{"id":2605,"date":"2015-12-10T20:09:45","date_gmt":"2015-12-10T20:09:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/artapolitica.ro\/?p=2605"},"modified":"2016-11-21T16:31:02","modified_gmt":"2016-11-21T16:31:02","slug":"orice-om-pe-lumea-asta-trebuie-sa-aiba-un-loc-unde-sa-doarma-sa-manance-si-sa-se-spele","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artapolitica.ro\/gazetapolitica\/en\/2015\/12\/10\/orice-om-pe-lumea-asta-trebuie-sa-aiba-un-loc-unde-sa-doarma-sa-manance-si-sa-se-spele\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cEvery person in this world should have a place to sleep, eat and wash up\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Interview with FLORIAN VOD\u0102<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

In 2001, at Creang\u0103 Theatre in Bucharest, I saw Vod\u0103 perform in the play Acas\u0103<\/strong> [Home] (text by Ludmila Razumovskaia, directed by Radu Apostol), which revolutionized the Romanian theatre through its social and community-oriented approach and its solid poetic construction. Acas\u0103<\/strong> marked the path for new theatrical practices, for profound aesthetic and political reflections upon extremely vulnerable realities, upon the world of fragile \u201cundesirables\u201d whose self-representation is usually shunned by the art with capital A. Acas\u0103<\/strong> was created by director Radu Apostol together with a group of homeless children and two professional actresses, after six months of collective work. Through the play, \u201cthe children of concrete and dreams\u201d were talking to the children and adults in the public about abused \u201cunder-childhoods\u201d, about childhoods lived in the airways of the sewage system where each day was a struggle to survive. Acas\u0103<\/strong> proposed a theatre of the permanently threatened precariousness, sheltered on the big stage, where the invisibles\u2019 transformation into visible was possible, where the play could give political revenge to a marginalized reality. Where things uncomfortable to watch were confronting us with a radical sight. Face-to-face, children and adults lived the reality of being expulsed from safe territories, and the reality of decomposing the solid social body segregating the marginals. The unrepresented self-represented themselves and defined their own poetic and political position. (Mihaela Michailov<\/strong>)<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Photo

Photo from Acas\u0103 play<\/p><\/div>\n

Tell me a bit about the period when you lived on the street. Where were you staying? <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

As you can realize, nothing was safe about where I was staying. I lived on the street since I was six and a half years old, until I was 17. At first, there was that feeling of total freedom, that nobody was bothering me about when I came in, when I went out, where I ate. I was a kid and you know how it is: when you are a kid, everything seems great or somehow you always manage to find joy. Of course there were also many nasty things: the policemen, who would beat you, woke you up, beat you up and threw you out of the subway, people who were trying to get you involved in all sorts of things, and so on. But all the rest was like a game, because, well, you\u2019re a kid and you create your paradise. I was free and I did not have these values: one should have a house, one should get cleaned, one should go to school and become something\u2026 Everything was a game to me. It was \u201chere and now\u201d, and it was magic, because I was so young and I did not perceive everything as I did later on. I was staying around Big Berceni metro station. It was a good place because the market was near and it was easy to get food. [\u2026]<\/p>\n

How did you become homeless?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

My mother died when I was 6 and I ran away from home. I never had any connection to my dad, I didn\u2019t feel he was \u201cdad\u201d, but someone taking care of me as if he wanted to believe I was his child. Later on I found out I was adopted. Dad was never there for me, I was never on his good side. I wanted to run away and escape, to become my own self. I wanted to be free. This is what I was feeling, but I didn\u2019t know how to express it in words. This\u2026 the need for freedom. Then, around the time I turned 17, things changed. I started to be interested in girls, I wanted to be clean for them to look at me, I was watching them\u2026 Something was growing inside me, I was no longer a child. But I was dirty, and I was feeling dirty\u2026 And little by little I had to wish for a change, and that change came. I started going to a day centre around Dristor neighbourhood. You would go there during the day, wash your clothes, eat, there was a schedule, a psychologist and a social worker trying to assist you to integrate, to go to school\u2026<\/p>\n

So did you go to school?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

I did. I had to and I went. [\u2026] At the day centre I met Radu Apostol, who was there to work for Acas\u0103<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

[\u2026] I still remember those emotions when playing Acas\u0103<\/strong>, when I was looking at the people in the first three rows with tears in their eyes and feeling our story is touching them, when we were telling them: \u201csee, life is about this as well, about homeless children that you pass by every day thinking they don\u2019t stand a chance. Do you understand this? This is how it is\u2026 so let\u2019s change something! What do you say, do you want to make the change? You cannot ignore these realities forever!\u201d It felt as if I was about to take wing! I was feeling on the right tracks. [\u2026] I have to admit that at first I was mostly there for the fun, but then I started to like it a lot and wanted it never to end. I was very enthused with everything that was happening to me. I kept being amazed! Then, in parallel, I started working with ARAS (Romanian Association against AIDS), supporting homeless and sex workers \u2013 a new environment, new colleagues. I grew up close to wonderful very dedicated people. [\u2026]<\/p>\n

