start

  My dear Elise, 
My expedition into the Maratongo Delta has proven more enigmatic than I 
had anticipated. The so-called Camp Maratongo remains elusive, and the local population 
maintain a persistent silence. The atmosphere defies adequate description—as if the place 
itself marks a boundary between the visible and the invisible. 

Most troubling are the nocturnal voices and the unstable topography, which I can only describe 
as shifting. I am beginning to question whether we are dealing with a physical location at all, 
or rather with a phenomenon that resists conventional classification. 

I would be most grateful to hear your thoughts on this matter. 

  Warm regards, 
  Heinrich	

Reply from Dr Elise Marquart to Dr Heinrich Renk
Date: 29 March 1924

 Dear Heinrich, 

Your report is troubling, yet deeply compelling. The phenomena you describe remind me of accounts 
from other colonial territories, where the boundaries between space and memory appear to dissolve.
 
Perhaps we are not speaking of a place in the strict sense, but of what might be termed an archive 
of absence—a terrain upon which suppressed memories and collective trauma take form through sound and image. 

I urge you to proceed with caution and to approach the expedition not merely as a geographical undertaking, 
but as a psychological one as well. 

Awaiting further reports, 
Elise	

Final letter from Dr Heinrich Renk to Elise Marquart
Date: 5 April 1924

  My dear Elise, 

I am beginning to understand your words. The delta is not merely a location, but a metaphor for what colonial 
power seeks to conceal: the fracturing of identities and the disappearance of entire histories. 
I shall endeavour to record my observations not solely in a documentary fashion, but also in a reflective manner. 
Perhaps therein lies the key to unlocking, if only partially, the mystery at hand. 

 With kindest regards, 
 Heinrich 	

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