Mount Kozara- Bosnia And Herzegovina

2016

A garden is a living thing, a place that is marked and sometimes abandoned.

The basic concept of the project was to plant a land art installation with medicinal and edible herbs. The herbs were shaped like letters, forming the sentence “Moment, Now.”

By studying the period of “now-time,” I seek to determine which common thoughts get our minds “out” of the present moment. When I say present-presence, I do not necessarily mean one’s total concentration, but rather a more spontaneous and natural awareness of the present moment through creative activity.

The meaning of the word “now” subtly pervades through the issues in my immediate society, such as uncertainty, volatility, corruption, environmental and social crisis, etc.

By using the gesture of planting, I occupy myself, I seek to leave the product of my experience to viewers and passers-by.

For me, creativity has a lot of different variations, views and actions, which produce an interpretation of a specific issue. I use performance as a medium that creates awareness of the body, and plant-based living space installations that bring us back to the “moment of now” when planted.

Special thanks to Ars Kozara for their support and help with this project.

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Grožnjan- Gallery Fonticus

2015

In this exhibition, the stones mark a ritual, a persistent game of the waves and passage of time, as well as a change in form. I am stopping the flow of waves by breaking their persistence and claiming the stones as the ritual continues. The process results in text printed on the stones; sometimes recipes, sometimes drawings of plants. Many of the captions have a cynical deflection such as “Tea to fight capitalism” or “Mixture against greed.”

I present several unprinted pebbles and a tool for writing on the stones. I ask the viewer to intervene in the form of comments on the unprinted stones.
I combine environmental and social issues with the problem of education. Let us bring to mind what Plato said a long time ago: “Ignorance is the root of all evil.” His opinion counters the entire Western-Christian civilization, which aims at raising hordes of illiterate believers/consumers to blindly serve the newly-fabricated nationalism or religious dogma.
It reveals that environmental issues are parallel to the problems caused by poor and profit-based education. Bad environmental solutions can be fixed with good education, since education broadens horizons and sharpens the perception of the world around us. An educated individual can more easily resist bouts of nationalism, discrimination by colour or sexual orientation, etc. Education brings with itself a freer approach to life and facilitates breaking free from dogma. An educated person is not susceptible to advertising or opinions of political usurpation. Education brings with itself the idea of sharing. An educated person is aware of environmental neglect and the aggressive exploitation brought upon by neoliberalism.

Finland- Rauma: Seminary Garden

2015

My environmental art project  for  Rauma Artist-in-Residence programme involves  planting aromatic herbs in Seminar  Garden and a plant installation placed on the trees in the town’s main street . I have marked a route from downtown to the Seminar  Garden by hanging cloth bags  with  medicinal plants growing in them on the trees. On the bags I have written some of my recipes like TEA AGAINST EXPLOITATION : ”Mix equal amounts of dried dandelion root, calendula flower and leaf of hyssop. Use as tea:  1 full teaspoon per  1 cup, and drink 2-3 unsweetened  cups  a  day in small sips. Dandelion root cleanses the liver, gallbladder, kidneys and lymph. First of all dandelion root cleanses the liver and gallbladder  and stimulates the kidneys so the toxins are sent  out of the body.” I meet pupils at school and they can design their own plant for a certain new  purpose to make their life better.

One of the things that influences my artistic work are the problems  that more and more young people are experiencing. I am trying to offer a solution to some of the major symptoms of depression such as  weakness, apathy, lack of incentives, self-doubt, feelings of worthlessness, hopelessness, meaninglessness, lack of energy  etc. through planting healthy herbs.

With my project I am  researching  the ways how community art:  planting and positioning art work in a public space, can engage people by offering them a herbal approach into life.

The main idea of my project was to plant a garden of healthy and edible herbs.  Herbs are planted in the Seminar Garden in a shape of my silhouette, a young woman, which I call ”Mother Earth”. A garden is a living thing, a place which is marked and sometimes abandoned.  Within the process of planting and exchanging the knowledge of medicinal and edible herbs with young and older people, I want to encourage public discussion and articulation of the current problems of the people (in the community). Do we still collect, grow and use plants for medical purposes?

Art gardening is a tool which can be used in a wider sense  for  waking up people  in creating a widespread resistance of unnecessary consumption, in relaxation and returning  people into  the peacefulness of nature.

Special thanks to Raumars Artist in Residency Program for their support and help with my project.