After the <\/em><\/strong>Acas\u0103 project, you received social housing.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Yes, and I stayed in the apartment for about seven years. At first, we were six people in the flat, and then 4 were left, then only 2. I brought a lot of people from the neighbourhood to the theatre. People who only went to the theatre when they were kids, to see Snow White, and haven\u2019t been there since. I would tell them: come to see how it\u2019s like! Leaving the apartment felt like falling off a cliff. For 2-3 months I stayed with a friend at Big Berceni, loading and unloading stuff for the market. I was sleeping in his small booth. Wasted life. I knew I could get away from this life, but it was hard. I learnt a lot from that experience. Then I did some time [for drug dealing, trans.n.].<\/p>\n

For how long?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Two years and two moths. Towards the end, knowing I would be out soon, I started thinking: how will I react? Being out, it felt like I\u2019ve been in prison for only one second, although it was really harsh there. We were 9 to 34 people in the cell. No place to sit, no place to eat, it\u2019s like a horror movie. It\u2019s inhuman. You cannot expect the person being locked in to become a better person; in fact, that person becomes dehumanized. It\u2019s a total mockery. It\u2019s like we have our evil side super-activated and we exploit it so see how evil it can get.<\/p>\n

What do you do now?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

I started doing massages; I did this at the seaside all summer long and I want to continue doing it. Moreover, together with a film director I wrote a script based on my experiences and I hope we will make a short film. [\u2026]<\/p>\n

What do you wish for the most?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

To feel good with myself, to share good vibes. There are things that I\u2019d wish for, but, at the same time, I don\u2019t dare to wish for. I don\u2019t want to jump head first. I want to have a steady income, to become more socially involved, to organize painting workshops with disadvantaged kids and cool artists, maybe even a summer camp at some point. I was thinking to do massages in residential centres for the elderly. I\u2019d like to be part of socially involved theatre projects \u2013 because the original theatre was purely social, and only later it became entertainment. I\u2019d like to do this in order to open people\u2019s eyes beyond their jobs, their properties, beyond what they think they know. I don\u2019t want to own things and properties. I have a motto: if I feel good, flowers bloom out of the walls. [\u2026]<\/p>\n

What\u2019s a home for you?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

A place where you recharge your energy. Where you relax, eat, wash up, make love if you have a partner. A place where you unwind after absorbing so much from the world outside. Everybody should have a home. Every person in this world should have a place to sleep, eat and wash up. [\u2026] There were times in my life when I just wanted to disappear. Not to die, but to disappear. I wished for the lights to go off. How could a 35-40 years old policeman wake a kid up by hitting his soles with a club? a kid sleeping in the subway, barefoot, dressed only with ragged trousers and a blouse, when it was deadly cold. How could he hit like that? That was too much for me! This is one of those things\u2026 forever imprinted in your flesh! This is the maximum evil! A man with a club beating the hell out of you because he can! I was picked up by policemen many times on the street. They would take me to the station and beat the hell out of me for like half an hour. They would hit me with their clubs as if I were a rug. I sometimes wonder why all those things happened to me; and I think only really strong people get to live things like that. I feel it\u2019s a really heavy burden. But I managed to feel good with myself in the end. I carry a database inside. Some data fade away, disappear, some remain.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Interview by MIHAELA MICHAILOV<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Interview with FLORIAN VOD\u0102 In 2001, at Creang\u0103 Theatre in Bucharest, I saw Vod\u0103 perform in the play Acas\u0103 [Home] (text by Ludmila Razumovskaia, directed by Radu Apostol), which revolutionized the Romanian theatre through its social and community-oriented approach and its solid poetic construction. Acas\u0103 marked the path for new theatrical practices, for profound aesthetic and political reflections upon extremely vulnerable realities, upon the world of fragile \u201cundesirables\u201d whose self-representation is usually shunned by the art with capital A. Acas\u0103 was created by director Radu Apostol together with a group of homeless children and two professional actresses, after six months…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[92],"tags":[132,97,133,145],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/artapolitica.ro\/gazetapolitica\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2605"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/artapolitica.ro\/gazetapolitica\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/artapolitica.ro\/gazetapolitica\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artapolitica.ro\/gazetapolitica\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artapolitica.ro\/gazetapolitica\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2605"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/artapolitica.ro\/gazetapolitica\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2605\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3817,"href":"https:\/\/artapolitica.ro\/gazetapolitica\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2605\/revisions\/3817"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/artapolitica.ro\/gazetapolitica\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artapolitica.ro\/gazetapolitica\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artapolitica.ro\/gazetapolitica\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}