Nature is in man – text about 2nd edition of the festival by Sylwia Hejno

Nature is in man

If we set out once again on a walk along the route of particular works we’d notice two ways in which the artists entered into a dialogue with nature. First one takes into account the social context, aims at causing some confusion and consists in implementing an alien, yet related to the landscape, element in a frequented place. Thus nature marks its presence on our social agora. Second way is a discrete intervention of human hand into the landscape, where we expect only natural components. Both approaches have the same effect – they cause a situation in which a not very valued and noticed landscape suddenly takes of its cap of invisibility. This is why every social reaction is important for the art which stems out of respect towards nature. For it is a proof that, knowingly or unintentionally, nature was finally noticed, and who poses a greater danger for nature, if not man? We travel to distant mountains, to forests, to the seaside, on abroad trips, we switch on nature channels to savour picturesque landscapes. Thanks to artists who deal with land art we can admire things which are close to us, familiar, in a completely new way. It’s crucial that none of the Festival’s works was created in remote areas, all of them came into to actual being, not just through attractive photographs in an album. Due to this often they were exposed to human reactions, in the same way nature is exposed to man’s activity. A particular aim was achieved in the process – drawing the audience into a silent conversation between the artist and the landscape.
Jan Gryka, „These are not water-lilies”: Holiday without a holiday

An unusual situation – the island on water in Zwierzyniec is flooded with colourful, eye-catching flowers. While crowds of visitors run from one cinema to another, since a film festival is currently under way, some stop in amazement, some take photos, but most, after a moment of bewilderment, take for granted that this flowered reality is motivated by some greater cause. They calmly move on. And that was the idea.

– What holiday is it today? – passersby, mainly women, don’t leave Jan Gryka in peace while he is weaving his work “There are not water-lilies”. A wreath of fake gerbera flowers will wrap the island in a tight embrace any moment now.

Luck has it that the Feast of Assumption of Mary falls in a few days. Yes, it must be it, women’s hearts are calmer now, they can go back to their daily routines. Or maybe it’s for a wedding? Tomorrow (another intriguing coincidence) a couple will be married in a nearby church. But nobody knows about this yet. A machine of speculations works tirelessly. Everyone got caught in artist’s trap. Not water-lilies in a magical way changed a piece of everyday life into a meaningful space.

– For an average man, who passes by this island, it does not have any meaning itself – explains Jan Gryka – and then he suddenly looks and sees: all of the sudden the island is.
Artificial flowers initiate a chain of associations. Usually a tacky replica of nature, they are a personification of kitsch, but this time feelings of intimate nature take the floor through them. Synthetic wreaths and bouquets adorn tombs on cemeteries (has a ghost of a second Saint-Michelle island appeared in Zwierzyniec?). A lively colour which does not pass away discretely saves us the trouble connected with real flowers – they would also pass away, showing no tact or mercy whatsoever, just a couple feet above the remains of our beloved deceased. Therefore, they symbolize a kind of obstinacy towards the inevitable.

In collective imagination they walk shoulder to shoulder with devotional articles. Artificial bouquets can often be seen in churches and roadside shrines. Artificial – means everlasting; it just isn’t appropriate to pay homage with things which faded by sheer oversight. Sanctity of artificial flowers spares us from the sin of sloth.

An artificial flower, this inconspicuous yet at the same time an aesthetic and problematic object is also, simply, beautiful. An island, seen from a bird’s eye view, is  enclosed in a multicoloured frame, in the form of a painting, which was patiently waiting for this finishing touch. A chain of flowers weaving on water has an elusive and seductive touch to it. It’s literal enough to absorb attention and subtle enough to, after all, leave the viewer helpless in his own surprise, staring into the surface of the water.

– It seemed funny in a way to me that during the ongoing film festival in Zwierzyniec people lock themselves in dark cinema rooms and yield into the dreams of the wonderful, inaccessible Hollywood pictures. They give in to the image of the world, which does not exist in everyday reality. I thought I’d make a surprise in a place they will least expect and the place will start to function similarly to cinema – the artist explains.

Do you remember the first victim of the hypnotic magic of image? It was also a flower. His name was Narcissus.

 
Myroslav Vayda, „No title” : Bird’s cross.

Relatively small, wooden cross blends so perfectly with the park’s scenery, as if it always stood here. Inconspicuous, standing out-of-the-way, next to an old wooden garden house. Glance glides over it without much of a notice. One needs to come closer, much closer to notice its unusual character and remember that a cross, in one of its symbolic meanings, refers to the spread bird’s wings. This particular one, created by Vayda, carries multiple meanings, not only mystical or aesthetic ones, but – above all – ethical.

