Arts Lab 5.0: Dajana Zharassov, Germany - Month 3

Hello again! Welcome to my third month report here in Romania.

The third month started with an exciting trip to Moldova where we spent 5 days organizing workshops based on Romanian folklore.

My workshop consisted out in learning Romanian folklore embroidery through playing the memory cards that I designed and also doing some drawings to either the Song Hora Din Moldova or Trandafir de la Moldova. But after some time we saw that we had a lot of drawing workshop so I changed it asking them what symbol and meaning they would pick to sew on their blouses to tell their life story or their wishes for their life just like the women in older times. They picked a symbol, drew it on a paper and wrote about their feelings and their symbol. 

On the first day in Moldova we went to Fălești and visited an amazing local art school where we met the really nice and talented director and artist himself. We also visited a folklore museum with an amazing collection of historical and folkloric things such as the blouses and weaved carpets. We ended the day with some beer and dried fish.

The second day started with us visiting the Orheiul Vechi historical museum. I have to say that I really loved this village because the houses looked beautiful and were painted in amazing colors. We also got scammed a little to pay more for the traditional food lol but I have to say that the food was absolutely amazing. In the evening we also visited the monastery on the mountain, which was one of my favorite places to visit in Moldova since we saw the old caves where the Monastics lived in. We also made our wishes by putting a coin into the wall stone next to it. A memory that I cherish deeply.

The hotel in which we stayed that day was my absolute favorite of the trip because we stayed in a beautiful traditional house and ate our dinner by a nice fireplace.
In the next morning we went up the mountain again to visit the church. This was the first church but I must say that Moldova has really beautiful churches. After this we went to Trușeni to host workshops in the house of culture. In the evening we went around the village and visited their famous church, which looked breathtaking. I think I have never seen a church look so beautiful from the inside. We got some traditional masks as a present that day which I appreciate deeply.

The last village that we visited was Puhăceni and we held the workshops in a historical building that they are restoring right now and after that we visited the border to Transnistria, which was interesting. We met the nicest mayor there and a group sang some traditional Christmas songs to us and we had an amazing time together.

Our last day was in Chișinau where we held workshops in the Waldorf school. After this we went to an artist meet to network where we met some amazing and nice local artists. The traffic in Chișinău is the most crazy one I have ever got to experience.

I have to say the Moldova trip was really tiring considering that worked and traveled from place to place all days and me having a cold most of the trip. But I am really happy because we met a lot of amazing people and I practiced to work fast under stress and be flexible, so I am really glad that I went.

After we came back from Moldova, me and Carla continued to work on the Cucuteni short film project, which was our shared personal project. It was a bit hard because we had a lot of wood and stones which were our props to carry to the big hill near the forest in Târgu Frumos. I also have to thank my dear friends Sena, Raph, Hajer and Violeta because they stayed to film in the costumes even though it was really really cold. I helped Carla with the planning and filming and also took some photography which I later turned into little posters.

I also did my own personal project which were Scannograhy cards based on the 8 phases of the moon which are: explorer, creator, leadership, philosophy, revolution, wisdom, empathy, mysticism. Scannography is a type of Photography which you do with a scanner and using this I created multi-media art. I also wrote short poems connecting each phase with how the Cucuteni could have lived for example being a creator.

After this we had the Cucuteni exhibition day which I think was a success. My workshop consisted out of the visitors writing down their feelings as a poem by either choosing one of the 8 phases cards or by choosing one of the Cucuteni symbols.

We also started the residency at the Moldova school with the visually impaired children. At first I wanted to make my own workshop where we would create an audio-book by doing poems and stories. But I am collaborating with Aliye now which I am really excited for because her workshop was about creating sound effects so the poems and stories will have effects added to them now. I have one boy in my workshop named Cosmin and I am really thankful because he's doing an amazing job even though we mostly communicate through google translate ha ha.

Me and my friends also spent a day ice skating in Iași which I enjoyed a lot. I love the snow here!

Soon there will be the winter holidays. Enjoy the festivities everyone and I am excited for the new year 2024. Being in this project has already changed me as a person and opened me up to many things even tough only half of it already ended. I am thankful for being here, for this opportunity and to have met my wonderful friends and all the other people along the way.

Guten Rutsch in das neue Jahr from your German volunteer!

Dajana Zharassov is from Germany, and she is participating in a six-month volunteering program within Arts Lab 5.0, a project co-funded by the European Union through the European Solidarity Corps.