Cerna River, 44º54'32.0"N 22º25'55.9"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 y el viento susurran entre los árboles;
Recorren sus hojas
Esbozan reflejos sobre el agua, y la refugian
Imaginan los truenos a punto de hacerse oír entre las montañas.
Las nubes imperan el cielo ahora
Me sumerjo en el agua fría y viva
Y poco a poco se entumece mi cuerpo
Pies
Vientre
Pecho
Cabeza; Silencio
Me he disuelto con el río
Se han despegado mis pensamientos
Quedando, de mí, una cáscara fina en la superficie
que absorbe, calor de fuego
que siente, brisa de aire
El único trozo, de mí, anclado al tiempo
El reposo y el contraste
me permiten escuchar la eternidad;
fluir con el río
en su viaje hacia el mar.
Oana Totoret, Dana Nedelcu, Alexandra Anastasiu, Iulia Drinceanu, Ana Tanase, Sandra Demetrescu, Alexandru Bugnariu