Bucharest exhibitions: Reinventing the village in nine audio-visual monographs

Nine Audio-Visual Monographs, an interactive audio-visual exhibition that showcases elements of the project that explores nine villages in Romania, opens on November 7 at the Visual Studies Center in Bucharest.

The project aims to offer a fresh look at nine villages and their communities - Șomartin, Titești, Slătioara, Brădetu, Jupânești, Șotrile, Bisoca, Rogojeni, and Jurilovca.

A diverse team of 16 individuals, including lawyers, artists, writers, architects, and cultural managers, some from rural areas and others recently relocated, has looked at the trend of moving from cities to villages. These monographs feature audio interviews, photos, notes, maps, ecological insights, and fictional or biographical texts. The project also organized village gatherings (șezători) with music, storytelling, dialect readings, historical discussions, and sampling of local food to bring new energy to the communities.

"We started this project at a critical moment of generational change. It's a bit late, but fortunately, it's not the only project addressing this topic. Our approach focuses on people experiencing this transition personally, up close, on the ground. These are people moving from urban areas back to rural life—a national trend big enough to shift mindsets. This return to the village comes as old homes fall into disrepair and the last elders, who hold the knowledge of rural life, near the end of their journey, making way for younger generations who often work in nearby factories, corporate offices, or even online," said Cătălin Rulea, one of the project's initiators.

The project also included the establishment of nine libraries in these villages, each with personalized audio-visual monographs of the community.

The monographs are also published in a volume titled "9 Audio-Visual Monographs," available in these libraries.

(Photo: the organizers)