Brâncusi Ensemble

The Brâncusi Ensemble was commissioned by the Women's League of Gorj, Romania, to honor the soldiers who defended Târgu Jiu against a German force in 1916. The park was erected in 1934, but poor maintenance and even purposeful destruction during the communist era took their toll. The Ensemble’s inclusion in the World Monuments Fund’s 1996 Watch List, with support from the Romanian government and the World Bank, enabled this restoration project.

The quadripartite Ensemble runs along a single axis from the Table of Silence–where visitors gather to honor the fallen–to the Gate of the Kiss, past the stone seating along the Voice of Heroes all the way to the Endless Column, which leads the way for the fallen souls to climb to heaven.

The lighting scheme emphasizes this linear narrative while highlighting the individual moments along the axis. Lighting is emotionally charged, capturing intimate encounters with the sculptures. It casts dramatic shadows and emphasizes the seemingly endless column by fading out toward the top, allowing the column to disappear into the night sky. The consistent, ubiquitous lighting in the Table and Gate Park is the tree canopy lighting; lights in the tree canopy along the entire path of the Park highlight the foliage and branches. This is punctuated by pole lights placed where the path widens to create resting areas, allowing the lighting to follow the same rhythm as that of the landscape architecture.