Projects
My personal projects bring me to unexpected places without and within. They allow me to discover new perspectives on life, on womanhood, on identity and spirituality.
Caldarari – Transylvania‘s traditional Gypsies
Romania has the largest proportion of Gypsy people in the world. It’s estimated that two million people or 5-10% of the population are Roma. Romania joined the EU in 2007 but many gypsy customs are outside of EU regulations working on hundreds of years of tradition and ritual.
My Project shows the Caldarari gypsies, a community who has settled down on the brink of a former saxon village in Transylvania. They have built enormous houses to demonstrate their wealth to the rest of the world but also to each other. Every Caldarari has the surname Caldararu which means tin or coppersmith. The Caldarari work in the same handcraft since many hundreds of years, they make their money from forging buckets, kettles, pots and boilers for distilling alcohol.
Like many Gypsy Communities the Caldarari live in a rigorous patriarchal society, property will always be inherited by sons and childhood engagements ensure that their children remain in the caldarari community, therefore girls usually leave their families in a young age to get married to the son of an adequate Family. School education does not mean a lot to them, as the most important value and foundation of their culture is to be good in their traditional hand trade, which they won‘t learn at school but from their families, as they say.
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- Main street, Caldarari Community /Transylvania / 2011
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- Nicolaie Caldarari, 38 and his son Cuza Caldarari 15, distilling alcohol in the backyard
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- Nicolaie Caldarari, 10 (Caldarari Community /Transylvania / 2011) Name unsure ???
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- Every Caldarari has the surname Caldararu which means tin or coppersmith . The Caldarari work in the same handcraft since many hundreds of years, they make their money from forging buckets, kettles, pots and boilers for distilling alcohol, women are often responsible to sell their work. (Caldarari Community /Transylvania / 2009)
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- (Caldarari Community /Transylvania / 2009) Main life happens outside, its not very often that the romas would sit inside to watch tv.
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- Tuta Caldarari 13, Caldarari Community /Transylvania / 2009 The community is used to throw their main waste on this hill in the middle of the village, which has not been an issue so far as plastic waste is not common for them yet.
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- Caldarari Community /Transylvania / 2011): (beginning from left) Veta Lacatus, 34 (Mother and Grandmother), Maria Caldarar, 19 (Veta‘s daughter and Mother of a 3 year old son), Eva Caldarar, 15 married to Cuza Caldarar, 15 (Veta‘s son), Iova Cercea, 64 (Grandmother and great-grandmother)
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- Iova Cercea, 61 with her grandson Cuza Caldarar, 12, Transylvania / 2008 The family supports their son to go to school they prefer him though to learn their traditional hand trade. His wish to study law won’t be accepted by his traditional living family.