For this cross is not a religious symbol as such, but an apartment building for birds. It’s made up of located horizontally and vertically nesting boxes waiting for their inhabitants. Play on form comes to the fore.

In iconography the cross appears most frequently in two aspects: martyrological (as a symbol of Passion) or redemptive as a tool of salvation. In this case suffering and death make place to live – birds will nest and breed offspring. Nature constantly reminds about this cycle. The case of bird’s boxes, however, slightly complicates the issue of salvation, since already Descartes denied animals having souls. Could it be that our little brothers, who inhabited the cross, the ladder to Heaven as symbolism wants to call it, should – oh, the irony! – vanish into nothingness? This way the artist poses an interesting question about the place of animals in the religious context.

Bird’s cross, since it might be called so i.a. due to the connotations mentioned, can be interpreted as one of those works which support the break of anthropocentrism, that is walking the world from the human point of view and on a human scale. It does so in a simple, clear, completely unprovocative and – one is tempted to add – warm manner. Wooden cross will be a home and a shelter. Not only for man, but also for animal. Maybe a suggestion that Descartes was wrong is concealed behind this.

Constructing bird’s settlement in a typically human domain – a religious one, breaks the barrier between what is human and what is animal. What is particularly interesting, representatives of so-called animal studies have been pointing out this mistake to modern societies for a long time now – isn’t man an animal sometimes? Thence comes a demand to use other distinctions, for instance into human and inhuman beings.

Vayda, although he takes the bull by the horns, doesn’t go so far. Untitled work functions in a balanced manner, doesn’t burn consciences because of the contents of the eaten dinner. It leaves an open gate. Cross as a place where life and death clash, a shelter not only for man – let’s leave it at this.

 
Justyna Kościańczuk, Małgorzata Malik, Krzysztof Bochniak, „Unawares”: Where’s the spider?
Imagine the following experiment: a modern man, accustomed to the sense of security on every level of his existence unexpectedly finds himself in a tropical jungle. Gigantic mosquitoes, ferocious animals whose only priority is to satisfy hunger lie in wait for him there, and darkness at night is so thick you are not able to see further that a couple centimeters. A mobile phone can be used at most to crack nuts, and survival is determined by primal instincts.
The spider web created by the three young artists above a peaceful path in the idyllic Zwierzyniec’s park can suggest more or less such a scenario. A passerby falls into the net  unexpectedly, discovering the web of unknown origin straight above his head. Obviously, you instantly notice a work of man here. But what if…?

We go back to the imaginary jungle. A gigantic cobweb is totally in its place out there and one should better to take to his heels before its inhabitant realizes that something alive is walking nearby. In a city park we are not so naïve. Yet, a certain feeling of uncertainty and oppression remains. More witty observers asked “Where is that spider?”

– In the beginning we didn’t thing about creating a spider web – Małgorzata Malik recalls – We were searching for a form which in some way catches the viewer. It was supposed to be almost an obstacle in his way, but we came to a conclusion that such a work would be destructed fast. With time we have decided on a spider web.

They didn’t stop the viewer. “Unawares” invites to interaction and already on the second day after set up the installation needed repair. Makers made no secret of the fact they wanted the installation to last as long as it could and become a part of the park’s landscape. – I dream of it becoming green, overgrown with moss, with birds nesting in the plaits – says the artist.

Spider web made by the invisible spider remains above all a symbol of insignificance of man in relation to nature. It is fed by a science-fiction scenario that maybe suddenly, without any warning, some kind of monster will actually look us in the windows. And then we will have no choice but to surrender to it, with the whole package of technological conveniences which make us feel so safe.
The overgrown cobweb introduces an element of another, untamed order into the urban space and reminds that civilization remains only a small ghetto from nature’s perspective, while for man it constitutes the centre of his world. Shafts of sunlight shine through it, in the morning dew drops settle on it. This embroidery in city park looks beautiful.

There is also an element of play enciphered in “Unawares” and it was instantly picked up by the passersby, who asked if this wasn’t a new rope park – People were constantly making jokes – Krzysztof Bochniak recalls – One gentleman, probably influenced by Tarzan movies suggested we were constructing a trap for monkeys. Another, tarantula enthusiast and breeder offered he’d be happy to release a herd of his pets on our installation.

Horror or laughter? Reactions of the recipients were extreme and stormy. An older gentleman passing by on a bike treated me to on: – Nice, even very nice. Sure, you can see it’s a spider web. Maybe there’s even some spider up there, but to be afraid…honestly, do I look stupid?
Experiment’s finished. Results: the spider is still missing, horror, if it appears, is found only in few cases. What about the fact that an element we do not expect could invade our lives? Impossible.

