Arts Lab 4.0: Month III, Cihan - Cucuteni

The subject of work of our art team this month was "Cucuteni Community".  What is Cucuteni? To put it briefly, it is one of the oldest civilizations in Europe dating from 5300-3200 BC. It got its name from the village of the same name, near Romania - Iaşi. It is a civilization whose first remains were discovered in 1884. There is not much information available about this community so far because this community sets its homes on fire at certain intervals throughout its life processes. And then they rebuild everything. It is known as a community that does not fight and focuses on art. I examined some of the craft products realized and discovered by this society in the museums we visited for our studies. 

It was a very enjoyable process for me. The many wonderful symbols used on the pottery caught my attention the most. And then I tried to learn the meanings of these symbols. After we got enough information about the Cucuteni community, we held meetings with our art team to see how we can introduce this community to people more creatively. Great creative ideas emerged. 

I was curious about the music of this society. I started to think about what kind of music these people were making. And the stones... Yes, I started to think that maybe a musician in the Cucuteni civilization tried to make music with stones. I could introduce Cucuteni to people through the sound of stones. 

Afterward, we took walks with our teammates in the areas where the first ruins were found, in the hills of Cucuteni village or in Adâncata, in Târgu Frumos. And I gathered natural stones, herbs, and bushes from those lands. It was a somewhat cold and tiring day. But the result was something beautiful that made me smile. Among many stones, I carefully chose the ones with different tones. And I started playing my first primitive instrument. 

Then we introduced this community to primary and secondary school students by conducting workshops. And we did art activities. And today is the day of meeting all our work with people. We are excited. 

Cihan is from Turkey and he is doing a long-term volunteering project in our organisation, under Arts Lab 4.0, a project funded by the European Solidarity Corps, a programme of the European Union.