Doctoral defense of Alina Cristea

Bucharest—The City with One Inhabitant. The City-Me explores the idea of the city-me: a deeply personal connection between an individual and the city that shapes their identity. Inspired by Mircea Cărtărescu’s reflection—who described Bucharest not just as his city, but as “the city I” (orașul eu in Romanian)—Alina Cristea, a Bucharest-born visual artist, develops this idea further into a lens for artistic research and self-reflection.

Through autobiographical experience, visual practice, cultural analysis, archival study, and speculative reconstruction, Bucharest emerges as both a lived place and an inner landscape—one that the author mentally inhabits, and that inhabits her in return. The city-me intertwines personal memory, collective history, and political context, offering an intimate account of shared urban experience.

Rooted in Bucharest but shaped by migration, Alina’s research introduces the concept of the city-me to explore how urban attachment persists beyond physical residence and influences diasporic identity. Although grounded in a single city, this idea resonates with anyone who carries a city within them—one embedded in memory, habits, personal mapping, and the formation of the self.

The research will be available as a limited-edition book. You can pre-order your copy here.