Aici Chișinău!

I've congregated my fellow space and time sharers (Chișinău, summer 2023) to create this playlist that is relatively representative of the chaotic blend of our identity and sense of belonging to this minuscule yet grandiose space. As part of the diaspora (as are 28.7% of Moldovans), I see belongingness and the concept of longing (dor) as closely tied to our sense of identity.

These songs and images, besides being fun and dancey, symbolize the identitarian limbo and relativity of our post-imperialist reality, caused by 106 years under the Russian Empire, 47 years under Soviet rule, 29 more years of in/direct Kremlin-led political rule (until current president Maia Sandu took office), and a continuous process of re-embracing formerly suppressed national/post-national identities.

My generation is re-evaluating the collective identity, questioning memory and history; we search for a more pluralistic understanding, where our identity is not one, but in constant change. After the fall of the USSR, our parents negotiated nationalities – Romanian/Moldovan/Soviet-nostalgics – Romanian being the culture and nationality we held before the USSR. Now, I’d like to think, we go beyond nationalism, considering a series of forms that have affected our existence. This, again, I’d like to think, helps us mold a trajectory moving forward.

The attention we now give to Bessarabian1 folklore is a way of decolonizing our culture, but also an effort of balancing the new pendulum shift toward Westernization and maintaining a distinct identity informed by pre-imperialistic ways re-expressed by us. The direction of the future is well known (i.e., globalization/EU agreement 2023), but is it really? How are we using music and image to create multiple directions for our diverse existences?

For everyone – I invite you to see Moldova as a pluriversal cosmos compacted into a mini-country. Pentru ai mei – vă invit să ne bucurăm de multilateralitatea noastră și să explorăm/experimentăm/dizolvăm/creăm un mâine AȘÁ (nu, așa-ș-așa)!2

*azi așa, da’ mâine (today it’s like this, but how about tomorrow?).

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Music: Surorile Osoainu/Tălăncuța
Track: Lerule (Moldavian SSR, 1986)
Directed: Andrei Tamazlâcaru
Sequences from the film Tălăncuța: Anatol Codru (a Moldova-Film production)

Tălăncuța is the phenomenon of our culture, an expression of respect for the spiritual heritage of the people, the heritage that we collect bit by bit and return to the people. I would be very sad if this was all interpreted differently. The Osoianu Sisters are the heart of Tălăncuța…

Ditto. The Osoianu Sisters and the Tălăncuța ensemble are the carriers of folklore, putting it on a silver platter for my generation through their many collaborations and openness to making folklore accessible and malleable for «younger» genres. The legendary Andrei Tamazlîcaru, the founder of Tălăncuța, led folklore collection expeditions during which a large amount of little-known and unprocessed songs were collected and included in the ensemble’s repertoire – thank you for your service! The preservation of folklore is a whole topic of discussion, but for the sake of my argument, it stands as a way of rebuilding an identity that’s been desecrated and ridiculed by a bugged system. I mean… who takes a language and just changes its written form?3 It’s quite exciting to see rising interest in folklore, yet it’s time to start a more multifaceted conversation beyond the binary of folklore that is authentic/not, pure/not, correct/not. After all, you can’t spell folklore without folk = people = us and lore = to teach (although there are multiple etymologies). So, the question lingers – what did/do we learn to re/shape ourselves? (azi așa, da’ mâine?).

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Music: Sergiu Cibotaru
Track: Troleibuzul 25 (2009)
Direction: Viorel Mardare
Editing: Viorel Mardare

Until 2000 we were another world, another continent, surrounded by grape leaves, civilized concomitantly. Until a trolleybus with red stripes came…

We can theorize and overanalyze what is the symbolism of this trolleybus along with the 2000s urban elements in the video (spoiler: it shows the shift from a Soviet bus ostanovka to a «post-Soviet»4 bus station), but this video represents a constant – the unity of our community (cliché, but hear me out). The star of this video is its director Viorel Mardare (no hard feelings, Sergiu), who created numerous music videos and commercials (like «Go on. Fruits from Moldova») that depicted the richness of our reality, with a sprinkle of nostalgia, and a bit of… contextual humor. When Viorel fell ill with cancer, the Chișinău community came together to celebrate his life and unity alongside it, even reuniting the legendary band Snails for a special «last» concert at the cancer treatment fundraising event. See the next video.

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Music: Snails
Track: Blue Passports (2011)

We allow… (says everyone in the intro) ... the use of this video for the making of the video clip «Blue Passports».

