HD video, stereo sound, 24h, 2010 – ongoing
(actual duration 2:30 min, 2025)
Using sound as guide, since 2010 I have explored various parts of Timișoara, from the city center to the outskirts – neighborhoods and streets, both iconic and abandonedplaces – to carefully observe and document the urban landscapes.
It began as an exercise in exploration and conscious observation of the urban space – of this complex and dynamic ecosystem we call a city.
There were, of course, long breaks – sometimes months, even years, would pass without any recordings, but it developed a reflex for listening, an attentiveness to sound. An element, we tend to label as noise. A constant hum, to which we no longer pay attention; in an urban landscape dominated by images, sound remains somewhere in the background, just as an instinctive sense of orientation.
There are places I revisit periodically. Changes inevitably occur, on a small or large scale, and are easy to spot visually. Sound, however, has a different dynamic – it’s much more versatile, fleeting, and never the same.
The film’s main protagonist is the sound. The accompanying images are observational, chosen from the sound recording’s vantage point. A fixed frame, like a photograph, a viewpoint from the very spot where something is happening or where only a detail specific to that place is captured. The image does not follow, but rather avoids capturing the source of the sound, leaving the viewer free to imagine, recognize, or identify its origin.
The clips are arranged in the order of the hour and minute they were recorded, regardless of the year. In this way, the clips collected over the years merge into a single 24-hour day.The project can be seen as a documentary of the present moment – comprehensive yet fragmented that challenges us to actively observe and listen to the urban environment and our surroundings.
An audio-visual diary of the situation, the moment, and the presence or absence.
Made possible through funding from the Energie! Creative Grants, by the City of Timișoara through Center for Projects.
Presented at !t – a space for it, Timișoara, 2025
some excerpts from 2011, entitled previously City of Noise