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Author’s book: Whisper of the Valley



year:  2026
place: Prague
concept and text: Savka Marenić
sound design: Jonáš Balcar
illustration: Pamela
graphic: Bára Růžičková
published by UMPRUM publishing house

Whispers of the Valley (Šepoty údolí) is an urban speculative (eco)fiction book created as a chapter of the artistic doctoral research of architect and artist Savka Marenić, set in the Prague district of Nusle. In the shadow of the highway overpass, between planned functionality and the alienation of urban space, Savka opens up possibilities for new ways of imagining and perceiving the city. A collage of different perspectives, recordings, letters, essays, diaries, reportages, and illustrations forms a narrative about the valley’s overlooked as well as familiar places.

The book is accompanied by illustrations by artist Pamela Kuťáková, while the graphic design of the publication was created by Bára Růžičková. Each copy includes a QR code linking to a sound recording created in collaboration with artist Jonáš Balcar.

Each soundtrack emerges from a specific overlooked place in the Nusle Valley: the traffic island on Nusle Bridge, the empty concrete fountain, the parking lot beneath the bridge, patches of urban woodland, the Botič stream, railway tracks, tunnels, spatial fractures of the landscape. It begins with a field recording of the site's soundscape and gradually unfolds into a composition that opens the space to another imaginary. Rather than identifying locations, the poetic titles evoke their atmosphere, experiences, and memories.