Mirage of Memories

There is a fundamental difference between a visitor and a native’s description of a place. While the visitor is seen describing the elements of the landscape, the native people primarily narrates their holistic relationship with the land. Perhaps I noticed the temporality of spaces. But the locals always spoke about the events the landscape hosts through the seasons. Be it daily chores of women or the cycles of flood that inundates the land. “If you continue to move along the water’s edge, you will reach the next village” said a villager. Using the concept of a mirage that crafts an illusion of temporal, a series of the landscape inserts along this edge of water will reflect, the landscape and the many theatres that it stages through the year, both cultural and natural. Without intervening much, the project intents to create pockets of places that reflect the culture by using the essence of the landscape that will motivate users through a guided exploration. The interpretation centre at Nalsarovar informs us only about the migratory birds that come and go within a certain season. What about the people, lifestyles, culture and environment? Through the landscape montages that the project crafts, it urges people to go look for these places which open the perception towards landscapes - as a balanced overview of what an insider sees viz a viz an outsider’s perspective.