Arts Lab 6.0: Ella Maillard - First month
As I start to write this report, my mind wanders backwards, trying to reach the start: 15th of September, the day of my arrival. It seems so far away now! So many events separate me from that sunny morning on which I saw the hills of Buznea for the very first time (I didn’t even know their names then…). So many memories, laughter and lessons since that first afternoon when Cosmina helped me to make cozonac because at the Penny my eye caught the packaging for that brioche my grandmother used to bake for me.
If I had to summarize everything in a word, it would be “puzzle”. This month for me has been a very profound experience of discovering for the first time this country that holds my origins, the country of my mother and grandparents. These weeks have been the occasion for me to trace my roots and to understand where do all these smells, these sounds, these attitudes that built my childhood (and part of my identity) really come from, to put each piece in its place (and I’m still collecting them). Each walk, each interaction and activity in contact with the Romanian community somehow resonated with something I didn’t know how to name nor put into conscience before. It resonated with something deep inside as I felt that not only I was reconnecting with Romania, but through me my mother and grandmother were too. I feel very sensitive here, and inhabited by so many emotions that I sometimes struggle to process because of lack of time and personal space. I am very grateful I can go through all this though, as I know it’s part of the growing and healing process.
The first days of Arts Lab 6.0 were dedicated to the on arrival. It was long and tiring to stay four hours in front of the computer, but we already complained too much about that so I’m not going to add on. In reality, it was also a good opportunity for me to embroider wine leaves and to experiment with fabric before our first workshop for the craftsmen’s fair. On Saturday we installed our tables on the main square and I got to play with needles with three generations of (mostly) women, weaving a sense of community as we intertwined all of our threads. It made me very proud and honored to realize that I was teaching some of the kids how to stitch for the first time in their lives! Somehow it felt so cyclical because my Romanian grandmother taught me how to sew, and here was I, the French girl trying my best to guide the Moldovan girls with my few words of Romanian.
The second week we started to prepare the JEMOM residency. We visited the Jewish cemetery and did that Mission Impossible game that I really enjoyed. When we returned at home everything was ready for the Romanian night: Cosmina, Mircea, Iasmina, Călin, all the Romanian volunteers had prepared so much, what a nice surprise!
This week was also the first trip to Iasi (I unfortunately can’t find out how to put the little thingy under the “s” with my French computer). This memorable Thursday we visited the Cuza university (the guardian was so nice to us and let us enter in the amphitheater and the library), the French Institute for the day of European languages, the Pogrom museum and George’s gallery. It was a very full day but a very fun day as well, and it felt as if new horizons were opening to us as we discovered how we could take the train from Târgu Frumos. We wrote a little song about this specific moment, here are the lyrics in exclusivity:
This means that I woke up happy
Looking at each other faces and I see excitement
Târgu Frumos feels like home now
We’re living all together like family
Oh look a cow! She’s sleeping under the clouds
Oh look a cloud! It looks like a cow!
We were going to Iași and we really couldn’t wait
Savane is throwing a stone and it rings like the bones
Today we’re not going by car, we’re sitting in a wagon but it’s so so far
The train arrived, where’s everyone ? We don’t want anyone to miss the fun
Oh wait, I think Kristers went to the toilet, “But here he comes!”
Sinem wears her yellow shirt, on her ears Sponge Bob is smiling,
To the big city we go, to show off our stylish clothing
We are sitting at the tracks but the train was late
We were going to Iași and we really couldn’t wait.
Then started the Moldova episode, full of bonces and intensity. We met the kids on a Friday and I think we all were intimidated and stressed out. I teamed up with Yasser and we organized a theater workshop in which we incorporated some voice and body exercises. The idea was to stage a play about the death train, making it as corporal as possible. On the first day we had two students (in reality three but Vlăduț was both within and without, he liked to run and to hug, and especially to run away with our phones), which was perfect because we could really focus on the needs of each one. We realized quickly that some of the activities we wanted to do were just not going to happen, we really had to take everyone by the hand to dance and to accompany each movement in the space. But eventually Nicu and Cătălin began to perform a scene we invented for them and the feeling of joy and pride of that moment was so pure and great that we jumped into each other’s arms and shouted with Yasser, I will keep this memory fondly.
