The Marcel Guguianu Exhibition Pavilion (Pavilionul Expozițional Marcel Guguianu) is an art museum in Bârlad dedicated to the work of sculptor Marcel Guguianu, one of the city’s best-known artists. Opened in 2004, it was created specifically to house the large collection of sculptures, drawings, models and personal objects that Guguianu donated to Bârlad.
The museum developed from a major donation made by Guguianu in 1997, when he offered the Vasile Pârvan Museum a substantial body of his work together with furniture, documents and objects from his studio. His condition was that the collection should be displayed in a museum bearing his name. The pavilion opened seven years later and was enlarged in 2008 to provide additional exhibition space.
The collection ranges from small studies to monumental sculpture and includes works in marble, bronze, terracotta and plaster. Drawings, exhibition posters, photographs, documents, tools and personal belongings help place the sculptures within Guguianu’s working life, while part of his studio environment has also been recreated. Several larger marble works are displayed outside in the museum garden.
The pavilion forms part of the Vasile Pârvan Museum and is one of the relatively few Romanian museums devoted primarily to a single sculptor. The pavilion also houses the Bârlad Planetarium, which opened in 2010 as part of the museum’s astronomy section. The pavilion was enlarged in 2008, and part of the building was adapted the following year for a digital planetarium. Opened in 2009, it projects simulations of the night sky and astronomy films onto a dome and accommodates groups of up to 35 visitors.
