Ada Kaleh - Portrait of an Island
Dimensions: 3100 x 914 mm
Fragment of the Diploma Project - "The Enchanted Gardens of Ada Kaleh",
Oslo School of Architecture, 2019
Advisors - Luis Callejas, Janike Kampevold Larsen, Tuva Maire Øvsthus
The completion of this work could not have been possible without the help and support of Engur & Mioara Ahmet, Mahinur Hairi Apostol, (Ada Kaleh - A Spot of Paradise), INP Bucuresti, State Archives Turnu Severin, who provided me not only with an incredible amount of photographs but also with other valuable information and inspiring dialogues.
I am sincerely grateful for all of that.
This drawing is a reconstruction of the sunken Danubian island. It is overlapping archival information from a multitude of moments in its history. Undressed of any creative intention, it renders an ideal and complete image of the island, according to the available data.
The study begins with a collection and interpretation of archival material gathered from a large palette of sources - from photographs, scientific data, and official state documents to pieces of yellow journalism. All the information is stacked into one large plan, at 1:500, that highlights the intensity of life across the island, as the details go only in the areas that have been found in the sources, and nothing is invented.
To go through the drawing, press & hold the middle click!
