in the ground we sleep 3.pdf

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  • 1CONTENT

    2THE PROJECT: CEMYTERY IN BANAT

    3PROLOG/PRESENTATION

    5ROMANIAN villagesCrivinaDomanFarasestiLiubcova

    25GERMAN villagesCampinaBobda

    46SERBIAN villagesMacestisocolZlatita

    67CZECH villagesGarnic

    75CARASOVENI villagesClocoticiRafnicVodnic

    97BULGARIAN villagesDudestii Vechi

    104MIXT villagesCampiaTomnatic

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    THE PROJECT: CEMETIRY IN

    BANATBateson: Because I think the photographic record

    should be an art form. Mead: Oh why, why shouldnt you have some records that arent art forms? Because if its an art form it has

    been altered. Bateson: Its undoubtedly been altered. I dont think it

    exists unaltered. (Margaret Mead, Gregory Bateson, On the Uses of

    Camera in Anthropology in Turning Points in Qualita-tive Research, ed. by Yvonna Lincoln, Norman Denzin,

    AltaMira Press, 2003)

    Six Characters in

    Search of a ProjectBut why, why are you doing this came my simplified and causative question towards the Landscape Archi-tect2. I think we really dont know. To prove it can be done. To prove something to ourselves. It is an example of good practices for specialists who think they solved a problem. We all want this but somebody has toI dont do this forno, we dont do this because its cool to

    save something this is what Im trying the context, this context Architect2, why do you do this?Because Im an idealist and a dreamer and I think the world can be changed. [] Im very fond of these things. This type of architecture is an expression of people without resources who adapted. Its their simplest expression of being Who do you do it for? You restore the community you set an example. concluded Landscape architect1, while sitting on a hill near the village where the team was doing research.It all started in 2012, when a group of four friends, lets name them the Landscape Architect1, Landscape Architect2, Landscape Architect3 and Architect1 were biking and hiking not only in search of themselves, in some sort of personal quest but also in Banat, a region with an interesting, multicultural, inter confessional his-tory which left its marks on everything. That year, they initiated a project with the title The Cemetery Element in the Evolution of Cultural Landscape which allowed them to do research in more than one hundred villages in Banat, observing, noting, mapping and especially photographing valuable elements from the rural ceme-teries in an attempt to understand contemporary Banat, with its regional heritage and its values. One year later, they sensed that something was missing and that the view they proposed in the first year was too gener-

    alist. So, they reorganized the team in such a man-ner that other members joined it: Architect2 (specialist in urbanism), and an Anthropologist; they focused on a particular village in Banat (Crivina de Sus) where in the summer of 2013 and then in 2014, interdisciplinary workshops took place, in order not only to continue the research but to teach students and form future profes-sionals. In the meantime the research developed into a more intense interdisciplinary approach, and other specialist-consultants joined the process, with the aim to offer a better and more complete perspective on Banat. Without even considering, the young profes-sionals were stepping on Haudricourts steps, follow-ing his idea that if you study well enough one object, it will lead you to a more complete study of society. So, at first there were questions: why do our villag-es look the way they do? What does that mean, how important is the relation with the landscape? What is the role of the people in the process? How do people perceive their heritage? Do they preserve it or not? And the list is open.Then, there was the perspective.

    One Perspective? No, six perspectives. Whose? This album offers a visual perspective. On Banat, as you already found out. What kind of Banat? Whose Banat? The bookish Banat that we know and talk about is a multicultural, multilayered, inter confessional space, at the limits of Western and Eastern Europe, facing both at the same time, a place which was under Aus-tro-Hungarian administration for three centuries, until 1919, and which values diversity. It is, to quote an im-portant Romanian and Banatian writer: un Eldorado aux confins, [] aux marges de lEmpire, le Banat com-

    mence tre peru non pas comme le bout du monde, ni une Terra incognita barbare, mais, progressivement, comme une Terre Promise, une Terra Nova, une petite Amrique sinon un nouvel Eldorado. (Babei 2007:17) Banat was, apparently, a heavenly place where ap-proximately twenty ethnic communities shared a way of living. But that was more than a century behind us. What is the situation nowadays? We have chosen to not choose a particular way of presenting the way things are nowadays. We did choose photos which can do the talking for us, and we do not intend to explain or lead you towards what you should see, observe, insist upon, revisit. But we think that several things should be explained before you peruse, linger on, look at, see, regard, watch. We have chosen perspectives. Because they are not fixed, they allow you to move, change, and opt for dif-ference. And if we admit that, at least as an imaginary space, Banat is a place where difference prevails, than it can only be observed and understood from different points of view.

    We have chosen, thus, an artists perspective. Lets call her the Photographer. Lets pretend shes a great Romanian young freelance visual artist, who came from Bucharest in the summer of 2014 and wandered for two weeks in villages from Banat (Mceti, Socol, Zlatia, Cmpia, Doman, Freti, Liubcova, Crivina de Sus, Grnic, Clocotici, Rafnic, Vodnic, Crpini, Bobda, Dudetii Vechi, Tomnatic), in search of the Banatian spirit. Also, lets pretend that she was not influenced by the project team, that she only new that we stud-ied the cemetery and its relations with the community. And let us observe that she did not study Banat during university courses, so that her mind be molded and learn that Banat is a miniaturized European Union. And maybe she does not search to confirm or infirm, she is just spontaneously observing Banat through the lenses of a camera. The result? It can be admired within the pages of this album. We can only add that the perspective is an out-side one, and outside perspectives offer objective ap-proaches. It offers an etic account of people in Banat.

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    Then, we have chosen also, our perspective. Five re-searchers perspective. Lets call them: Architect1, Landscape Architect1, Architect2, Landscape Archi-tect2 and Landscape Architect3. Lets pretend they form a multidisciplinary team, who did research for three years now, in more than one hundred villages (Bencecu de Sus, Biled, Bulgru, Crpini, Corenere-va, Crivina de Sus, Dudeti, Giarmata, Iecea Mare, La-bain, Lenauheim, Lovrin, Ndrag, Periam, Snpetru, Tomnatic, Zolt just to name a few). They are special-ists interested in how the relationship landscape com-munity vernacular architecture cemetery functions in the context of present day Banat. Lets pretend that they are influenced by one another, by the results from other researches, and by their relations with people in communities they worked with. And let us observe that they all studied Banat during university courses and maybe, just maybe they were taught to look at it in a certain way, like its a miniaturized European Union. And maybe they search to confirm or infirm theories, not only to observe Banat through the lenses. They use the camera as part of the process of research. The result? It can be admired within the pages of this album. We can only add that the perspective is an in-side one, and inside perspectives offer subjective ap-proaches. So subjective that sometimes the perspec-tive is almost an emic one.

    Photos tell Stories Bear in mind that, when you open this album, tens of photos and as many possibilities are waiting for you to create your own Banat. They form a bricolage, they are fragments, bits and pieces of a region which is either familiar to you, or waiting to be discovered. The photos do not talk by themselves but generate discourse... or in David Macdougalls words: ....a photo never says anything but there is something more to be said about it. Let us hope words will not fail us.

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