The Stucks
One Saturday at the flea market in Cluj we found, together with Dan – a photography collector friend of mine – 26 developed rolls of film. We started scanning them and realised they were vacation photos belonging to the same family – mother, father, and two boys – covering more than a decade. The scanning process was slow, I think it took me about two months to complete it. With each roll I entered more into the life of this family, of whom I knew only what was caught on film; an intrusive act that I compensated by always keeping a distance from the images, as a viewer who observes but doesn’t touch.
The images, though, are very personal, and I could not help but wonder who these people are, where they are now, if they still live, where are all the places the photos were taken. I began to write, to anchor myself this way during this disclosure process, and to invent fragments of biography for this family. When I finished scanning, I met with Dan again and recorded our conversation as we randomly went through the photos, approaching and moving away from the images, stopping on details, making connections with personal details, references to films or artworks, allowing our personal imagery to cross with the images captured in those 250 photos.
found photography, mirrors, sound, and text
Narrating Images / Imagining Stories
Domino Gallery, The Paintbrush Factory, Cluj
untitled is the first outcome from working with an archive of found photography, that would become a long-term project – The Stucks. My work for the exhibition consisted of a selection of 50 photos from the archive, fragments of text and several audio recordings – fragments of conversations. The work was part of the group exhibition Narrating Images / Imagining Stories, curated by Diana Marincu.
Continuing the process of studying a found photo archive, I wrote the play Scenes from the Life of the Family Stuck. Going past the avalanche of conflicting feelings that surface when coming across such an object – a constant battle between curiosity and ethical distance – the dozens of images leave room for endless personal projections related to the concept of family. I gave imaginary names and identities to the people in the pictures and invented a possible life for them. It is a game of subjectivities, a kaleidoscope of memory. And who can tell how close this imagined reality is to the real one? Can they coexist without cancelling each other out? Scenes from the Life of the Family Stuck also speaks about random encounters that take on meaning and mundane, anonymous scenes that come to light.
UNITER Best Romanian Play of the Year 2021
Eurodram 2022 Jury’s Choice
stage reading at 3G Hub Targu-Mures – October 2022
with: Cristina Ciulei, Ramona Gherasim, Sașa Pânzaru, Vlad Haneș, Sebastian Pop, Claudiu Panaitescu
Going past the avalanche of conflicting feelings that surface when coming across such an object – a constant battle between curiosity and ethical distance – the dozens of images leave room for endless personal projections related to the concept of family. I gave imaginary names and identities to the people in the pictures and invented a possible life for them. It is a game of subjectivities, a kaleidoscope of memory. And who can tell how close this imagined reality is to the real one? Can they coexist without canceling each other out? Scenes From the Life of the Family Stuck also speaks about random encounters that take on meaning and mundane anonymous scenes that come to light.
THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JANUS STUCK
Viața și moartea lui Janus Stuck
by Oana Hodade
self-published, limited edition of 40
SCENES FROM THE LIFE OF THE FAMILY STUCK
Scene din viața familiei Stuck
UNITEXT Publishing House
Bucharest, 2022
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