An exhibition of photographs titled “(Re)Know Your Village” was mounted in Roșietici village of Florești district. The exhibits include photos by Zaharia Cușnir, which were taken in the village. The event shows how a locality developed during only half a century, said event organizer Victor Galușca, who found the thousands of photographic negatives on which the exhibition is based, IPN reports.

Of all the found negatives, Victor Galușca managed to use only 60%, the rest being damaged.

“Zaharia Cușnir photographed life in his village in 1955-1970. The village is now fully different. Many of the houses no longer exist. Many people left and it is hard to imagine that someone lived in those places earlier,” stated Victor Galușca.

The exhibition was mounted on the bank of the Răut River, not far from an abandoned house in whose attic Victor Galușca found the collection of negatives. The organizers’ intention was to transform Roșietici into an open-air museum during the event, but the plan failed owing to the pandemic restrictions. The photos taken by Zaharia Cușnir are black and white.

The exhibition was also staged in Chisinau and in a number of Romanian cities, such as Bucharest and Cluj-Napoca and also in Poland. National and foreign media outlets told in 20 languages about the photo ‘treasure’ found in the attic of the abandoned house in Roșietici. Among these was The Washington Post.

The exhibit can be visited on September 18-19 by respecting all the measures imposed by the National Extraordinary Public Health Commission.

Victor Galușca is a professional photographer who graduated from the Academy of Music, Theater and Plastic Arts of Chisinau, the Direction Department.