I remember when Snails launched a call to the diaspora to send dancing videos featuring Moldova’s blue passport (now it’s red – we need a remix). As a model diaspora member, I abided, and so did many others. The unity I talked about in the previous video makes a comeback across borders. The 28.7% of Moldovans who migrated, we (yes, I speak for everyone) grab on to any real connection to our land (sometimes obsessively so), to any chance to feel that kinship that will never be the same once you’ve left. For a moment we microdosed a sense of belonging that dissolved our traumatic de-rootedness a bit. Moldova sees a clear growing economic and cultural schism between the diaspora and local population, where our economy is highly dependent on remittances, our summers and holidays are packed with the diaspora «stimulating the economy», and an influx of returned young professionals bringing the «best practices» from their studies abroad.

I invite my diasporans to be more vulnerable; maybe it’s alright to say that it’s a bit overrated over there, or it’s ok to come home during the summer and feel like a boss when you pay for everyone’s jinică (wine) and gălușca (food). But how much do you miss home? How hard is it to not understand the new street lingo? And how angry are you for having to leave because of all your debt? Because of uncertainty? Because of hope?

I invite the locals to be more vulnerable. Maybe it’s annoying to see the privilege of geographical mobility, the work-from-homes with foreign salaries. Why do they think they know more? But how much do you miss them, though? How much do you wish your country was a choice?

Let’s sprinkle some vulnerability and see that we’re all lost, and we’re still one.

Back to Snails, my favorite band from 2008–2011. On this legit platform, I want to officially take the opportunity and direct a message to the band – ap’ când? Ni-i dor! (When? We miss it!)

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Music: Via Dacă
Track: Mai lin (2023)
Image: Maria Guțu (from the documentary Printre stânci), Valentin Bostan
Editing: Valentin Bostan

Smoother, smoother, wormwood flower, in my heart…

Ditto. Let me explain. In our folklore, «wormwood and basil are considered to bring good luck in love… girls used to wash themselves in the morning [with wormwood- or basil-infused water] to be more beautiful or to have luck in love», explains Albinel Firescu, head of the Ethnography Section of the Gorj County Museum. Via Dacă takes the mysticism from our folklore and explores the magic of our land, making sense and making felt what we tend not to let ourselves feel. The video is special because it uses snippets from Maria Guțu’s documentary Printre stânci, depicting life in a northern village. It reflects the song (titled «smooth»’) by showing how smoothly time flows in the village, the beautiful moments shared with the other-than-human, the collective understanding, and the ease of love (all kinds of loves). Let’s wash ourselves with wormwood water and fill ourselves with loooooove.

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Music: Dim the Light (feat. Mic-ul Psih)
Track: Accept Your Inner Bîc (2021)
Script, direction, editing: Adrian Gușan
Director of photography: Lucian Spataru

You gotta accept your inner bîc.5

This music video reflects the increased self-reflection of my generation about our lack of emotional intelligence and other… shortcomings (blame our Soviet parenting). Not sure. Haven’t consulted the artists (because I wasn’t sure this video was gonna make the cut ahhahahaaha jk jk). For me, it seems to adopt a sense of pohuism,6 that, I argue, should rather be a sign that maybe there is an alternative way to… not be a bîc? (băi băieți, șiți mujici, hai vă rog la terapie).7 Anyway, the video is good, with an intriguing storyline, loads of local nuances, and niche references. It is also filmed in the legendary Pro Sănătate bar (the business lunch cantina unexpectedly turned into the social center of the andărgraund).

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Appendix

Because I need some local cumătrism8 points, here are some other videos that are legit and wonderful, but I just didn’t have the word count to fit them in.

• 1. Bessarabia is a historical region in Eastern Europe, bounded by the Dniester river on the east and the Prut river on the west, where the nation of Moldova is currently. Folklore precedes nationalism, hence the terminology used.
• 2. Translation (Romanian): For my people – I invite you to celebrate our multilateralism and explore/experiment/dissolve/create a tomorrow!
• 3. Throwback to when the Soviets took the Romanian language, changed its alphabet from Latin to Cyrillic, and called it Moldovan LOL, jk #toosoon. Also, never say «Moldovan» language.
• 4. «Post-Soviet» is a loaded word. Read Paula Erizanu’s (Erizanu 2021) article to learn more.
• 5. Bîc is a concept that depicts moronism and unfilteredness with a flare of toxic masculinity vibes.
• 6. Pohuism is a concept, a movement, a lifestyle, that embodies the «doesn’t really matter, I do me, and imma embrace it, y’kno»?
• 7. From Romanian: it might be beneficial for men who possess toxic masculinity characteristics to consider therapy.
• 8. Cumătrism is a concept similar to favoritism/cronyism/nepotism but like, cute, unless it’s in politics, or with politicians you don’t favor. ;)