Intervention / performance that stages symbolically two events that were cancelled due to the pandemic. On the one hand, a series of traditional fairs were cancelled, among them the St. Elijah Fair from Polovragi, one of the most important holiday and social event in the area (at the border between the counties of Gorj and Vâlcea, and halfway between the towns of Târgu Jiu and Râmnicu Vâlcea). On the other hand, a large scale participative artwork destined for the public space of an urban community was cancelled for the same reasons – the restrictions regarding communities and public events. Underlining this double cancellation is also the continuous and progressive reality of several traditions being lost – from the traditional crafts (phenomenon visible and accused even within the traditional county fairs) to the ways a social group or community relate to a collective event. On the place and at the time of the St. Elijah fair, Mălina Ionescu and Andreea Medar weaved, together with a group of friends and members of the local community a paper structure, the most basic type of weave, in a participative performance which has surprisingly succeeded in partially evoking the mood and emotion of a holiday rural event – the main function of which is, beyond its sacred meaning, a socially unifying one.
