Been there, done that!

So, our little chalking expedition in Bucharest is over. At least for now. It was short but fun and exiting. So, what lessons have we learned? First of all – make sure you don’t make yourself bored with writing the same thing over and over again :) Second, things which seems that will not work in the beginning might work out just perfect. I guess people in Bucharest haven’t used to unusual experience on the street, for example, to see grown up people playing with a chalk in most busy area in the busiest hour of the day. And maybe that is the main reason why we got so nice responses and reactions. During few days we went on the street, we received a lot of surprised face expressions and a lot of smiles. Another observation we made is, that though people were interested in what we do and write, not everybody was brave or curious enough to stop and talk to us. Probably if we knew Romanian language better, we could be more provocative and approach people who were just looking at our messages.

But anyway, we understood that chalking is a good way to interact with people. Because, when you take a chalk and start writing on the ground, people look at you not very seriously and because of that are more open to communication and when you have caught their attention, you can transmit your message not only by written statement but also in a face-to-face discussion. So, chalking in Bucharest is not over yet. You never know when chalk attack will come again. But, be ready...

And the awnser is....

Hi again!

So, have you figured out the puzzle?
Let us know and write a comment with the answer!

Thanks a lot :)

All the best!

BUCURI

chalk revolution

Today we went on the street a bit later than usually. We wanted to see if it changes the people we meet and the reactions we get. And we were also hoping to different reactions, because we had new thoughts to share. Route – piaţa Victoriei to piaţa Revoluţiei. Already at second chalk stop we met some guys who were very interested in what we are doing. And one of them said that probably we didn’t go to school, because we misspelled the sentence -again :). But when we said that we are not Romanians, he was like: “Oh, ok – no problem!” and corrected the mistake. But I’m still not sure if he made a good correction or not, because Romanian version of message “Do you agree that we don’t always have to agree?” we got from a Romanian girl. So, there is still unclear which version is correct one. Another man responding to a message “Bucharest… let’s get lost in the wires of the city!” said that probably it is not good idea, because the wires are not good for your health – magnetic fields and other things.
On our way to piaţa Revoluţiei we did some experiment with messages and environment, for example, “Bucharest is a modern city, or at least that’s what they say on TV!” in front of closed and graffiti covered “Hugo Boss” shop, and “I judge Bucharest, but Bucharest will never judge me” in the middle of piaţa Revoluţiei. To this message some ladies after spending approximately 30 seconds for reading responded with loud laughs. Unfortunately our camera died shortly after this, so we decided to go back to yesterday’s spots and check if messages are still there. Some of them were almost gone, so we “renovated” them and got some other reactions. One guy asked what are we writing, but was too impatient – after invitation to wait a bit and see himself, he spent few seconds but for him the writing process was too long and he went away. And when we were about to leave, some street kids came to us, asked for a chalk and went to put right punctuation for our last message. So, probably for people of Bucharest it is more important not what is written on the pavement, but that it is written correct…

BUCURI

On your knees, ready...set...GO!

Another day on the street – on our knees with chalk in our hands. Route of today – from piaţa Universitati to piaţa Romana. We went on a street in the busy hours of afternoon and started with metro exit at Universitate. And situation again similar like yesterday – people look interested at us, but without any further interaction. But today a lot of people stopped and looked at our phrases, read them and you could see by their faces that they are thinking “what a hell does it mean?” Some people even read the phrases out loud thinking that it would help them to understand them betterJ There was a lady and a guy in two different places who actually took a picture of us in action. We tried to start to talk with the guy, but he was too shy to reply. The funniest reaction we received from a drunken man, who corrected our spelling mistakes. He was very enthusiastic explaining what we wrote wrong. And in general the view from a side look something like this – Judith writing on the pavement, few people coming, stopping around her and wondering what is going on, reading the text and then like after a command all together they went away. And like this several times. At our last message “How cool are your grandparents?” we left one guy standing next to the writing and looking at it. It look like that he would guard this phrase. But the longest conversation we had with a German guy. Unfortunately he didn’t understand the meaning of the text, but he was very interested in what we were doing and said that it is nice idea. And we think the same.

But lesson learned from today – get more messages to share with people, because after 3 days using the same lines over and over again it becomes boring to us. So, tomorrow with new strength, new messages and new stencil, because old one is broken – we will be on the street again!

BUCURI

Second day of action

After two rainy days, which didn’t allow us to go on the street, finally today weather became good again and we could go chalking. Area of action – piaţa Unirii. A lot of people where passing by, a lot of people paid attention to our actions, but surprisingly few of them actually asked what we are doing. It is interesting – in our neighbourhood almost every second person stopped and wanted to talk to us, but in the centre only few. Probably people are just too busy with their own thoughts running from home to work, from work to shop, from shop to home. But anyway – there were people watching, reading and actually trying to speak with us. And the most popular question was: ”What does it mean? What you want to say with this?” When we said to people that they should have their own interpretation and understanding of the messages, they just shake their heads and went away. But we managed to have longer conversation with a guy, who had nice interpretation of message “Bucharest is safe enough to get lost in!” He said, that for him it means that getting lost in Bucharest is nice.

Today we also got our first negative reaction. A lady in Unirii park was very anxious about us. I don’t know if she didn’t like the fact that we are writing or the message itself (Bucharest is city of speed. Green spaces are destroyed fast.) Lady tried to convince security guy from the park that he should send us away and clean the pavement. But when the guy tried to clean the message, expression on his face said, that only thing he wants to disappear is crazy lady. And after she went away, man said that we are doing nothing wrong. Ha, nice! But in general security guys are funny, because when they look at us you can see that he has an inner fight with himself, they don’t understand if they should come and send us away, or actually it is OK what we are doing. So far, so good!

So, result of today – a lot of indirect reactions and few nice and emotional ones! Tomorrow more. See you on the street!

6th of September

One day

The places we've been
The people we've seen
The traces we've left

BUCURI

First day

So, here we go! First day of action...
A little chalking around our neighbourhood and already several reactions. It works – with everybody! Kids even asked us what is the name of game was we were playing. Another man tried to convince us that Romanians are not open for actions like this, but in the same time was so willing to communicate. Too bad that our level of Romanian language didn’t allow us to talk more. There were also a couple of young guys who were surprised by people their age playing with a chalk on the ground.... and the young family who helped to check if our spelling is correct (translation for picture: "Get of the pavement! I have no space to park!")

Tomorrow more !
Looking forward for it a lot

BUCURI

Bucharest is....

Living for 8 months in this big city – Bucharest – sometimes looking at people, situations in our everyday life it is hard to find explanation of one or another situation and then you just say:” Eh, it is Bucharest, don’t ask questions!” But we decided that it is finally time to start to ask questions, so we can understand better the city we have lived in, city in a way the same as other big cities, but in the same time so different.