Mikael Hansen „Blind spots”: Eyes of the forest.

He started his labours every day at four in the morning. Trees were covered with white spots gradually, slowly, on a height measured up according to the ground line. When the lowest spot was placed low above the ground, and the highest – above average man’s head the optic illusion became ideal – once you find the right perspective the brink of the forest surprises with openwork of spots, measured by the line, precisely up to a millimeter.

Conifers climb high up, between them you can almost see both sides well – I like this kind of forest – Mikael Hansen says silently – At the beginning I wanted to create a spatial work, purely intellectual, which would be about emptiness, silence, about nothing. It seemed important to me in the world which is overflowing with excess of information. The same harmony and repeatability can be found in slender, almost identical tree-trunks and regular, white spots painted on them. Even a fly doesn’t dare to fly in a disorderly zigzag in the bright afternoon sun. But this silence is just an illusion. A spell of peaceful geometry is broken with every step. The further you go into the forest, the bigger becomes chaos. It blooms in its all glory at dusk, when trunks discretely blend with dimness, and out of darkness glowing spots, which surrender man from all directions, loom out. Alike mad eyes. Some stare you boldly straight into the eye, others, crouching, almost bite your feet.

– People have always gathered around fires, to find shelter from wildness of nature this way. This fright remained within us until today – even when you quarrel with your neighbour, you prefer to be close to another human – says the artist.

“Blind spots” – eyes of a wild animal fixed at inhabitants of Józefów – refer to a forest as an eternal habitat of human phobias and fears. Those fears are inseparably connected with darkness which prevails in it, but also with the lack of familiar spaces. What else, on the other had, is a spotted forest? A horizontal line, visible only from certain places is an irrefutable proof of man’s presence, reflection of man’s necessity to mark his own territory to feel safe there.
Forest is also the first home.

A bright spot – on one hand these are wild eyes of something that slips human control, but also a mark that “I was here, this is mine”. White line embodies a symbolic front tine of struggles between man his natural habitat. You take a few steps in a wrong direction and a peaceful surface dissolves into countless, piercing spots which you no longer look at as if it was a canvass, thanks to the invention of perspective, but you suddenly find yourself in the middle of them. Mikael Hansen extracts the whole changeability and uncertainty which accompanies man in contact with nature – on one had he feels a part of it, on the other – he remains completely helpless in relation to it.

Eyes of the forest imperturbably watch the holiday makers at the Józefów’s artificial lake, their colourful shorts and flowered bikinis. They are reflected in the nearby houses’ windows. In them, forest is an element of a picturesque landscape. On a small hill, one after another, strips of sand, grass, trunks, cut with a delicate spotted line are painted. Every now and then I hear a jolly outburst of passersby, poking their companions: “Look! A spotted forest!”.

Jagoda Valkov, Michał Kuszyk „Russet megaliths”: Modern Sysiphuses.

Three stone pyramids stand out from the grayish landscape. A fire brigade oversaw the process of setting them aflame, and several local volunteers took part in their laborious construction. – We did this piece especially for them, for inhabitants of Józefów – explains Jagoda Valkov.
– We though about some volcanic form which would reflect the shapes taken by lava – adds Michał Kuszyk.

A ritual form, which refers to the old, mysterious rites of pre-civilization man, is as a matter of fact a social form. Stone mounds connected with the idea of community. Simultaneously, they go back to the recesses of history, when the world was still forming and man, helpless in the face of natural phenomenon and dependable on them, was attempting to somehow appease them.

He did so through prayers addressed at gods of nature. Adding stones to roadside mounds is a universal practice – we can encounter it both in the Holy Scripture and in the ancient Greeks’ polytheistic religion.

Artists toled in the quarry by the sweat of their brows, in an excruciating heat. First, with use of heavy machinery, they moved boulders; next with their own hands they carried single stones. It reminds of Sysiphus’ gruelling labour, as he rolled a huge rock up a steep hill for ages – a mythological prototype of punishment served by convicts in quarries. The one in Józefów looks more like a walking path. A little out of spite this pleasant, recreational form Jagoda Vlakov and Michał Kuszyk turned themselves into workers, who tense their muscles up to the limits, erecting a shrine. Modest, inconspicuous mounds are a proof of one more things – man’s timeless desire to transform his environment. A pile of stones in a quarry might amuse with its ostensible uselessness, but if we look at it from another perspective, we will notice a juxtapose of what is natural with what is processed. – All this recycling, extracting stones to make something completely different out of them, was probably the most interesting for me – Jagoda Valkov admits.

