'Summarizing cities. European Squares and Their Histories'
By Mariam Chanishvili
Thursday, May 30
'Summarizing cities. European Squares and Their Histories', the exhibition by Georgian National Museum (GNM) was opened at Tbilisi History Museum on May 28.
The exhibition presents a change of perspective regarding European urban squares. It will be available until June 10.
Taken with a professional drone, the photographs of the exhibition, taken from the air, show the squares of several historical European cities, famous squares of capitals, from the geographical edges of Europe. There are numerous studies, documentaries, and exhibitions about individual squares, there have been few attempts at offering a broad, continental perspective.
“The novelty of the exhibition is represented by The Change of Perspective: due to the relatively recent character of this photographing technique, an exhibition that contains aerial shots of historical European squares, and which uses them as a red thread, represents a novel endeavor,” reads the description of the exposition.
The exhibition is double-sided: architectural, but also anthropological, because the square is understood as a living place of the European city, space which brings together both the community and the history of the city.
The project author, Catalin D. Constantin, is a book publisher, who teaches ethnology and anthropology at the Faculty of Letters, the University of Bucharest. He has coordinated several literature collections and has edited many photography books dedicated to Romanian cultural heritage. Also, he has organized numerous photography exhibitions, both in Romania and abroad.
The project is supported by the Georgian National Museum, Embassy of Romania in Georgia, the Order of Architects in Romania – OAR and Romanian Presidency of the Council of the European Union and is implemented in several European cities.
The Order of Romanian Architects (OAR) is responsible for representing and promoting the domain of architecture in Romania.
The Presidency of the Council of the European Union is responsible for the functioning of the Council of the European Union, the upper house of the EU legislature. It rotates among the member states of the EU every six months. The goal is to facilitate dialogue both at Council meetings and with other EU institutions. Romania currently holds the presidency.
