Arts Lab 7.0: Hedvika Pekarova - Month III

And what about the third month? Well, nothing stops, everything continues. Slowly, slowly, by work and focus I managed to overcome my frustration. We don't have anymore pyramids of private toilet papers around the bathroom because I became the "toilet manager". It means that I take care of supplying the toilet paper in the house. Beyza is since always the "kitchen manager", she also tried her best to change the cleaning order, but it seemed impossible as the kitchen is so crowded and her need to maintain the space clean is not at all important to some people in the house. So we decided to create a cleaning competition. From now on, everyone should keep tracking, within the day of deep cleaning, if the task is complete and what number in the cleaning race you achieved. First prize is the "Princess Consuella banana hammock," which is actually the only reason why Salma became really dedicated to finishing her task as early as possible. "So can I start now? Can I??" Yes, we did it. Well, let's see, how it continues.

It seems to me, that I finally understood which things can be changed and which cannot. And thanks to this proces it started to be possible for me to accept earlier perceeved as unacceptable. Now I'm becoming slowly slowly more relaxed and calm. Good. It is cold. It is soo cold. Beautiful! I need to freeze properly so I could survive the heat vawes of Crete, as I'm going back there for the summer to work in ceramics studio. The heating system in our house still doesn't work very properly, and also... some days we had - 12 during the night. It rarely happens that I have only one sweater layer. Usualy 2 or more. Well, it is uncomfortable, but not more than for the Mediterranean people. Monica and Marah are freezing, and for their bodies, it is not fun anymore. My Czech body is alright. But even I sometimes wish to have a warm house. So, that's how I discovered Karma Spa! Here in Târgu Frumos, I finally have my warm space to relax. I've been there already three times, and I cannot wish for a better place. We have a warm, salty pool, which is like a therapy for my body. If only the Romanian people knew that it is highly inappropriate to jump into a swimming pool after leaving a sauna! Well, I am a scout, and that has taught me how to survive even in the wildest conditions. Haha :D 

This month, we created the Rroma museum! I spent a lot of time working on my mural already during the residency, because I was scared I might not be able to make it on time... and I was right. Thanks to my previous frustration, the studio is in the house! In the house and reachable for others. Loay decided to work with clay as well. I was very happy to see him being so focused on the sculpting, otherwise he is bored in the house, at least that's what he says. Unfortunately, he started a bit late and one of his devil's hands exploded in the kiln as it was not dry enough. With a little help of his friends, he managed to glue it and bring it to the exposition on time. My mural still waits to be glazed. I exposed it in a bisque form. 

Cucuteni topic arrived! Mircea brought Monica and me to meet the Cucuteni artist. We all admired her house, she said it took her 10 years to build it.  Such a spiritual deep experience. I see myself living like this one day too. Thanks to our small group, we had a really quality time to talk with her. She even showed us her artworks before ceramics. She worked with seeds, creating huge shapes and decorations outside on the squares. 

In this residency, I collaborated with Beyza, again at the Trinitas. We tried our best to transfer a knowledge about emotions, it was not that easy as some of our participants didn't even speak in their own language. Mine and Beyza's working styles fit perfectly, I enjoyed our teamwork very much. Every morning walking silently on the snowy white frozen pavements leading to the school. Playing with youngsters, trying to share with them our idea about emotions through pantomime and pictures, drawing. I think that within this residency, I learned the most words in the Romanian language as later in the week we didn't have anyone to translate. Anyway, it was no a problem as the youngsters were there very much more to watch our movements than to listen to our words. At the end of the residency,  mother of one girl told us how much she appreciates our work, that she sees how much change our presence brought. On the very last day we went to the HUB, as the teachers gathered with youngsters there to celebrate a "day of friendship." It was quite funny, cause at the end we were left there only with the teachers. So we played our prepared games with them. And they enjoyed it as much as the youngsters. Apparently we will have a chance to prepare one residency only for adults. That would be amazing, I truly believe that the emotional awareness should aim to the teachers firs. Let's do it! 

Thank you for this month. Thank you for the winter cold, all the opportunities, thank you for the support. I enjoyed it even with my frustration even with my uncomfortable emotions. It is as it is and I can enjoy my life even when it is not shiny and warm. I learn, I grow, I sing, I dance, I create. I am.

This monthly report was written by Hedvika Pekarova, our Czech volunteer taking part in a six-month Arts Lab 7.0 mobility, co-funded by the European Union under the European Solidarity Corps.