The possibility and failure of reconstruction: two case studies of Văcărești and Cotroceni
The possibility and failure of reconstruction: two case studies of Văcărești and Cotroceni

Summary/Abstract: Accepted as part of the methodological structure of restoration, the reconstruction of the work of art, in its widest sense, from architecture to objects of mobile heritage, was legitimised either by the recovery of the memory of the destroyed heritage, or by the need of integrity of the image, with its many connotations. Also, the reconstruction has been assimilated, more or less abusively, with the act of fanciful reconstruction, of creative remaking or anastylosis. Stimulated today by the possibilities of endless, performant reconstitutions, by means of virtual space, reconstruction seems to get further and further away from one of the fundamental principles that governs the existence of heritage: the principle of authenticity understood as indestructible relationship between the image and the historicized matter in which it survived. This article analyses the dramatic destiny of the two monuments which were destroyed during the communist regime, the church of the Cotroceni Palace and the Văcărești monastic ensemble, in relation to the genesis of the concept of conservation-restoration of historical monuments in the Romanian space.

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