incomplete landscape I

Incomplete Landscape is an interdisciplinary study of the Baltic coastline carried out in collaboration between landscape architecture and photography. Stretching for a length of 5,000 kilometres, the coastline fronts the three Baltic states- Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania- that were annexed by the Soviet Union after the Second World War until the early 1990s. Throughout the Cold War the coastline was of strategic importance, situated as it was along the line that divided West from East.
The study looks at the discrepancies between ‘top-secret’ maps authorised by the Soviets and ‘mental’ maps drawn on the basis of the memories and stories of local inhabitants and people who were involved in the history in other ways. Needless to say, the Russians charted the territory to suit their strategic needs, concealing what they preferred to become public knowledge. The project turned into a quest to unearth, interpret and present a reality that had been hidden for decades.
The photographs ‘silent landscapes’ that complement the new maps are abstract representations of traditions and habits that were suppressed for so long yet survived secretly. Shot under water, the images express the silence imposed on the inhabitants and their stories.
Taken together, the maps and photographs are a non-literal evocation of ideas that penetrate the spirit of a place. They enable us to trace the upheavals of half a century of history that we can read in the landscape.