Andreea Medar & Mălina Ionescu

70 packs is a project about community, a term that can be potentially overused due to the current shifts in social dynamics: dissolving social structures and the subsequent pleas for their preservation. The project is part of an extended research on what defines and ties a community together, various landmarks – places and practices at the crossroad between tradition and transformation. 70 packs observes one of the rituals that bring people together: the most inclusive one, with a strong social component, open to strangers or to the ones in need, and also special in the way it extends the idea of community towards a different plane of existence. The project is also a commentary on the present moment, on a tradition undergoing major changes: the common meal turns into impersonal pre-packed foods; the interactions between participants is gradually reduced; the packs can contain vessels and cutlery that are alternatively and even simultaneously traditional earth ware, cheap imported china and cutlery, one time plastics or, more recently, eco-friendly paper or wood dishes, but over – or under all one still can follow the reassuring guidelines that secure consistency with the accepted practice.