As part of a mapping of sustainable practices in rural Romania, we have invited a number of artistic initiatives to send us around five-minute videos that capture the atmosphere of the places where they are, in villages, in the middle of nature, outside the big cities. These represent only a few from a series of such initiatives, which are part of a relatively recent and growing tendency. We started from only a few examples of artists who grow gardens, installed their studios in their grandparents’ village or built residency places for other artists in places outside of the centres where they normally live. We organised a seminar in January 2022 and discussed their motivations and common grounds. Then we started to look around, in Romania and the region and invited more artists and cultural workers to contribute to this collection, with short, poetic or descriptive comments on their own experience. To each iteration of the montage, we added more. There are now 23 examples and it is still work in progress. Meanwhile some of the initiatives are on pause: personal lives that make it hard to commit to the presence in these places; difficulties in maintaining them without additional support; disenchantments with local authorities and communities; while others have grown, opened up, connected to each other. We see these practices not as an idyllic return to nature, but as a foregrounding of a certain type of living in nature without colonising it, and an invitation to rethink artistic work on more ecological principles, as well as an acceptance of fragility as a reason to plant life around. With: Carambach/ Adriana Chiruță, Sibiu county, Romania Cecălaca/Csekelaka Cultural Studio/ Oana Fărcaș, Cecălaca village, Mureș county, Romania Crețești Studio-Garden/ Delia Popa, Ilfov county, Romania Cucuieți Permaculture/ Otilia & Radu Boeru, Cucuieți Village, Călărași County, Romania Dom Jan Hálá cultural center/ Zuzana Janečková, Važec village, Tatra mountains, Slovakia Drenart/ Stoyan Dechev, Olivia Mihălțianu, Dren village, Pernik region, Bulgaria The Experimental Station for Research on Art and Life/ Dana Andrei, Eduard Constantin, Florian Niculae, Siliștea Snagovului village, Ilfov county, Romania The House of Light and Information/ Matei Bejenaru, Bârnova commune, Iași county, Romania Intersecția Residency/ Emanuela Ascari, Brădet village, Întorsura Buzăului commune, Covasna county, Romania Khata-Maysternya/House-Workshop/ Bogdan Velgan, Taras Grytsiuk, Olga Dyatel, Ekaterina and Olga Zarko, Alyona Karavai, Yulia Kniupa, Taras Kovalchuk, Magda Lapshyn, Anna Mygal, Sasha Moskovchuk, Svyat Popov, Tanya Sklyar, Natalia Trambovetska, Vilya and Ivanka Chupak, Babyn, Ivano-Frankivsk region, Ukraine LATERAL AIR/ Cristina Curcan, Lucian Indrei, at the crossroards between Mureșenii Bârgăului and Colibița, Bistrița-Năsăud county, Romania Muze. Gemüse Initiative/ Maria Balabaș & Vlad Mihăescu, Șomartin village, Sibiu county, Romania Rajka Orchard/ Martin Piacek, Győr-Moson-Sopron region, Hungary Rădești House/ Irina Botea Bucan & Jon Dean, Rădești village, Argeș county, Romania Reforesting Project/ Aris Papadopoulos, Candy Karra, Dora Zoumpa, Elena Novakovitc, Sotiris Tsiganos, Jonian Bisai, Vasilis Ntouros, Christina Reinhart, Klio Apostolaki, Lia Chamilothori, Kalentzi village, municipality of North Tzoumerka, Epirus, Greece Romanii de Jos Dendrological Park/ V. Leac, Vâlcea county, Romania Siliștea Future Studios/ Adelina Ivan, Ioana Gheorghiu, Virginia Toma, Ramon Sadîc, Robert Blaj, Vlad Brăteanu, Siliștea Snagovului village, Ilfov county, Romania Slon residencies/ META Cultural Foundation/ Raluca Doroftei, Slon Village, Cerasu Commune, Prahova County, Romania SOLAR Gallery/ Ariana Hodorcă & Albert Kaan, Gulia village, Dâmbovița county, Romania symbiopoiesis/ Andrei Nacu, Pădureni village, Iași county, Romania Watermelon Residency/ Daniela Pălimariu, Alexandru Niculescu, Bechet, Dolj county, Romania What Could Should Curating Do/ Biljana Ćirić, Gornja Gorevnica VILLAGE, Serbia Na záhradke [At the Garden] Gallery/ Oto Hudec, Košice, Slovakia Artistic initiatives in nature and in villages is part of a mapping of sustainable practices in rural Romania, developed in the frame of the project C4R – Cultures for Resilience in 2022-2023. Iterations: Halfway to Paradise. Hybrid seminar, Bucharest, January 2022 (5 initiatives) It´s risky to let they see you alive and almost frangible. Screening at One World Romania film festival, May 2022 (14 initiatives) Now the Impulse is to Live! Exhibition at the Order of Architects, Bucharest, July 2022 (17 initiatives) Now the Impulse is to Live! Edition Sofia. Exhibition at Toplocentrala, Sofia, September 2022 (20 initiatives) Now the Impulse is to Live! Timisoara Edition. Exhibition at Riverside Pavilion / Children’s Park, Timisoara, co-organised with Minitremu Association, July 2023 (22 initiatives) Publication editing: Raluca Voinea, Adelina Luft, Dana Andrei Video montage and publication design: Eduard Constantin

