Arts Lab 6.0: Rahaf Ghanam - Month 4

Hello everyone, and welcome to my third monthly report from Romania, specifically from Arts Lab 6.0.

We started this month with our trip to Bucharest to attend the mid-term training, as we all took the train together, capturing some memorable photos and videos along the way.  While we were excited and happy, we were also sad to bid farewell to our friends Katerina and Kristers, who unfortunately had to leave the program for personal reasons. However, we had one last trip together to Bucharest, and I wish them all the best and success in their lives, and I hope we meet again someday.

At around 7 am, we arrived at the Ibis Styles hotel, which was very wonderful and fancy. We were lucky enough to be allowed to check in early, although we had to wait more than 6 hours for the check-in time, they were kind enough to let us rest in our designated rooms immediately, which were elegant and tidy, with simple and creative decorations. 

It was my first experience staying in a hotel with my own private room, and it was wonderful to have some time and space to myself, especially in such an elegant hotel in the amazing city of Bucharest!

In the evening, we had dinner together at the hotel restaurant, where the food was so delicious. 

We started getting to know colleagues from other programs. I also met one of my friends in Bucharest, who took me on a car tour, showing me the most important and famous buildings and landmarks there. He was very friendly and generous with his information about each one.

The next day, we started our first sessions of the mid-term training with Soukaina, Savane, and Ziad, in the same team with me, along with many colleagues from other programs of various nationalities. 

The atmosphere was nice and peaceful, and the trainers tried to present the training information and topics through activities and games. They asked us to perform some tasks in groups, where we did drawing, writing, dancing, designing, and other diverse activities. 

We also watched each other’s videos. Everyone’s videos were special, but of course, not as much as our video, with all due modesty 😎. We realized how packed our schedule programme is with tasks and things to do compared to other programs, which had plenty of free time in their schedules.

Regarding the training program, it was very well-designed. Just when you start to feel bored, it’s time for a coffee break☕, plus lunch, and we finished by 7 p.m. with dinner. 

We decided to hang out together to discover the city of Bucharest with some friends from other programs, spent some time at a pub, and then returned to the hotel. 

I hosted some of them in my room, where we played various games, listened to music, and got to know each other better. I made many good friends, such as Stella, Anne, and Nane from Armenia, Pehla from Finland, Daniel and Ştefan from Romania, Dania, an Italian/Cameroonian, Joshua from Belgium, and many friends from Germany, Sweden, and other countries.

The next day, we attended the training session, and the second half of the day involved performing some tasks outside in groups. My friend Soukaina was in my group, along with our friends Pehla from Finland and Nane from Armenia. We enjoyed performing the tasks very much, conducting interviews with the local people, making many cute videos together, exploring Bucharest, taking some memorable photos, then we returned to the hotel for dinner. 

And we went to a party with the rest of our friends, where we met new people. Among those, Yasser and I met a young man who looked like Brad Pitt😆, my favorite actor. It turned out he also had a passion for acting, and we talked a lot about art and performance, as well as some discussions about engineering and architecture, as he is also a civil engineer. We had a lot of fun that night.

The following day, we attended our last training sessions and made sure to catch every moment since it was our last day💔. 

In the evening, after dinner, we headed to the park with my program friends to spend some time together with Kristers and Katerina. We played many games and had fun. After that, I went to party with some friends from the training. We danced and laughed a lot then returned to the hotel to spend the night peacefully, preparing for the check-out the next day. We left around noon after having breakfast.

I had wanted to go to Brașov, but unfortunately, I didn’t have enough energy or “money” for it 🥲. So, I returned to Iaşi with Savane and Salma to get some rest after this exciting trip!

We resumed our work by facilitating another exhibition for JEMOM at Târgu Frumos Library, which organized by the French Institute. As I performed my presentation, and then we resumed our art residencies activities for the Rroma at the school. Mihaela and I prepared a version of the song “Şaraiman şi Şaraiman” for the Rroma kids, which I started practicing with the children to make a music video. We filmed it in Târgu Frumos with the children, in collaboration with Saleh and Yasser, and we also filmed some solo shots for me. We completed the art residencies for this museum to start preparing for its exhibition.

The surprise of the month was that our friend Joshua from Belgium joined Arts Lab 6.0. He was very excited about the activities and art projects we were doing, so he joined us to participate in this journey in Târgu Frumos.

We did our first exhibition for the Rroma Museum at ACT HOUSE in Târgu Frumos, where we showcased the artworks. 

I performed the song “Gelem gelem,” which is considered the Rroma Anthem song, along with a segment of the song “Şaraiman şi Şaraiman.” I also organized a competition to explore Rroma music with the attendees, where we had a lot of fun. The exhibition was successful and I’m proud of us as usual 💗.

We enjoyed a Czech night with our friend Nikola, who prepared delicious Czech dishes for us and introduced us to the Czech Republic through many cute videos. We explored the history of the Czech Republic and how beautiful its nature is, and how spontaneous the Czech people are😆.

After that, we started preparing for our new museum Cucuteni. Mihaela proposed a different idea for the art residencies for this museum by trying to find local volunteers to create artworks related to the museum’s theme. 

I collaborated with my friend Nikola to create the Art Entrepreneurs team 🎨 🎤 ✨. We have successfully attracted five new local volunteers to collaborate with us so far, and work is still ongoing to complete our artworks. We are currently working on creating our version of the game “Dixit” in Cucuteni style. We hope to do some additional things if we have enough time, as well as preparing for our upcoming series of exhibitions in Iaşi next week, in collaboration with the French Institute, which has given us the opportunity to facilitate the exhibitions of our three museums at its headquarters in Iaşi. Additionally, we are preparing for our individual artwork ideas for the first Cucuteni exhibition. What a busy schedule we have 🥲🤝🏻.

I have explored and learned a lot this month. I visited many new places in Bucharest and met many people, some of whom have become friends I hope to meet again someday. I continue to realize the importance of capturing moments and creating unforgettable memories.

Oh, how much I danced and sang this month. I danced with the children at school, with my friends at parties. I began to realize how much I love this way of relieving stress and negative things. I used to not have the time or energy to dance, move, or walk. But my lifestyle has really changed. I forced to step out of my comfort zone to explore, walk, and do different and new things. It used to take a lot of thought for me to leave the house or to make even the simplest change in my routine.

I also learned how to be more spontaneous and proactive towards things and people. Although I struggle with low self-confidence at some points, I am also learning how to understand myself better to start working on my weaknesses. Awareness is half the solution.

I am still thinking about the next phase and the pivotal decisions that need to be made and working on them as soon as possible.

That’s all for this report. See you in my next report.

Stay well,

Rahaf

Report written by Rahaf Ghanam, she's from Syria 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.