โFrom the source to the mouth and everything in betweenโ is an embodied research performance that traces the Danube River from the source in the Black Forest to the delta in the Black Sea. By crossing 2,850 km, I want to return to a river tied to my own history and cultural belonging to explore human influence over more-than-human entities, fluid ethnicity, and what it means to become a water body. Through embodied methods for walking and listening, and gathering sensory media and written documentation, I want to search for new forms of empathy, ecological awareness, and psychogeography, allowing the river to guide my movement and research. Both the water and the human body become archives and active receivers, absorbing and processing sensory, political, and spatial data, while navigating shifting historical and ecological landscapes.
My connection to the Danube began more than a decade ago when I lived by her banks in Ruse, Bulgaria. For me, the Danube is more than a geographical line; she is a transcendental entity, a porous, living source with agency, memory, and voice, echoing and connecting through her natural and man-made surroundings. I believe that by embodying more-than-human entities and finding ways to relate and listen to their voices, we can continue to challenge our personhood and deepen our understanding of the natural network we are part of. I think itโs urgent to dare to question our identities, to attune and listen to the world around us, and challenge our sense of belonging. By positioning the Danube as a narrator, I want to move beyond human-centered perspectives on landscape, time, and relationality, to search for connections with others along the river, and discover how bodies of water shape identity. The river is a unifying stream, a portal, and a home. Her waters are filled with memory, porous, always in motion, and from her gutter sources she makes her way through, seeking the mouth of the sea.ย
waterbody 1
waterbody 2
waterbody 3
video collageย
audio created by using the image parameters. shapes, and color frequencies as a score.ย
Photo and video documentation,ย collected during a research residency at Belgrade AiR, in March 2026.ย
Photographs by Casper Maas, during Art Stipendium Award Ceremonyย
