Map of Disappearance

ongoing project

The Banat region in northern Serbia has long been marked by frequent migrations and depopulation, shaped by its barren land and harsh winds. This project creates a visual dialogue between memory, history, and imagination to explore the spirit of the place in an alternative way. With few visible traces of the past remaining in the landscape, I turn to documentation, imagination, and reconstruction—suggesting that historical records can merge with personal and local memories to form alternatives narratives and new myths. Through this, I emphasize the vital role of stories and images in shaping and preserving place identity, while highlighting the need for a culture of remembrance. Map of Disappearance acts as a metaphor for the constant transformations in Banat’s natural landscape: its historical upheavals, migrations and the gradual fading of human traces over time.

I dwell on the idea that nature is deeply intertwined with culture, which I tend to highlight by selecting specific natural motifs (plants, wind, soil, water) and illustrate their role in shaping the identity of a place, as well as in the formation of regional rituals and myths.

This work is conceived as a whole composed of interconnected fragments— collages, drawings, and photographic records.

Small chapels built above or beside wells or other sources of water numbered up to 400 structures in the area of the Pannonian Lowlands. It is believed that the oldest of these structures existed in a different form among the Southern Slavs, who held the cult of water, and in the 18th century, small chapels began to be built in such places, also known as "vodice" (holy waters) in the region of Banat. They can be found mostly in rural areas of the region of Banat, at the very end of the village areas. What used to be the cult of water merged with the cult of icons, so it is very likely to find an image of a female patron saint inside one of these chapels. These are places that indirectly blend Slavic mythology, folk beliefs, and religious teachings – places associated with the healing properties of saints, as well as folk tales of apparitions of spirits and fairies.

Field eryngo (lat. Eryngium campestre) is a plant that grows in both marshy and dry soil in Banat. Commonly known as the "devil’s uncle" among locals. It’s a plant whose seeds are carried by the wind, setting off its journey across the plains twice: once when it reproduces, and again when it withers. In Banat, memories are entwined with the wind, buried in the earth, yet shallowly rooted and prone to drifting away.

The Territory of Banat and the multiethnic villages of Alibunar and Vladimirovac, which still exist today, as depicted in an 18th-century Austro-Hungarian map and archival material.

Holy waters chapel (vodice) between villages Dobrica and Ilandža, Banat

There was a widely spread folk custom in Banat where, "as the day fades" (at dusk), people would visit this old chapels to make a request, and plants growing near the wells were attributed with prophetic and healing properties. When people gather around these places, various things are offered as gifts according to the orders of the healer: flowers, three small loaves of bread, three coins, three eggs and according to the merciful - wax motifs. There is a strong feeling of the sacred near these structures.

Depiction of a female patron saint found in the holy waters chapel between the villages of Ilandža and Dobrota; this is a very old icon and it is found in a remote rural area in this small chapel

Offerings for the holy waters chapel which sometimes include three eggs

I dwell on the idea that nature is deeply intertwined with culture, which I tend to highlight by selecting specific natural motifs (plants, wind, soil) and illustrate their role in shaping the identity of a place, as well as in the formation of regional rituals and myths.

In the southern Banat region, the wind can reach speeds of up to 140 km/h during certain periods and is present for about 270 days a year. When you ask the locals about it, most will tell you that windy days negatively affect their mood and their judgment. However, wind was not always an unfavorable fate that caused nervousness within the community; on the contrary, it was a way for the entire community to sustain itself.Windmills numbered up to around 280 structures and their role was to ''catch'' the wind and grind grain. They were also places of social gatherings and festive celebrations.

Nowdays, they are just ruins in the fields.

Manual collage made out of layers of printed plants from Deliblato - Banat's sandy area

In Banat (both the Serbian and Romanian parts), Fašanke is a traditional winter-to-spring carnival custom. It usually takes place in late February or early March, and its roots combine Slavic, German, and Hungarian influences, since Banat has historically been home to many ethnic groups — Serbs, Slovaks, Romanians, Hungarians, and Swabians (ethnic Germans). Children are wearing costumes and walking down the village streets. It os often a custom for younger population to visit the holy waters chapel in those days and make a request or a wish about future.

Ruins of one holy waters chapel found in the remote fileds of Banat, probably from early 19th century; nocturnal landscape surroundit it's ruins

Fašanke, carnival festival in the village of Grebenac, young men wearing traditional clothes

Household typical for rural Banat in 19th century