Worlds at crossroads

In the period July – November 2024, the project is carried out in Timișoara “Worlds at Crossroads”organized by Narrative Associationcoordinated by multimedia artist Cinty Ionescu and co-financed by the National Cultural Fund Administration. The project aims to capitalize on the oral history archive hosted by Central University Library “Eugen Todoran” from Timișoara – the main partner of the project- and starts from a selection of interviews with 50 people from the Banat area on the topic of “the story of life”, carried out since the 1990s until today, coordinated by Smaranda Vultur, writer and researcher in the field of history oral, cultural anthropology and memory.

Photo credit: Maria Năstase

The project’s activities include research and discussion on the themes emerging from the study of the archive, the launch of a dedicated website and a documentary film, and the creation of digital artworks. Also, a series of meetings with descendants of the people interviewed in the period 1990-2022 – some now missing, workshops for Timisoara students that address both theoretically and practically elements of heritage use, intercultural education courses and other events are also planned addressed to the general public.

On September 15, the first stage of the project ended, in which an interdisciplinary team from the fields of philology, anthropology of memory, memory politics and librarianship carried out a qualitative research of archival materials, which include interviews, images and documents of the interviewees, the results of which will be published on a dedicated website, created within the project and launched in October.

The subjects revealed by the transversal study of the archive are also exploited through multimedia productions: thematic articles written by specialists, a video documentation of the history of the archive and the work processes in the form of a documentary film of the project, digital artworks and audio podcasts with excerpts from the archive .

The project “Worlds at Crossroads” is coordinated by the multimedia artist Cinty Ionescu, and the working archive is coordinated by the writer and researcher Smaranda Vultur. The project team also includes Nicoleta Mușat, doctor of philology, Ioana Duță, writer and researcher in the field of humanities and comparative literature, Roxana Rogobete, university lecturer and doctor of philology, Maria Odobescu, librarian, Maria Năstase, visual anthropologist and Renée Renard, visual artist.

Photo credit: Maria Năstase

The project “Worlds at Crossroads” started in July of this year, and part of the themes emerging from the interviews during the research stage address deportation, the two World Wars, family relations, migration, otherness, local history, as well as the emotions of remembering precious moments in history personal of the interviewed Banatians.

The workshops within the project “Worlds at Intersections” will take place throughout the month of October, and some of them will be publicly announced among students, others being dedicated to certain courses in this year’s university curriculum.

Photo credit: Maria Năstase

The project will intersect with new media art through “Ne/Re-seen”, another project initiated by Cinty Ionescu and the Narative Association and carried out in public spaces in Timișoara until the end of October, a project that capitalizes on less visible parts of heritage to the general public through the use of augmented reality. Thus, part of the life stories from the project archive “Worlds at Crossroads” they will be highlighted by their interpretation in 3D installations that use animations and augmented reality. The interdisciplinary team of the “Ne/Re-seen” project, formed by Cinty Ionescu, Ioana Nicoară and Makunouchi Bento (Valentin Toma and Felix Petrescu), will create a series of digital installations, made up of sound, image and animation, through which personal histories and collective memory, part of the intangible cultural heritage of Timisoara, will be transposed into works of art in the public space .

The website launch event will take place at the end of October “Worlds at Crossroads”of the documentary film of the project commissioned by Maria Năstase and of the exhibition that includes digital artworks inspired by the archive documents, made by the visual artist Renée Renard. During this event, the augmented reality installations produced as part of the “Ne/Re-seen” project will be presented.

Project carried out with the support of: Association of Former Deportees in Bărăgan, Politehnica Timișoara Foundation and German Cultural Center.
Main partner of the project: Central University Library “Eugen Todoran”
Project partners: Faculty of Political Sciences, Philosophy and Communication Sciences of the University of West Timisoara, Faculty of Letters, History and Theology of the University of West Timișoara, Timisoara Intercultural Institute, Prin Banat Association, The Museum of the Communist Consumer by Auăleu Association, Timișoara Destination Management Organization.
Media partners: Radio Romania Timisoara, Banat Newspaper, The fifth power, Zeppelin Magazine, Scene 9 , IQads, Cărtureşti.

The project does not necessarily represent the position of the National Cultural Fund Administration. AFCN is not responsible for the content of the project or how the results of the project may be used. These are entirely the responsibility of the beneficiary of the funding.