The artistic research Constructed Landscape. Contemporary Forms of Social Realism explores a (hu)man-made forest in Yugoslavia, created over ten years through collective volunteer labour. This landscape is studied as a socio-political environment and a natural space.
The research first asks how the ecological and ideological processes behind this forest can help us understand the contemporary and contradictory world we inhabit today, and what new imaginaries might emerge from it. Secondly, it addresses the question of authorship and the autonomy of the artwork. It seeks to understand how art can contribute to the common good while coexisting with aesthetics, and how we can resist the privatization of culture and nature. The artistic research questions the separation between cultural, political, and artistic work, advocating for their entanglement as essential for rupturing social consensus and categorization.
Methodology that is employed consists of: re-enactment of reforestation, witness seminars, documentation of participatory processes, and film as a tool for artistic research and a way of social history writing. The main objectives are to expand and diversify artistic research on nature as a political and social space and document (micro)community mobilisation through art. The expected outcomes are: a new forest, art film and installation, artist book and series of discursive events (curated public programme, seminar and workshop).
(image: It Rains Differently, © Dušica Dražić)
