For the Water_LAB exhibition (2026), I approached the wetland as a site of continuous material negotiation, where sediment, microbial life and water participate in the provisional making of land. Developed in relation to field observations in the Sacalin area of the Danube Delta, the two works move between the microscopic and the atmospheric, attending to processes that largely escape direct human perception. One gives form to the mechanics of cohesion; the other constructs an olfactory reading of an unstable habitat.
SILO D (3D-printed algae and PLA composite) takes its morphology from Navicula salinarum, a brackish-water diatom. In benthic environments, diatom-associated biofilms produce extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) that contribute to binding sediment particles and increasing their resistance to erosion. This principle translates into a hollow contemporary artefact, poised between a vessel and an object of indeterminate use. Produced through additive manufacturing, the object builds its volume through the successive deposition and bonding of layers: a conceptual parallel with the incremental consolidation of sediment. Algal matter is present in the printing filament itself, lending the object its material character and an inherent scent. The work approaches fabrication as a way of thinking through the emergence of ground, from microbial adhesion to manufactured form.
The olfactory installation begins with direct sensory observations of Sacalin’s brackish and inland deltaic environments. Through the selection and calibration of odorant materials, I composed a speculative olfactory model attentive to water, sediments, vegetation and the organic density of microbial ecosystems. Released through waterless nebulisation, the composition occupies the exhibition space as an atmospheric layer, making the site perceptible beyond its visual and cartographic representations. The work proposes an interpretative reconstruction of environmental characteristics, articulated through the material and perceptual possibilities of perfumery.