The next day I went to Iași with Mihaela and let Yasser manage 6 kids by himself (he did amazing). We attended the seminar organized by the French Institute and I helped to present Super Tineri and Arts Lab. It was a long day that drained a lot of energy (we came back to Act House after midnight) but somehow it was also flowy and it felt as if we were at the right place at the right moment, guided by protective forces. Let me explain: we got the train in the morning just on time, and Călin popped up out of nowhere without his beard. Of course, when we sat on the last train to go back to Târgu Frumos, another Romanian volunteer was sitting in front of us, this time with a very long beard (apparently, he is part of the gentlemen’s club of Iași) (second parenthesis, thinking back on it maybe he stole Călin’s beard). Other maybe irrelevant but coincidental and magic element: during our late night walk home, three street dogs toddled around in front of us. So, it felt as if we were escorted all throughout the day. Even if somehow stressful, this trip to Iași was also full with positive moments: we went to this Negru café to listen to a podcast about ecological alternatives, and there we met Vlad, who made a silent documentary about the primary forests of Romania and who completely inspired me. I really want to visit him in Poiana cu Cetate one day. We went to Cuib and chatting with everyone actually made me feel energized and somehow funny: before applying to Arts Lab I was interviewed to be an intern at the Romanian French Institute and there I was with all my parallel world colleagues, so happy to be in this reality that corresponds better to my needs.
After this, however, my batteries were worn out and I went through a few difficult days. I was completely sick and didn’t have time to recover fully, I felt overstimulated and overwhelmed by the 14 people around me at all times. Călin brought me to the doctor and I spent a full day in bed, and slowly things went better. I also took a good quantity of alone time and spent an afternoon in Iași for the night of the galleries. We also had some calm and quiet moments with the guys at a café, it felt very soothing and comforting.
I forgot to mention Dănuț and Oana and that day we spent in Todirești and even if I still have a lot to tell and this doesn’t really come in chronological order, I don’t want to forget the communal museum and the 20 min. advertisement we did with Yasser and Saleh for the restaurant, nor the sunset on the hills of Cucuteni afterwards, and our discovery of Mihaela’s “palace” (we’re waiting for the jacuzzi in 2028). This paragraph becomes a necessary appreciation of random memories so here’s some more: the intimacy of the balcony, dancing and singing “Made in Romania”, falling asleep in front of every (literally every) movie nights, no matter the amount of snacks.
As October started we celebrated Yasser and Saleh’s birthdays, and Folcloristica became a thing. We visited Tătăruși and were invited in the mayor office and somehow there I could understand what was said in Romanian very clearly, which made me happy and hopeful because I wish with all my heart to be fluent in my mother tongue one day. For the workshop I teamed up with Salma for ceramics and something important happened: the opening of the Ceramic studio, in other words, a cocoon of quiet and peace and the promise of endless hours with clay. I spent a whole day there to prepare little slabs for the kids to carve folkloristic symbols on, Salma wedged a loot of rock hard clay. I drew a bit in the sun in front of the studio, and this felt like paradise.
Then of course the festival in itself: the visit of the crafters and the forest, the singing at the restaurant, THE guy, our moments on stage and the proud discourses of the mayor, being on TV, the forest again and blowing in a bucium with the shepherds, the dances and the spectacles, being part of the jury and tasting all the specialties, singing again, admiring Heleșteni’s coats, dancing again, making postcards, feeling blessed to be there.
On Sunday night I took the train and started a very important journey for me: I went to Constanța and Cernavodă to meet my Romanian family for the first time, the ones that stayed and didn’t migrate to France forty years ago. But to tell this I need another ten pages and this report is already too long, let’s just say that living this made me feel connected and crossed by a thousand feelings as I was unveiling a fundamental part of the history of the people I love the most.
See you in a month for other adventures.
Report written by Ella Maillard, she's from France and she's one of the 14 volunteers participating in Arts Lab 6.0, a project co-funded by the European Union through the European Solidarity Corps program.
.jpg)
Post a Comment