And all roads lead to the abodes of men Iuliana Dumitru, 2023 I know that the ideal world is only a phantasm and nothing would convince me otherwise but sometimes I arrive in places that give me a spark of hope. The short period of time that I am spending there makes me rethink my position. There actually is an ideal world to be discovered in a lavender garden, a field in which delicious vegetables grow or a parcel of land invaded by sunroots. In order for these worlds to exist, someone had to imagine them and work for them, work really hard. A rebellion against a fast-paced and unjust society that consumes us gives birth to these worlds. An imperfect world brings to the foreground the need of (almost) perfect places, maybe even utopian places. A sheltered environment, which unfortunately has to obey the big world, could change the mainstream views. Such places are in need of one or two visionary people, some leader(s) that can make things move around and a team that helps with the building process. Alone by ones’ self, such project is unattainable — it is always a matter of community, it is either your given family or the chosen one. Building such a world is a continuous work, one that becomes your identity, one that can add a nickname to your name like for Felicia and Marius from Green Mogo or Ionuț and Alex from Sol și Suflet . I will start to narrate my experience with both of these spaces from an auto-anthropological point of view, relating to them as being part of the Experimental Station for Research on Art and Life collective. According to the presentation on its site, Green Mogo is a “centre for education and counselling on energy, a space dedicated to dialogues on eco-friendly housing and easy to follow solutions for an eco-conscious life ”. Practically, Green Mogo is a meeting place where caring for the environment is the core subject and caring for the others is a lifestyle. Felicia and Marius founded Green Initiative association in 2006. In 2008 they bought a parcel of land in Mogoșoaia where they built a green house that has an earth roof, a garden, as well as a communal space dedicated to meetings, workshops and learning. What surprises me about the Green Mogo story is that, even though the space in question is a private one, — a family lives in there — it is still opened for the local community and others. Felicia and Marius are always receiving guests that they treat with lessons, knowledge and good food. Our visit there was a hybrid type of visit in which we received information about the place and the ways in which it developed along the years. We were also treated with delicious food cooked by their son, Daniel. After a guided tour through the garden in which we gathered tomatoes and bitter apples, we went up the green roof of the training hall. There, up high, Felicia and Marius proceeded to narrate the story of the building that we had below our feet. It was made with recycled materials, including car tires. The building itself became a didactic material. They video-documented the entire process so it could serve others interested by this type of building and they also collaborated with students from Ion Mincu University of Architecture and Urbanism. They prefer to engage the young in their projects in order to give them a chance to gain that experience that society already expects of them even in the first years of university. Of all their projects, the one that impresses me the most is the Summer school dedicated to children from the village. Green Mogo is not only a place near Bucharest that uses a resourceful and renowned area, it actually improves the place by giving and holding space for the residents of Mogoșoaia, thus Green Mogo becomes itself an important resource. Felicia is also involved in local politics where she advocates for green areas protection and banning investors’ real estate projects that would erase a big portion of the nearby forest. She advocates for education even outside Green Mogo. She managed to bring “A doua șansă” programme in Mogoșoaia, thus aiding 60 people. Felicia and Marius succeeded to create a meeting space through Green Mogo, a space where local needs and resources can meet with outside ideas and resources. I first heard about Sol și Suflet when it was still merely a sketch. Back then, it did not even have an official name and the vision seemed impossible to attain. I cannot even imagine the amount of work needed up until this point. I met Ionuț Bănică at tranzit. ro/București and knew him as this godfather of the permaculture that took place in the communal garden from street Gazelei 44. After tranzit. ro/București vacated the place in December 2019, Ionuț and an ensemble of colleagues and collaborators took over the space and kept its legacy. It even took upon itself the name of “The Legacy Bucharest”, a co-working space interested in developing ethical entrepreneurship and honouring the natural eco-system. During the weekend, you can find here fresh vegetables, either sourced by them or other local farmers, honey, teas and herbs. I find more than fascinating the way in which these initiatives and their initiators cross paths upon different occasions and timelines, and how each of these meetings generate new ideas, collaborations and projects. In July 2021, we were eagerly heading towards Sol și Suflet to discover the first regenerative farm in Romania, which is situated in Dâmbovița county. We saw the food baskets online and I was impatient to bargain the colourful vegetables. The vastness and openness of the farm amazed me, everything seemed so large, almost limitless. I immediately realised the amount of time it takes to get from a solar to another. To this adding the amount of physical work that the farmers go through everyday; from Monday to Sunday and then, on repeat. Even though the effort seems overwhelming, Ionuț and Alex greeted us with joy, ready to tell us about their adventure. We received a special guided tour and tasted the freshly ripen tomatoes. The nearly commercial moment was the presentation of all of the equipment used to work the land. The role of these tools is to make the farmer’s life easier without polluting engines. I liked the perfectly straight lines made by the manual hoeing and covered with mulch netting that stops the grass from taking over the crops. We entered the market house, still in the building process. This was to become the primary line for basket preparations, shipping and selling. At this point there was only a table inside but as we were being told the story and the vision for this place, I began to imagine everything. There are plans for the future of crop-less land: a mixed orchard for biodiversity, a pond for collecting irrigation water and also for attracting biodiversity. 