New Life for the Past
While working on one of my projects I came across the Krakra fortress in Pernik, Bulgaria. I was amazed by the poor quality of the work on the reconstructed section and the fact that the original remnants of the fortress were conserved and exhibited in an even worse manner (most of this work was financed with millions from the European Regional Development Fund). I decided to visit as many of these supposedly reconstructed cultural heritage sites as I could and photograph them. In most cases the end result and appearance of these places is not backed up by any historical evidence. In parallel with this I made a series of 14 x 19 cm drawings (re)constructing animals from fragments (various bones, shells, teeth and other fossils). As an amateur (I have no formal education as a painter, nor as a palaeontologist) I distorted and changed the authentic appearance and function of the fragments on the basis of my own hypothesis.