E: E4 Wing is a performance-guide that mirrors the format of the official tours, focusing on the E4 Wing, which houses MNAC (The Museum of Contemporary Art). Blurring the lines between sanctioned narrative and critical fiction, the work leads visitors through all five floors of the wing, offering reflections on topics such as furniture, electronics, sonic terror, symbols of power, personal space, and tourist behavior.
Documentation by Maria Draghici (video) and Iulius Costache (photos)
Special thanks to Larisa Crunteanu and Giles Eldridge
Part of The Guide to an Unacceptable Behaviour
ari david 