Swamp Song explores spaces that inhabit the contradictions between decay and bloom, disappearance and return. The Dragoman Marsh is precisely such a place and a mirror of a complex ecosystem reflecting socio-political processes like drainage and wildfires alongside acts of care and species restoration. In this unstable and liminal territory of water and land and also a border of the EU multiple intertwining micro-histories coexist.

Filmed at the marsh itself, the work follows a specially composed “swamp song” performed by the “Chepanka” singing group from the “Dragoman 1925” Community Centre. The women stand on a narrow bridge over the water like ancient figures with voices that are at once personal and communal, becoming the collective voice of the place. The lyrics were written by Maria Nalbantova based on accounts from local residents and insights from conversations with experts from the BALKANI Wildlife Society and WWF Bulgaria engaged in wetland restoration. Individual voices thus merge into a choir in which human stories coexist with those of birds, plants, microorganisms and water cycles. The work is a continuation of a long-term artistic engagement residency within the WaterLANDS project, where Nalbantova combines fieldwork and artistic research attentive to both human and more-than-human agencies.