AMINTIRILE DIASPOREI


an archive
about
romanian
migration










ABOUT





ABSTRACT

This is an archival platform bringing to light pictures in the context of Romanian migration. It aims to collect and make accessible family pictures from Romanian migrants. Through this platform, we can interrogate the role stories and narratives play in activating cultural memory. This project seeks to preserve a collective visuality specific to the context of Romanian migration.

PROBLEM

Amintirile Diasporei’s main goal is the preservation of memory in a critical way. This platform allows Romanian migrants to share images relating to their past and present, family pictures. While collecting, we also want to ask “How is memory passed on through images?” This project seeks to question the (re)production of knowledge in the context of migration. For example, we aim to understand how family histories are passed on generationally with the help of pictures? The material memory related to migration is preserved in personal archives such as boxes filled with family pictures, traditional garments and cooking books. Can the personal archive be activated in a communal and digital space? This web platform seeks to recontextualize material memory related to the Romanian migration in a public setting.

OBJECTIVES

The main objectives of this platform is to create public access to personal archives of the Romanian diaspora and to inquire about the transmission of memory through pictures. Opening up personnel archives constructed through the process of migration allows participants to share their experiences with people who can understand and relate. What people have brought from the origin country can tell us about what they value most while being restricted in the amount of belongings they can keep. This also tells us what knowledge or stories they want to pass on.

Amintirile Diasporei is an archival project facilitated by Sabina Roman since March 2022.


RESEARCH QUESTIONS

  1. How is memory passed on through digital or printed images?
  2. How do we (re)produce knowledge in the context of migration
  3. Can the personal archive be activated in a communal and digital space?
  4. Which role do pictures play in the narratives of cultural/collective memory? 

KEYWORDS 

Archive
Memory
Romanian migration
Vernacular photography
Images



SUBMIT






This platform is an ongoing project, we are always adding new material. Everybody is welcomed to contribute to the archive by submitting at amintirilediasporei@gmail.com.

Guidelines
  1. We accept any medium (image, video, sound, etc) and any format (jpeg, png, tiff, mov, mp4, mp3, wav, flac, etc).
  2. Send us your file in the best quality available. 
  3. Send us a short description with your file in this way: title, date, city, contribution by Name in Month Year (Family picture in the garden, August 2003, Bacau, Romanian, contribution by Sabina Roman on March 2022.)

If you have a large archive that you would like to showcase on this platform, we can help you digitize it. Get in contact with us at amintirilediasporei@gmail.com.