Nera River, 44º54'09.5"N 21º44'45.0"E
Painted photograph from the 6-piece series 'Hacia el mar' (Towards the sea). Local women from Romania merge with their environment through the rivers Argeș, Ialomița, Jiu, Olt, Nera and Cerna, all of them tributaries of the old and, somehow mythical, Danube, a river venerated by the old geto-thracian civilizations surrounded by rituals, practices and beliefs, some of them of universal nature and yet connected with ancient cultures.
The work is bonded together with a poem* that conveys the experiences lived while shooting at the rivers. It expresses the inner feelings as well as those related to the surroundings, connecting oneself with the four elements of nature. This work was exhibited at Instituto Cervantes Bucharest in an installation that created a sensorial space which invited the visitors to explore their own relationship with water and, at the same time, to reflect upon the environmental reality which we are nowadays living in.
*Original poem
El Sol prende mi corazón.
Serpenteo atenta entre las colinas,
las flores de oro levantan su mirada
y con ellas alzo la mía.
Ahí está mi rincón, mi oasis
abrazado por una fortaleza de roca.
El agua, serena, brilla pasión de luz;
cristalina, calma mi sed fundamental.
Camino al ritmo de la densidad,
la pausa extiende mi núcleo a través de las ondas.
Tal vez entienda los orígenes.
Quizá, atrape un destello de intimidad.
Mis pies, en la piedra mojada.
Mi mente, nutrida, respira vertical.
El pensamiento de este lugar
lleva intrínseco un soplo de aire fresco;
Vuelvo a él en los días más arduos
concentro mi energía, y lo beso.
Oana Totoret, Dana Nedelcu, Alexandra Anastasiu, Iulia Drinceanu, Ana Tanase, Sandra Demetrescu, Alexandru Bugnariu