In Others’ Words

Sound, stereo, 19.18 min

“In Others’ Words” is a sound-based work and live performance that follows a non-linear script based on handwritten notes found by the author in her neighbourhood in Bucharest, between 2010 and 2022. While strolling around the house or going to nearby shops, whenever Crunțeanu saw a piece of paper handwritten on she would pick it up.

For a long time, she thought this archive will one day turn into a work about handwriting, as a technology on the verge of disappearance. Maybe someday it will. In the meantime, the present work tells the story of a collective mind made of individuals who share only two things: they passed through a small geographical area in the last 10 years, and they had something that needed to be put into words, whether it was notes to self, shopping lists, complaints to or about neighbours, lyrics to be remembered, words of wisdom, love letters, homeworks, recipes or simply stream of consciousness writings.

The accompanying soundscape, together with the performative delivery of the text, creates the atmosphere of a long lament, whose spiritual force lies in the possibility of awakening words once lost, ghost words, once again.

Commisioned by Tentative Transmits:The Radio as G/Host, organized by Olivia Berkowicz and Marianna Feher.

Text, voice: Larisa Crunțeanu
Recordings, soundmix: Laurențiu Coțac