VISIT 1:
Anca, the translator, is excellent. The four of us go
up to Marian Neagu's office where we talk about Vinca and Cucuteni cultures and their objects for over an hour. Neagu brings out lots of photos of objects he'll be using in the upcoming exhibition and tells us about each of them: secret communication
cups that the shamans, who were women, used; and goddess sta-tues -
evidence of a highly complex spiritual life and culture that was agri-based and goddess-worshipping. Very little weaponry has ever been found.
When we finally go downstairs to seethe exhibition, the "re-constructed temple" we'd come to see turns out to be one column. It's alot of time and money to come back,
but we agree to return on Monday the 17th to video tape the completed exhibition.
VISIT 2:
When Neagu finally appeared in the exhibition hall
an hour and a half late, he seemed extremely suspicious of our motives -
what were we going to do with the materials? But we'd spent 3 hours two weeks ago talking to him in detail about our project. Everything seemed fine.
Now, six of us were standing in a darkened exhibition room with some
Romanian folk music
playing too loudly to add to the angst, and we're all talking as everything begins to unravel all at once and does, completely. In about 5 minutes flat.
Single file, and insilence, we make our way to
the doorway at the back of the building, none of usunderstanding what had happened or why. We shook hands, exchanged long, empty and confused looks,
and left in complete bewilderment.