10% of the land will remain wild in order to honour the spirit of regenerative agriculture and spontaneous flora. Sol și Suflet is a space to be experimented, and the simplest way to do so is to consume its foods. For Alex and Ionuț the general goal is to produce vegetables without the use of pesticides, and the final goal is for their practice to be adopted by other local vegetable growers. They do not wish to be exceptional on the market, they wish for this system to become the norm so we could all benefit of access to clean food. Of the Experimental Station for Research on Art and Life is both easy and hard to write about. I am way too involved in its process not to be passioned about it and maybe even have some biases. The experience gained at the Station helps me see the other initiatives from a similar point of view, facilitating my understanding to their processes and stories and also to the roads took by people in order to arrive at this point. For us, the Station is “a bet and a promise, an experiment and an investment in a future that we can still shape.” For me it is another home. It is the first time my name appears on a property document and not consider it my own. I consider it to be a common good for many. By this I do not only mean the co-owners, but also the society at large. The station is going to be a place for contemporary arts, an open-space to any curious visitor. I tried to encompass the ethos of these universes that I managed to assist and I hope that I have succeeded to write about these places and people with the subjectivity and objectivity of a committed anthropologist. These worlds are being built in an eco-system that we have the duty to preserve and grow. There is a single eco-system that embraces the world and each of us has to continuously nurture connection and the practice of building roads. For this purpose many resources are needed: economical, emotional, resources of resistance and resilience. Connection matters because these worlds grow one upon each other and nurture one another. It is essential that the information spreads, thereby reaching everyone, not only those interested in sustainable living and harmonising with the environment. These initiative show how society, damaged as it is, is still capable of producing ideal worlds through people, firstly through their dreams and then through their actions. People that have access to resources grow and build roads towards the others. “But it happened that after walking for a long time through sand, and rocks, and snow, the little prince at last came upon a road. And all roads lead to the abodes of men. ” Research realised in 2021, part of the mapping of eco-farms and other resilient practices in Romania, commissioned by tranzit in the frame of C4R project. Text: Iuliana Dumitru Photographs: Raluca Voinea Translation by Octavia Anghel

Ekoloji kolektifi, which sees the struggle against the commodification of nature as a dimension of the class struggle, is charged with mobilizing opportunities to strengthen the position of the people in the face of capital and the state, building mechanisms for responding to disasters, and understanding and explaining ecological issues. crisis from a historical materialist perspective. Working according to the principles of Umut-Sen, members of the collective are required to assume concrete responsibility in at least one working group and to attend meetings held every two weeks. Working group on propaganda: all practices that serve the commodification of nature, such as municipalities, districts, political parties, etc. share with the public regardless of the fact, follow the ideas of resistance, produce materials necessary for organizing activities (visual design, technical materials, translation, article, etc.), organize seminars/events on the topic it deems necessary, share with the public the developments during and after the disaster, follow the Umut-Sen line, it is responsible for creating debates and polemics that will deepen it Working group on disaster response: earthquake, flood, fire, landslide, etc. It is in charge of setting up mobile teams ready to intervene in case of a disaster, and to prepare these teams to intervene in case of a possible disaster by following the necessary training. Organization, Resistance and Solidarity Working Group: It is in charge of establishing organic links with ongoing struggles, identifying and responding to the concrete needs of the resistances, meeting with the populations of the region that will be affected by the project before possible projects that cause the plundering of nature, and providing the necessary advice. Legal working group: It is in charge of providing the necessary legal support to the ecological struggles, sometimes directly as an executive, and sometimes by conducting information activities through village/café/neighborhood meetings. Increasing the legal qualifications of the Umut-Sen Assembly's organizing experts is also part of the scope of this working group. Ecological activism by local groups ,Yeryüzü Ekoloji Kolektifi Ecological Rights Centre Started Its Work, Ekoloji kolektifi Protest against polution, Ekoloji kolektifi