anca trandafi rescu: hot air monument

hot air by anca trandafi rescu piata victoriei, timişoara, romania november 3-7, 2009

hot air is an inflatable and inhabitable head monument created by architect anca trandafi rescu. the piece commemorates twenty years since the communist romanian government was overthrown and it’s leader nicolae ceausescu executed.

‘the inflatable head of a fallen statue will be displayed on the piata victoriei (victory plaza) in timisoara. this location was the site of the first large demonstrations that led to the fall of the ceausescu dictatorship. the inflatable monument will be erected in association with the cityʼs young artists/young democracy expo and the american-romanian music festival. hot air will be a venue for visitation by the public, small concerts, planned talks, and impromptu events. the name hot air refers to both the unusually warm temperatures in romania during that special week in december 1989, which helped to bring citizens out into the streets to rally against the government; and also to the large amount of rhetoric surrounding the events that ensued. an anticipated by-product of the staging of hot air is a video archive of citizen responses to the monument and reflections on the revolutionary events of 1989.’

university of michigan and runs the practice area.architecture in michigan. a romanian by birth, she relocated to the united states in 1973, two years after her family fled the ceausescu dictatorship.   the project is sponsored by the university of michigan departments: weiser center for emerging democracies, center for european studies-european union center, center for russian and east european studies, and taubman college of architecture + urban planning; as well as the city of timisoara.

you can see the design process of ‘hot air’ documented here.