artistic residency and mentorship program

Racoş is a village with a little over 2,500 inhabitants belonging to several ethnic minorities. In the heart of this village, located 60 km from Brasov, there is a geological complex that, not long ago, became a protected area. Here are the Extinct Volcano, the Emerald Lake and the Basalt Quarry. Also here was the quarry of exploitation of the basaltic rocks Brazi which left behind a basin with a diameter of 400 meters and a depth of 10 meters in which the Emerald Lake was formed. An artificial lake with a special color and many living and recent stories about its formation and transformation from the 2000's until now.

This place challenged our imagination. From the thousand-year-old volcano that transformed the colors and stones of the surrounding land, being the last active volcano in the Carpathian Mountains, to the newly formed emerald-colored lake. From the industrial career of basalt rock mining to the accident that created, with the help of the villagers, a wonder of post-industrial nature with a magical color and sound. From the huge walls with basalt rocks that invite you to enter and immerse yourself in the shapes and colors of the historical layers of a piece of land, to the multitude of ethnicities and cultures that coexist in a small and poor village in the heart of Transylvania. Fire. Earth. The water. Stone. Culture.

It seemed to us a magical place where the education of the senses and the much needed transformation of the relationship we have with nature can happen with care and respect for the elements of nature and communities.