Artist Maria Nalbantova’s video work Swamp Song, featuring Dragoman Marsh has been selected for presentation in the Bulgarian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale. Nalbantova is one of six artists participating in long‑term residencies within WaterLANDS, a major EU Horizon 2020 project focused on wetland restoration across Europe.

Swamp Song is the outcome of Nalbantova’s multi-year engagement with Dragoman Marsh and its surrounding communities. The nine-minute film centres on a specially composed “swamp song” performed by the women’s vocal group Chepanka from the Dragoman 1925 Community Centre. Nalbantova wrote the lyrics drawing on stories shared by local residents and insights from experts at the BALKANI Wildlife Society and WWF Bulgaria, both involved in the marsh’s restoration. The work weaves these individual voices into a collective narrative about the people, birds, plants, and water cycles that shape the wetland.

“Dragoman Marsh is a place of contradictions – between decay and bloom, disappearance and return. It mirrors a complex ecosystem shaped by natural and socio-political processes, as well as by long-term efforts of care and restoration. In this unstable and liminal territory of water and land– also an external border of the EU – multiple intertwined micro-histories coexist,” says Maria Nalbantova.

This year, the Bulgarian Pavilion is united by the concept Federation of Minor Practices, curated by Martina Yordanova, inviting visitors to reflect on contemporary social processes through themes of care, attention, and collective responsibility. Swamp Song explores Dragoman Marsh as a space where ecological and social perspectives intertwine. The film portrays a territory marked by human intervention – drainage and fires – alongside deliberate efforts to restore habitats and species.

WaterLANDS aims to create the foundations for large-scale wetland restoration across Europe, contributing to upscaling for the EU’s Nature Restoration Law. The project has involved the demonstration of restoration across six heavily degraded wetlands, including Dragoman Marsh, working with local communities, scientists, institutions, and artists. WaterLANDS recognises art as a powerful medium for dialogue, engagement, and reflection on ecological change.

The EU’s Nature Restoration Law outlines a long-term framework for ecological recovery that requires sustained care, coordination among diverse stakeholders, and consistent political commitment. The WaterLANDS project demonstrates how these processes can also be supported through artistic practices that make the topic more accessible and engaging for wider audiences.

The WaterLANDS residencies are distinctive in their four-year, part-time structure, enabling artists to observe and respond to the evolving landscapes and communities over time. Rather than commissioning specific works, the programme embeds artists as autonomous observers within the restoration process. Alongside Maria Nalbantova (Bulgaria), the other artists are Elo Liiv (Estonia), Christine Mackey (Ireland), Claudio Beorchia (Italy), Marjolijn Dijkman (the Netherlands), and a collaboration of Feral Practice and Laura Harrington (United Kingdom).

Earlier this year, all residency artists presented work at ‘UNBOUNDED WITHIN – SYMBIOTIC SUBJECTIVITIES’, in Pärnu, Estonia, near another WaterLANDS restoration site. The exhibition brought together the resident artists alongside other artists’ whose practices engage with wetlands.

The project will culminate in an exhibition-style “Action Site” in mid-to-late November 2026 in Venice, showcasing some of the artists’ work and their processes across the restoration sites. This will overlap with the closing weeks of the Venice Biennale of Art, open to the public from 9 May to 22 November 2026.