PANDORA DOURMISI

It all started with a journey in the western Balkan region with the aim to trace, retrieve and study the applications of earthen architecture which evolved, spread, flourished and finally declined, in an area, that despite the geographical and cultural differences, has more elements to share rather to divide. The countries visited include Albania, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina and finally Croatia, where, thanks to the Foundation Marc de Montalembert, I was able to travel for about five months. During that period I became familiar with pleasantly varied vernacular earthen architecture, which, adapted to the geographical variations, testify and reveal at the same time, the cultural interaction between east and west, combined with embodied local deliveries. Believing that architecture is mainly a social practice, I tried to elaborate and analyze the information acquired primarily through the interaction with local populations and in situ observations of the surviving examples, under this scope. Despite the long and influential presence of a large variety of construction techniques based in this humble material, the studies of it’s history and even present condition in the specific region are limited to non existed. This was one of the reasons for my motivation to visit that area, dispose that architectural heritage which is now at risk, into a wider public view, and contribute somehow to the awareness of it’s richness and maybe to efforts for it’s recovery and preservation. My wish is for the outcome to be collected in a publication, currently under editing.

Résultat du projet:

Exposition le 25 avril 2014 à la Fondation Marc de Montalembert à Rhodes.