Arts Lab 3.0: Leire Saenz - Mixed feelings

Coming back from home got me feeling in a really strange way. I never felt like that. I found myself stuck between to realities, two worlds. I felt as an outsider coming back home, and I felt as an outsider when I came back here. Nevertheless, I felt really thankful that I was able to spend the Christmas time with my family and friends, to stay away from work and focus on resting and taking care of myself, which I sometimes found and still find hard to do here.

In January we all worked really close for Cucuteni Alternativ project; we worked as a team. When I have been asked about how it was working on a local cultural heritage project, I said that it was a learning experience for me, in 3 different ways. First of all, being part of this project allowed me to get closer to Cucuteni culture, and Romanian history. This was really important to me as I feel we kind of owe to Romania, for being our home for the last 8 months, to learn about it. Second of all, as we finally got the chance to work together and to collaborate and make art together, I learned a lot about all my teammates. Being the one in charge of documenting the process and the making of Cucuteni Alternativ, I worked really close to the girls, which gave me the opportunity to understand them as people and their art from a closer and deeper point of view. I enjoyed this really much, I find it really interesting to capture people while they are working and not so much when they are posing. Of course, being part of this project, and working in a completely different way made me step out of my comfort zone, and I learned about myself as a person and as an artist.

All the people involved in the project were incredibly tired during this month. We worked so hard for achieving what we had in our head, to build the perfect experiential museum.

Not so much more happened during the month of January. It was really nice to finally see the local volunteers again after such a long time, and I realized how much they had changed in just one month. I started to think on how different we all will look after I leave Romania and I come back to visit, after some months.

I have mixed feelings about finishing the project next month. I feel the need to distance myself from it, to rest and to focus in other things. At the same time, feeling that this adventure is coming to an end makes me feel sad. Saying goodbye to everyone, to Romania, to the girls and the house feels not real. I am happy I got to experience this, and I cannot wait to see what my last month here will bring...

An article written by Leire Saenz Quevedo. She is volunteering within Arts Lab 3.0 project, funded by European Solidarity Corps, with the support of European Union.