“Stories & Bites” is a multimedia installation developed through an audio-video documentation process in several communities in the area of Timișoara and Banat. The installation uncovers the stories behind the dishes, through the lens of the memories of 30 people interviewed in the fall of 2023, with the aim of exploring the interaction between memory and taste, individual history and family recipe, collective memory and local traditions, culture and identity. Culinary traditions are intrinsically intertwined with historical, social and political contexts. Food evokes emotions and creates bonds, and dishes become the expression of preserving and transmitting a collective regional dynamic.

“Stories & Bites” is a project initiated and developed by Cinty Ionescu, video designer, and is brought to fruition with the support of an artistic creation scholarship Energie!, granted by the Municipality of Timișoara, through the Timișoara Project Center, within the national cultural program "Timișoara - European Capital of Culture in 2023".

The exhibition highlights the experiences and perspective of the people interviewed and explores the culinary heritage of the area. But above all, it explores the stories embedded in the dishes specific to a time and space (that of the Banat area), invested with emotions and filtered by time. The themes emerging from the testimonies filmed and organised within the installation are also determining factors for the choices made in regard to food, the rituals around it and the transmission of it. Interculturality, historical events and political changes, the role of women in society and that of the child in the family, social stratification are some of the topics revealed during the working process on this archive.

Cinty Ionescu, the author of the installation, points out: "The selection of the people interviewed for the creation of this installation was open, in the sense that "the city was sifted" starting from the proposal to conduct interviews with several people, on the basis of the widest possible diversity in terms of ethnically, religiously, generationally and gender- wise. The participants in the documentary were interviewed over the course of a month and a half and I got to know them by walking around the country of Banat and through the kindness of those with whom I came into contact and to whom I thank.

I am very grateful for the time and stories of all those who are part of this installation, listed here in alphabetical order: Adriana Babeți, Marta Bosică, Hana Csar, Franisc Datcu, Margareta Docea, Luciana Friedman, Lia Gaudi, Monica Tasi Herczeg, Gheorghe Iana, Ivan Bogdanov, Jorgovan Javorca, Zvika Kfir, Noemi Hugel, Caius Ovidiu Merșa, Goran Mrakić, Getta Neumann, Marius Orăvițan, Andreea Pătroi, Elena Radu, Adina Ștefănescu, Cristina Șved, Iosif Tasi Tajó, Olga Török, Mihaela Vețan, Monica Vidoni, Lia Vighi, Smaranda Vultur.

I address my gratitude towards Mrs. Smaranda Vultur who honoured me with her trust, generous recommendations and her immensely rich perspective on the world in general and on the memory and oral history of the Banat, in particular.

On a personal level, my mother`s handwritten recipe book is the source idea for this project. Her recipe book was the main tool used, almost ritualistically and not always consciously, to access my identity and preserve her memory after her disappearance. This project is dedicated to her.”

Credits exhibition:
Concept, documentation and video editing: Cinty Ionescu
Design & production: David Grohe
Technical equipment thanks to the Media Center of the Politehnica University Timișoara