R2 is an ongoing documentation of the largest transportation engineering project in the Novohrad region, situated in south-central Slovakia. Two motorway routes, south and north, connecting the west of the country with the east, have been planned since the early 1970's. Parts of the project remain under construction, due to a lack of funding and prioritization by the state government. This 26 km long passage of construction which started in 2020 is the last missing piece: connecting Slovakia’s capital city and Lučenec with a high-speed, two-lane highway.

The isolation of communist Czechoslovakia affected a long-lasting cultural uniformity in the region. This is apparent in the landscape more than 30 years later. A state of isolation, although no longer politically enforced, is a mental mark that older generations live with. Despite its challenging political history, this isolation has also helped to preserve the self-sustainable and traditional ways in which people in these villages live. It is more than likely that the new motorway will not only change the landscape, but also the lives of its inhabitants.

The speed of our movement affects our perception of the landscape. Our experience differs when we drive, travel by train, or travel by foot. The highway is designed so that nothing catches our attention when driving fast. I leave the highway’s exit, and I regain my position of inhabitant—someone who lives and understands the place to which I have just arrived.






 


















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