Cazarma U, Art Encounters
The city of Timisoara in Romania hosted the first Art Encounters in 2015. The exhibitions are shown in barracks from the 19 hundreds. A restoration of these barracks was needed to give a suitable surrounding for the art projects. The brick Poroton has been used, due to its great characteristics. The size of the bricks helped reducing steps in the building process due to easy justifications. The main focus of this installation is to show how much strength can be built out of such simple materials.
The city of Timisoara is located in the north west of Romania and hosted the first Art Encounters Timisoara in 2015. This show presents modern local art from the 1960s until now. The exhibitions are spread over the whole city, not only in well know museums and art galleries, but also in public facilities, factory halls and old u-shaped barracks from the 19 hundreds. The barracks are specifically used for art projects and hold several gallery exhibitions. A low budget was assigned for the restoration of these barracks to give a suitable surrounding for the art projects. Social rooms like the inner courtyard were meant to be created. This was a special challenge as the barracks don ́t offer any social rooms like an entrance or foyer. There is only a simple hallway from the street leading to the courtyard. Basically the barracks have become a ruin, as there are not even any windows left. It is a mere shell to host exhibitions.
The barracks have been stripped of the outer layer of plaster and showed their clay bones, which give a clear sign of power and stability. The different flooring materials of in and outdoor rooms have to be taken into account, as they have not been matched over the last 100 years. To give the whole room, indoors and courtyard, a wholesome feeling of unity one floor has to be used for all rooms. A light grey gravel has been chosen for the floor to create a strong unite look. For the entrance situation an object, half wall half bench has been designed to serve serveral purposes. It provides a wall to create a centre space and show entrance and exit. The object as bench gives the room a social criteria and useful end. Two long walls have been built in front of the house to exit the town area. They are each 60 metres long and 2.4 metres high. The two walls are meeting at the entrance point. The inner centre is created by 4 corned walls (108 metres long) which show the entrance to the exhibitions. The planned free space in the centre is meant to be resting area and social meeting point at the same time.
The wall object was planned to resemble the walls of the barracks, but still stand out. The modern brick Poroton has been used, due to his light weight and bigger size compared to the barracks ́ bricks. The wall has only been painted in a light white to still show the surface of the bricks. To guarantee a needed stability the back site of the wall is built in layers. Additionally this adds a certain differentiation to the outside look. The biggest advantage of the Poroton brick is its insulating characteristic which serves all energetic requirements. This however is not important for this special project as the exhibition only takes place in autumn. The bigger size of the bricks helped reducing the building process due to simple processing and easy justifications. The bricks here have only been fixated with a light mortar level to reuse them afterwards.
The material bricks serves even more purposed suggesting different building times, from the develepment of the old barracks in the same material to the reuse of them later. The creates an additional art character to the project. The main focus of this installation however is to show how much power and strength can be built out of such a small amout of materials.
