End of March/beginning of April GAIA team went to Vojvodina and together with colleagues from VCV visited several places in which we could get a puzzle about the story of HEMP.
The first point was Bečej, small town situated at River Tisa in the center of Vojvodina, and Ede and Tamas Sinkovic.
We were impressed by the transformative power hemp has. It was obvious at the first site. An old abandoned chicken factory was transformed into some kind of a hemp lab. In this place, hemp is being stored and processed by DIY machines. Amazing! Ede has been known for his passion to turn waste into art with a strong message. His passion for hemp might be even stronger. Even though hemp requires lots of physical and paperwork (wth occasional fines due to mistakes), Ede and his cousin Tamas are not giving up. They are aware of the power and potential of hemp and they continue promoting its use and doing it themselves.
We had an introduction about the plan, its cutivation, challenges, administrative obstacles and prejudices. We got to see how part of the procssing is being done, to touch and see diffrent forms of hemp hurd and try working with some of the machines.
We also learned that together with the Faculty of Construction from Subotica, they made a small test house from hempcrete in the form of rammed earth. More tests and experiments are yet to be made.
We learnt a lot and got inspired by the first stop during this study visit and agreed to join them in one of the next group actions – because working with hemp requires many hands, and lots of time.
Ede also likes to make hemp installations during festivals, and one of them is the upcoming Dombos fest in Vojvodina.
Dombos fest: https://www.facebook.com/dombos.fest
If you are interested in learning a bit more about their hemp-art lab, check out this video in Hungarian language.
Stay tuned for more…
This study visit was realised thanks to the support of the European Heritage Hub pilot Project co-funded by the European Union and supported by the ALIPH Foundation.
