I had the idea for this project approximately one year ago, but it took me more than seven months after I first started it- in February 2008- to find enough people that would get themselves involved in this.
Most of them are friends, acquaintances, or just strangers I have met by spreading the word around to everyone I know.
Even if in some cases they were people that were close enough to myself, I don’t think I would have ever found out about these scars and their stories outside the given, premeditated context set by this project.
There are the kind of events people do not usually talk about, is that part of their personal history that remains hidden. This is the case when we talk about traumatic events but also for the insignificant little accidents that marked our existence.
That was exactly what interested me- to find the visual, tangible cues of the experiences of individuals- and I was prepared for the intrusive and some times very private character of the discussions I had with the people photographed.
In our conversations preceding the written texts, I have tried to insist upon recollecting as many details as possible from the period the incidents had happen, in a way seeking to individualize as much as possible the stories by addressing and recounting the wider context or particular sensations from that time.
I have also paid attention to the reaction of the people in front of the task of writing their own tale. Most of them tried to minimize as much as possible the importance of the incidents, even when they were talking about more tragic events and they were visibly
affected , by displaying a sometimes sough-after detachment,even humorous act.
affected , by displaying a sometimes sough-after detachment,even humorous act.
This is in a way a documentary assignment, an attempt to look at the people involved in the project through their recollected experiences, through a singled out event that marked accidently or not their existence, sometimes almost indistinguishably, other times more profoundly.
The project was shown as part as an exhibition on September 12 2008 at 'Galeria 29'- an independent project of Mircea Nicolae, all items exhibited were given to the participants. More here.
