Routines of observation and action reveal a vocabulary of the shoreline: watery borders with living edges, relative allotments, topographical proclivities constantly challenged by the dynamics of withdrawing, growing and colliding of water in these border areas; a mystique of things found here, which shows itself in functional objects, amassed accidentally on improvised docks; tense behaviors specific to such proximity to an edge – protection, hospitality, hostility.

An initiate of the waterfront, the guide is the Amphitryon of the shore to water relation, leading newcomers on the water, presenting their subjective maps to arbitrarily-intimate groups in small boats; they guide through narrow canals, through history and fishing, preach about love and - technically precise - express worries about the unpredictable contours of the water.

On the shore you practice the crossing of a border. The dock is a middleman: not shore – not water, prepared for waiting and mooring, a suspended construction which contains and alleviates the tension of passing from one medium to another specific to edges. Here, different maneuvers can be formulated:

Buffering – floating tamer, prevents collision
Knotting – durable binds, practiced for centuries, reversible in an instant
Mooring – stabilizing from afar, mediates by maintaining movement within a short distance

buoyant amalgamites,
compounds of depth

airy bits to care for edges,
fabric, well stretched

it catches, it gathers
it keeps, it entangles

protecting organ-objects
inside the pile, alluring
The Pile
changes its temper:
shelter, not trap

it receives - protective behavior
it does not catch, it does not smother

it receives
in warm weave
alive
and warm and free

The project questions, poetically and conceptually, the configuration of a limitrophe space bounded by water, through a series of objects and installations generated by writings, visual and sonic material, collected during yearly trips to the Delta.

In covering this space, several constitutive notions are considered: the particularities of waterfront aggregates or the roles of guides through a historical or mythological lens – tourist guide, initiate, sherpa responsible with orientation and survival, creature or anthropomorphic entity accompanying souls in the passing to other worlds.

Partners: Muzeul Apei, Asociația Cetățean de Traian, Minitremu

With the support of: sablez.ro