Silent Landscapes / Milczące Krajobrazy
2024
series of photographs, UV printing
Manoel Island , Malta
The series of photographs was created during an expedition to Manoel Island, its abandoned part where there are historical buildings related to the past of the island, which was repeatedly treated as a place of isolation after the epidemics that hit Malta from the end of the 16th century until the 1930s. In the general atmosphere of falling into ruin, abandonment and the exuberance of nature, which naturally regains space, new and new traces of the need to control the landscape appear, overwritten in contemporary times on the historical and natural tissue of the island.
Manoel Island is a small island connected to the mainland of Malta by a bridge. Its name comes from the Portuguese Grand Master António Manoel de Vilhena, who built a fort on the island in the 1720s. Previously, the island was known as L'Isolotto. In 1592, after the plague epidemic, a quarantine hospital, known as the Lazzaretto, was built there. The Lazzaretto was later expanded and also served as a hospital, often used during the several plague epidemics that hit Malta in the 19th century and in 1937, and the cholera epidemic in 1865. Many famous people have stayed at the Lazzaretto over its history, including Lord Bayron, Horace Vernet and Alphonse de Lamartine, considered the first creator of French romanticism. During World War II, Manoel Island and its fort were used as a naval base for the Royal Navy. The Lazzaretto reopened as a hospital in 1949 and served as such until the 1970s. After that, the buildings were abandoned and fell into disrepair. Today, the Lazzaretto is in a neglected state, with parts of it having collapsed and others at risk of collapse. At the beginning of the 21st century, attempts were made to restore the buildings. The Lazzaretto is full of historical graffiti, the earliest of which dates back to 1681 and the latest to 1947.
photos: Anna Bujak