Interview with Carolina Dutca

Meet NUNUM's Winter 2020 Contributor: Carolina Dutca

3/27/2021

NUNUM

Blending Flash Fiction & Art

Interview with Carolina Dutca

Carolina Dutca and Valentin Sidorenko got our Winter 2020 issue off on the right foot with their piece Apa 5, read on to learn more about Carolina and of course to find out about her first book, her influences and a little more about what makes this wonderful Moldovan artist tick.

Winter 2020 cover

Carolina Dutca from NUNUM Winter 2020

Carolina, what was the first book you remember picking and reading by yourself?

Apa 3 by Carolina Dutca & Valentin Sidorenko

It was probably some stupid children's book that my mother made me read. I hated reading in kindergarten. But the first books I really wanted to read were a series of books about the Moomins by Tove Jansson. This was my first immersive experience in a fairy tale.

Thank you, a new one for me there, although I'm sure that wasn't your last fairy tale. But what about more recently, what was the last book you read that made you say damn that was a good book?

The playwright Ivan Vyrypaev had a strong influence on me and my work.

Over the past two years, I have often re-read a collection of his plays and each time I have found in them new semantic and emotional levels. My favorite play is probably UFO about aliens, people, love, God and silence.

And that is exactly why I love those questions, I simply haven't found a better way to learn about interesting new things to read. Okay so last one on books, when you need something to read on holiday who are your go-to writers?

I really love animals and Gerald Durrell, his book My Family and Other Animals for me is the embodiment of an ideal childhood in contact with nature.

Apa 5 by Carolina Dutca & Valentin Sidorenko

Let's pivot to artists, are there any contemporary artists you admire?

Apa 7 by Carolina Dutca & Valentin Sidorenko

The conductor Teodor Currentzis, playwright Ivan Vyrypaev, poet Dmitry Vodennikov, directors: Kirill Serebrennikov, Alexander Sokurov, Quentin Tarantino, Wong Kar-Wai, Kim Ki Duk, Michel Gondry, David Lynch, Revaz Gabriadze, Woody Allen, Wes Anderson, musicians: DakhaBrakha, James Blake, Nino Katamadze, Ivan Dorn, Benjamin Clementine, Lianne La Havas, Hozier, dancers: Pina Bausch, Mikhail Baryshnikov.

You've just filled my search queue for the next few night because there are so many there I just don't know. What about in your local community, is there an artist you would recommend people check out?

First of all, these are the works of my husband Valentin Sidorenko, and I also like the images and meanings of Igor Elukov.

What about your current artist direction Carolina, which artists have influenced you there the most?

Vincent Van Gogh and his subtle perception of the world. I come back to his letters and paintings constantly.

Not a bad place to go back to you I'd say. What advice would you give someone who is just starting to send their work out to journals?

Usually I send to a hundred contests and magazines and five of them take your work, and sometimes take one, and sometimes 50. It's hard to guess in advance how much your work will coincide with other people and with how many of these people.

Apa 12 by Carolina Dutca & Valentin Sidorenko

So I prefer to do it without thinking about the future result.

Apa 14 by Carolina Dutca & Valentin Sidorenko

Don't think about it, just get your work out there, that seems to be the message I get from many artists when I bring that up.

Carolina Dutca works with photography, video, installation

and text. Her art projects are connected with the theme of relationships, home, nature and memory. Also, in collaboration with Valentin Sidorenko, she plays with time. They are reminiscing about fairy tales, growing up, and being naughty.

You can see more of her work on Instagram @dutcarolina or on her website.

Carolina Dutca

Artist's Statement

Every Friday evening a biology teacher Elena comes to the river bank to feed the fish with cookies. It was like this for many years, until one day she came across a round, elongated object wrapped in a fishing net.

The object was shimmering in different colors. Putting an ear to it one could hear a faint sound from inside this treasure, as if someone was tapping a spoon on the bark of a tree. For all its merits the object was completely useless. The woman even tried to sell it at a flea market but the buyers only examined and listened it carefully. It was gathering dust for a long time in Elena's warm apartment until a turquoise creature hatched out of it.

When Elena was a child her dad loved to narrate her about extinct creatures. Around three hundred million years ago a very special amphibian species - Labyrinthodontia buccellatum - lived on the banks of the Dniester River that flowing through the Moldova Republic. Neither aquatic nor terrestrial creatures, they were very secretive animals, so few people were pretty lucky to see them. Over time, the number of the species decreased until they completely disappeared.

This particular species Elena encountered. In the early days, the skin tones of the amphibian changed from purple to ginger, one leg turned blue and the toes were gray like sand. Elena examined the body of an amphibian. Inside its belly she found three bicycle wheels, four rusty boats, and one carpet cracker. As a result, heavy stuff poisoning and fever.

The woman began to take care of him. She taught him to sew, comb and finish the crumbs after eating. Elena gave the foundling a name – Apă [ah’pə], which means "water" in Moldavian language. Elena believes that we all came out of the water. Nowadays, every Friday they collect trash together on the riverbank and perhaps one day they will find a new egg.