“Russet megaliths”, although they bring associations with monumental structures, are actually very small. Three pyramids (three is a magic number, after all) located out-of-the-way marks off a small area, which could accommodate only members of a small, primeval community. Feeling of intimacy is reinforced by the landform – two artists hid they work in the stone valley’s hollow.

Jarosław Koziara „Migration” – Nature, struggle, time.

A peaceful landscape stretches out from the observation tower in Józefów. Children feet pitter-patter impatiently while climbing up the stairs, closely followed by steady, heavy tramps of the adult. A boisterous boy, accompanied by his dad, reaches the top. Man’s glance instantly falls on a huge circle made of black soil, distinctly standing out from the rest of the green scenery. “What do you associate it with”, I chat up.

– Let me see…sun? You know – he begins in a familiar tone – there was a strange guy hanging around here, clearly a bit of a weirdo. I suppose it’s his work.
Jarosław Koziara, the author, is at the same time looking unshaken into direction of the town. To create the circle with internal rays he had to dig out a 360 square meters long line, and the resulting ditch was filled in with fifty tons of fresh peat. It will soon overgrow with honey-yielding phacelia, a plant his father used to grow. Once it blooms it will be a vivid proof that fertile, acid peat has been trapped in the middle of calcified, barren desert. Alien element will stand out with a thicket of lush flowers. It’s something more than painting on landscape. Two different floras and two different soils had been sentenced to everlasting joint coexistence. Thinking about land it’s difficult not to think about time and history; these associations lead straight though a forgotten Jewish cemetery located a few minutes walk away. A lonely tree, growing out from “Migrations”, creates similar impressions.

– I’m intrigued by the clash of two different elements, it reminds me the story of hetman Zamoyski, who “imported” Jews and Armenians when he was establishing his entail here. Their radically diverse culture, whether they liked it or not, had to enter into interaction with the local society – Jarosław Koziara explains.

Dialogue with nature took shape of an experiment similar to that that on social tissue by Zamoyski. It’s possible that after a year goes by there won’t be even a trace of peat amulet left, but it’s also possible that as a result of different matters’ clash something totally unexpected will happen. Further process is a mystery depends on forces of nature. – Movement of nature is most interesting for me – what it will bring in a month, year or ten years’ time – says the artist.

After coming down from the observation tower, the circle visible from above undergoes a metamorphosis. It no longer serves as an object of observation or taking photos; we find ourselves in an allocated territory, on a piece of land completely different to its surroundings. It’s hard to resist primeval, magical associations. And feeling that suddenly I am in the centre in a enchanted sign-circle, which can symbolize prison or shelter. A random visitor is confused, strollers prefer to walk by, as it something intangible moved their intuition.

Marcin Jabłoński „Stream”: Meanders of life.

Two lines ran one next to another; one meanders in soft curves, effortlessly overcoming natural barriers, the second vividly stands out from the landscape and forms a dramatic zigzag that begins just as abruptly as it ends. The first one – is a river, the second – effect of human intervention.
Marcin Jabłoński chose a spring which is a source of Nepryszka river as the location for his work. “When I watch a meandering river or stream I realize the impermanence of our lives” – he writes.
The white curve built of stones falls into the water; it is something of a kind of a short episode, a fragment of time, taken out of world’s persistence. Its form is transitory – in few days, maybe weeks wind, rain, animals and people passing by will scatter stones and there won’t be even a trace left of zigzag, as if it never existed at all. Heraclitus’ sentence saying that you cannot step into the same river twice is a truth about time. River is a reflection of reality in which  everything is changing, remains in movement and finding the same moment is impossible. As a further consequence it means also that every living form heads for a inevitable degradation, decay. Man is the only animal which goes through life realizing this unpleasant fact and as the only animal he is rebelling against this fact.

„Stream” refers not only to the contrast between man’s stormy existence and imperturbable persistence of the world that surrounds him, but also to inscribing the first into the latter. Geometrical composition made of stone is inscribed unnoticed into the surroundings, although it does not leave space for understatement that it might be its original element. Human element is depicted through sharp bends, drastic ups and downs next to nature personified by a gently meandering river. The second „life line” is calmer, much longer, its beginning and end are not so drastic, yet similarly to the first one – it is not infinite. Everything dies.

„The work I have prepared shows not only the contrast between man, his actions and life and nature personified by Napryszka river, but it also aims to make us aware of the similarity which consist in permanent changeability of both nature and man. – Marcin Jabłoński comments.
A spring from which a river flows has always been associated with a mystery, an unknown, hidden place underground, under the roots, where  everything has its beginning. „Stream” points out a certain relation – this secret place is also the beginning of man.

translation by Ewa Molik