VIDEO | Skopje joy you will be: Meet the alchemist Julia who steals smiles in Skopje
Skopje joy you will be is an audiovisual diary that shows the spirit, temperament and ECG of a city and people, in this case Skopje, says the girl who lures smiles through the capital.
Julia Castellucci is a vocal artist. He works in the field of sound art, soundscapes, making music for theater, miniatures, onomatopoeic sounds and vocal abstractions, interwoven with segments of narrative texts from various essays, mythical stories, elegies, fairy tales and sacred texts. We receive her imagination in the form of her special language combined with movement, image, drawing and sound. Most of her work is based on the Macedonian and Indian vocal tradition, performed a cappella.
We had the honor to talk to the girl behind the most beautiful Instagram profile that brings us joy and smiles every day.
But before you read the interview, take a peek at some of what won us over on her Instagram profile @skopjeradosttikebides:
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Who is hiding behind the golden microphone and making people in the city happy? How much joy does Skopje bring you?
- Behind the golden microphone hides an alchemist who knows the secret of the alchemical process, as if from an ordinary day to make a beautiful day. Skopje offers me a whole range of feelings. I never managed to translate my feelings into words, I realized that it is impossible. There is simply some substance in this city that makes me feel the way I do.
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How long have you been here and which part of the city admires you the most?
- I am constantly present in this city, only in different forms. When I am in Macedonia I always feel like coming home. My memories of this country and this city have been present in me since I knew about myself. As a child I had a ritual entry, I pretended that I was sick, for my mother to stop, to run out of the car and to lie on the asphalt by the highway to feel Macedonia. When I lay down on that asphalt, I really felt like something was heating me up inside. My mother quickly understood what it was about and every time we crossed the border, she knew her order, stopped and understood and respected my rituals. By the way, I have a seed from this soil. My grandfather is Macedonian, my mother's father was born in the village of Voislavci. The memories of that village are invaluable to me, I still remember the smells, the sounds, the hugs, the sights, the songs, the smiles, the field, the humor. They stayed in me, not only did they stay but I think a lot of those impressions made me what I am today. Now that I have answered this question I realized that, thank you for asking me this question.
Every day I find new excitement, new people, new places, but, for example, I have a special attraction towards the Green Market, there you have literally a whole range of the human race. When I walk through the Green Market, I feel like I am in Las Vegas, not in the aesthetic sense, but in the sense of the spirit that reigns there… The aura of the Green Market is like the aura of Las Vegas.
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Your chronicles of everyday life and the heroes you find hidden in ordinary people around the city are inspiring. Where did the idea for such a creative medium come from?
- Every person carries something in himself, whatever content he carries - he carries it everywhere… I had such a privilege to be born with a natural detector, to detect and locate beautiful things in people that are undiscovered or covered up. I just notice those beautiful contents in the people that make this world a better place to live and I make all those invisible things visible. I consider it my duty. And it all happens spontaneously, simply, suddenly there is an explosion in the air. I catch those moments at the same moment, I take out the phone and the alchemical process begins…
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Archiving my everyday life
The whole accident happened when I first found an iPhone 3. In my hands, with that phone, my digital journeys began. I begged my parents to buy my phone because I found out about Instagram, and then other smartphones did not have an option for that application. For me, Instagram was a fascination. I created my first Instagram account only 10 years ago and on that application I started making and collaging photos and videos. All these years, I changed phones, but I always insisted that it be an iPhone, not for elitist reasons but because of their aesthetics and the opportunities it offers. And one day a revelation happened to me - I realized that my whole life was archived in a digital space called "i cloud". I had only one period in my life that was empty, from that period I have no archives, the only period in my life where I did not want to exist, it was a period when the famous dilemma of Hamlet appeared to me, to be or not, the question is now. I did not live in Skopje at that time, it was the most painful period in my life that I will tell you on another occasion.
After a few years, gradually, I started to feel and discover the city again with the same matrix of archiving my everyday life. And for a while I started to feel like I was carrying something inside me, or rather, I felt like I was pregnant. Not in a physical sense, but spiritually. Whenever I create, I have that feeling. It's like carrying something inside me for a while and at a certain moment I feel like I have to give birth. And I simply treat the creative process that way, because pregnancy is a serious thing, pregnancy must be maintained, disciplined and dedicated. A pregnant woman takes care of her baby while she is in her womb, and especially when that baby is born, so I developed a feeling and attitude towards my deeds, as a mother to my child.
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That hidden treasure I have archived is, in fact, figuratively speaking, my new child… And that that child will come to light anywhere. And the day came when I realized and decided it was time to give birth and I did - I gave birth on September 17.09.2021, XNUMX, so I created an Instagram profile and posted the first photo of the "baby dressed in pastel pink" which I called Skopje joy you will be.
For me it is a quantum leap in my life, and how much that micro step opened a completely new portal for me, just one click turned to the other side, opened a new portal for me that you can see today on the Instagram profile Skopje, you will be happy. That profile is a kind of portal and that is why people love it so much, because it opens new spaces for them.
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Are these people you meet by chance on the street or have you known their stories before?
- Some of them are very close to me and have a special place in my life, some I know from before, some I meet for the first time, and I have a feeling as if we have known each other for centuries. And then I know I have to start recording. It's like shooting a movie, when everything is ready and the director will just say - action. But the most important thing is that high degree of spontaneity. And in fact, everything happens at that moment, as it is, and that is why it is so tempting, because it is what it is, primordial. I want a pure organic form that will move me from place to place, open to me some spaces that I did not even know existed in me. And these are the moments when the opportunity arises to get to know yourself and to exceed your own limits. It is amazing what kind of symbiosis happens to some of the people when that action starts, how they gradually open up. And how many times have I been blown away by the content they carry inside, which is not visible at first glance. And how limited we are that we perceive and judge each other based on our appearance, style of behavior and dress, status in society and the like. And in fact we are like diamonds, until you grind the diamond you do not know what is hidden there.
Are Skopje citizens ashamed to speak in front of the camera? Whose story has left the biggest impression on you so far?
- Some are ashamed, some are not, it all depends on the person, the time, the space, many factors affect it, shame is a complex thing. But I notice that despite my spontaneity, people indulge in that spontaneity, relax and gradually open up. When they feel safe and secure, then everyone opens up. All living things open when they feel safe, both humans and animals and plants. When I did vocal performances for people, animals and plants, I know exactly that moment when something starts to open, to be discovered… Many are like a closed flower bud and that view is very beautiful when you see it closed bud turns into a lush flower and shows you all its beauties that were not visible until then, because they were closed.
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