Roşia Montană lays about approximately 450 kms from Budapest (by car). We had a stopover in Cluj which made the journey even a bit longer. Cluj is the largest city in the area of Roşia Montană; and we were hosted there at a charming family. Ferenc, the father is a professor of Ethnography, we got the contact of one of his daughters, while we were looking for interpreters. Viola, the daughter promised us, that she will find someone for us, who will help with translating on our visit. Finally we didn't just get a help of a young Ethnography student, but the family hosted us in their appartment, and we were offered several affluent meals, crowned by a diner cooked by the academic of the family.
Next morning, after meeting with our hosts and having a wonderful breakfast at them we set out for Roşia Montană with Tamás, the ethnography student, and with a load of infos from Ferenc.
Tamás had been to the village several years ago. He had some preconceptions about the situation in the township, as probably the majority of the Romanians does. It has been a permanently returning media issue for them in the last decade. For me one of the greatest experiences of our short visit was seeing Tamás's point of view smoothly shifting, how it became more particular after talking with more and more various people from the town. He even stated himself, when we were leaving the village, that he had a different image at the beginning of the day.
It just started raining when we arrived. We immediately discovered the pub, which is special mixture of a private and public space. I had the feeling the proprietors had turned their living room into a bar. I have seen an amazing painting, showing a transparent pelican, through which you see a naked couple sunbathing on the seashore.
We set down in a circle of middle aged men to have a coffee. I asked Tamás some sentences in Romanian in order to try to trick a smile on the face of the quite crust bartender lady. I wouldn't say I made the biggest success of my life.
After the coffee, we decided to start our discovery tour nevertheless it's raining.
It became clear: looking for accommodation for a group is a good way of making contacts in a village. Or maybe it's even a bit more accurate to say searching for 'Eugene' is a good way of making contacts. Roşia Montană lays in a valley of two hillsides. It is rather steep, which means going from one end to another is either a descend or a good climb. Our first discussion was with some youngsters who run a hostel at the entrance of the village. They mentioned that Eugene runs a similar hostel but with larger space. And after this point trying to find him, we went up and down on the hillside. It seemed everyone had a different conviction about where Eugene lived actually.
Finally we have found his house a little bit outside of the village at the end of a road, where we have tried earlier, just gave up when the road left the houses. By that time the rain stopped and the sun was about to set.
While searching for Eugene we met with several captiving figures of the village. We saw the wonderful pond above the village, abandoned houses, and some others, when it was difficult to decide whether there lives someone, or not. It used to be a very elegant village. Gold-mining was a well-paying job. Now the one-time elegance melts into the beauty of ruination. We also considered to visit the ancient mine from the Roman age, or the museum in the center established by the Gold Corporation. (Apparently they invest a lot of money to preserve or even create an attracting outfit for the township.) I was strict, and said we should rather aim for our goal: making contacts and finding accommodation. So we left these adventures for our common time there...
There are so many different situated people living there, and all of them had time to talk with us. This is how we found our accommodation as well.
For me the greatest thing in this visit was the simple experience of having success all the time when we initiated a conversation. I find great challenge in starting a contact with a completely unknown person. And our visit revealed for me Roşia Montană is offering us a lot while we intend to experiment with this. I think a theatrical encounter goes the same way as an encounter of two persons, just in a larger scale. One has to take the initiating role (the first step) in making the contact and the next person will open as an answer for this. Typically the actors are the ones who will initiate, and (if it the start is sincere and strong enough) the spectators will follow. While doing this as theatre, I hope we develop in our human relations. I hope we will understand and undertake the challenge one always has to take to role of the initiator.
(Juhász Bálint)
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