Arts Lab 4.0: Month III, Maja Mörchen - Enjoying

Now I have spent three months in Romania. Meaning that half of my time here is up. We try to extend the project until April so maybe I’ll have a little more time. But I don’t want to think about leaving now. Even though I miss home and my friends and family it feels like every day I am arriving more. Slowly and hesitantly, I started growing roots also in this place and the thought of leaving forever, of this opportunity and experience ending is haunting. But right now, I am here and I want to stay in the present or for this report look into the past month.

My last report left of near the end of our Folklore Museum. Since then, we said goodbye to Petru Rareș high-school and had our final exhibition in the ACT House as well as a Caravan in another village. Even though my final product was different than I might have pictured it in the beginning and the process was sometimes chaotic, I am proud of the result. Together with Petru Rareș students we embroidered on eight pieces of clothing inspired by traditional patterns and clothes. I am also happy with the photo shoot of the clothes and the presentation of all of us artists and our works in a catalogue. For the final exposition we invited local people to our youth center exhibited our works and did workshops and performances. A very nice even exhausting event with positive feedback. As a caravan we did similar workshops with school in another village.

After Folklore we started working towards Cucuteni museum and we are already close to the final exhibition. After some planning and learning about this civilization, we facilitated workshops at a local middle school. My favorite part in the preparing was the day we visited an old archaeological site in Târgu Frumos as well as the unfortunately closed museum in Cucuteni. The nature in both of those places was beautiful. In my work I want to focus on the clothes of Cucuteni. With the students I let them imagine their own Cucuteni outfits, created some jewellery and showed them the technique of weaving. The Cucuteni already produced woven fabrics and we wanted to recreate that. The result is a long belt or scarf made out of a lot of small woven pieces created by the students. Right now, we are preparing for the final exhibition and I am very excited to see the finished works created by my fellow volunteers.

Between all of this we also had the Italian night. A fun and informative event with delicious food. I enjoyed spending this evening with local and international volunteers.

Of course, not the whole month was filled with work. We didn’t do a big trip this month but besides multiple trips to Iași I also visited Roman where I especially liked the park. Also, there were two important holidays: my birthday was on the 21th of November. There was no big party but I spend it surrounded by good people and making and eating delicious gnocchi so I was happy. It also showed me how connected I still am to my home or how connected it still is to me, despite the physical distance. Here a big thank you not only to my family and friends but also to the Romanian post. The other, a bit less important day was the 1rst of December, the national holiday of Romania. I spent it in Iași where I got to see a little of the celebrations and even more Romanian flags than usual. It was also the day the Christmas lights got turned on and I rode the Ferris wheel. Overall, a really special atmosphere.

Christmas is getting closer also in other ways. We didn’t decorate nearly as much as we planned to do but after a very nice invitation, we spend a day in perfect Christmas atmosphere making and decorating candles and I still need to get a gift for the Secret Santa we are doing together. It’s also interesting to see the similarities and differences between Romanian and German traditions. Another thing that really adds to the Christmas vibes is the snow. I really appreciate it, despite the cold that comes with it.

Overall, I enjoyed this month. I kind of wish I had traveled more but we were busy and I also need to learn to let myself rest and enjoy what is. My resolution from last month to focus more on language learning didn’t really get fulfilled, we unfortunately didn’t have time for Romanian lessons and I don’t really have the commitment for independent learning. Right now, I am looking forward to going home for Christmas and reconnecting with friends and family. I think I will come back from it with new energy and ideas.

Maja Mörchen is from Germany and she is doing a long-term volunteering project in our organisation, under Arts Lab 4.0, a project funded by European Solidarity Corps @suntsolidar.eu, a programme of the European Union.