ODDKIN

Oddkin takes its title from Donna Haraway's concept of unconventional kinship and community. It traces the relationship between Romanian sculptor Gheza Vida and his remarkable, eccentric collection of cacti.
A committed socialist and humanist, Vida walked from northern Romania to fight in the Spanish Civil War, where he encountered and fell in love with cacti for the first time, gathering a handful of seeds. For the next four years, as he was captured and transferred between labour camps in France and Germany, he kept them in a leather pouch against his chest. Upon his escape, he returned to his home in Baia Mare and planted them. By his death in 1986, the collection had grown to 4,000 plants.
The collection's story did not end there. Moved to the city council museum and later to municipal greenhouses, it has since weathered harsh winters, losses, and dispersals; plants killed by cold, taken, traded, or sold. Today, a few hundred survive in a city greenhouse ill-suited to their needs.
The book brings together archival photography sourced from the city, the sculptor's family, and friends, alongside research conducted by photographer Rada Nastai in her hometown. Printed in black and white and CMYK risography, in an edition of 130 numbered copies and 30 artist copies, the work is narrated by the self-avowedly unreliable voice of Nastai herself, weaving together historical fact and the anecdotes, myths, and local lore that have accumulated around both the cacti and the singular figure Vida has become in the city's imagination.