A trip around the world in pandemic times? Architecture journalist Wojciech Czaja shows us how this can be done without going too far from home. From the first period of quarantine (“lockdown”), from the spring of 2020, riding a Vespa scooter, he began to explore Vienna, the place where he lives, and where he discovered countless buildings, ornaments, spaces reminiscent of other cities from the globe, from large international metropolises. The result of this journey is revealed in the highly successful exhibition “Almost. A trip around the world to Vienna”, which can be seen in Iasi thanks to the collaboration between the Classix Festival, the Braunstein Palace and the Austrian Cultural Forum.

The exhibition can be visited between February 21 and March 1 at Braunstein Palace (Str. Cuza Vodă 2). The opening on February 21, at 2 p.m., will be held in the presence of the deputy director of the Austrian Cultural Forum, Andrei Popov.

Bucharest, Timișoara, Paris, Istanbul, a temple in Tibet and even the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. Or almost… And all in Vienna! Responding to many people’s desire to escape from an unsettling everyday life, the photography project Almost, made at first with a simple mobile phone, became both viral and a bestseller. In the midst of a pandemic, the Almost volume. 100 Cities in Vienna proved to be a clever means of deceiving fate, with a lot of humour and wit. “Wojciech Czaja’s photos are pure magic in a tight moment. They teach us that the end is not near, but far away,” wrote the Süddeutsche Zeitung with enthusiasm.

In addition to the already mentioned album, an exhibition was also created, which was presented both at the Wien Museum (Vienna City Museum), as well as in Krakow, Zagreb, Zadar, Vukovar and Bucharest. Her presence in Iasi is possible thanks to the collaboration between the Classix Festival, the Braunstein Palace and the Austrian Cultural Forum. The story you will discover in the photographs in the “Almost” exhibition is the expression of the aspiration to (re)see lands on other meridians. But beyond that, what really surprises is the very revelation that the desire to travel far can sometimes be fulfilled even within a radius of only ten kilometers around one’s home.

“I miss traveling so much! Yes, I still roam, but on a smaller scale. It’s just that, in the meantime, I can barely move around Vienna without my mind turning on the Almost mechanism. I’m always observing, searching, finding, matching and associating,” says Wojciech Czaja.

Born in 1978 in Ruda Śląska, Poland, Wojciech Czaja is a passionate traveller and urban explorer who has already visited over 70 countries. He lives in Vienna and works as a freelance journalist and writer, producing materials on architecture and urban culture for numerous publications, such as the prestigious daily Der Standard. His most recent books are “Hektopolis. A Guide to a Hundred Cities” (2018), “Almost. 100 cities in Vienna” (2020) and “Almost 2. A trip around the world in Vienna” (2021).