In this work with artistic flags, I made the series with the main idea on my mind – to use the Morse Alphabet as visual expression (dots and dashes are transformed into a game of geometrical forms – lines and points, shown in a vertical row). The work is based on a few basic facts: 10 countries through which the Danube flows, colours of their flags, the names of the major cities on the Danube and the fact that each letter is a flag.
This solution allows a large number of combinations and, at the same time, represents an interesting visual game of 351 different flags.
By using the colors that match a flag, each country is represented as a group by a certain number of flags. Each letter of the alphabet is assigned to a corresponding character of the Morse code – 351 letters/codes equal to 351 flags (every flag/solution is different thanks to the combination of colours and shapes). The name of a country, the river Danube and major cities are written in the language of a particular country.
The flags are arranged in the following groups:
– SCHWARZWALD (the source of the river Danube) – 11 codes
– DANUBIUS (lat. name for the river Danube) – 8 codes
– DEUTSCHLAND, DONAU, ULM, INGOLSTADT, REGENSBURG – 39 codes
– OSTERREICH, DONAU, LINZ, MAUTHAUSEN, WIEN – 33 codes
– SLOVENSKO, DUNAJ, BRATISLAVA, KOMARNO – 31 codes
– MAGYARORSZAG, DUNA, VISEGRAD, BUDAPEST, DUNAUJVAROS – 43 codes
– HRVATSKA, DUNAV, VUKOVAR, ILOK – 24 codes
– SRBIJA, DUNAV, APATIN, NOVI SAD, BEOGRAD, SMEDEREVO – 40 codes
– ROMANIA, DUNAREA, DROBETA TURNU SEVERIN – 33 codes
– BULGARIA, DUNAV, RUSE VIDIN, NIKOPOL – 29 codes
– MOLDOVA, DUNAREA, GIURGIULESTI – 26 codes
– UKRAINA, DUNAI, IZMAIL, KILIJA – 24 codes
– CHORNE MORE (the mouth of the river Danube) – 10 codes
Through this artistic method and the typographic work, the river Danube, as a symbol of communication and connectivity, is translated into a new visual system of redesigned and unique characters (signs are still readable and respecting the basic system of Morse alphabet). Acoustical signals are the basic starting point in this process, they are translated into visual codes where the colours are included as an equal factor in this generated system of characters – a specific characters typography. This system extends in a treatment and a reading of all countries and larger cities connected with the flow of the Danube. Connection and communication are presented on many levels – the real and the symbolic ones. This year’s concept of International Danube Festival in Ulm set up the communication and connection as the basic idea of the Festival. The painting of the flags was entrusted to two female artists from Croatia and Serbia whose individual artistic designs are represented together by linking the banks of the river Danube in Ulm. The joint representation of artists from the two countries in a city that celebrates art represents a symbolic connection and communion of European countries that are associated with the flow of the river Danube.
