Topoi of the 1990s in My Homeland (A Report from the Scene & the Time)

Rather than writing my own personal history, I’d rather use excerpts from texts written back then about some of the iconic figures of the 1990s in Bucharest.

So:

The House of the Republic/People’s Palace/Parliament

The palace, which—along with the dilapidated area surrounding it—was the subject of the “Bucharest 2000” architectural competition, changed its name after the revolution, becoming the darling of parliamentarians. The results of the competition are highly unlikely to make any impression on them. On the contrary. (Not only) they believe, across political divides, that we are dealing with an expression of the Dacian-Roman people’s architectural genius. “The House of the Republic,” however, is also an international smash hit. This architecture is a hit not only with the new green-bellied crowd (weddings, baptisms) but also with the diplomatic elite (symposia, conferences).

The former center of absolute power has, through a roundabout rou