natures aesthetic preservation and human intervension - aspects of utopia and systopia/
bookshop projectspace/ skaftfell institute for visual arts/ seydisfjordur/iceland
installation by maria glyka & vassilis vlastaras/ mixed media
in literature h. d. thoreau’s “walden; or life in the woods” (1854) sets a moral question in relation to what is correct and what is violent regarding human intervention: “but what right had I to oust the johnswort and the rest, and break up their ancient herb garden?”/ each morning he struggles with the weeds, putting soil, transforming the grass: “consider the intimate and curious acquaintance one makes with various kinds of weeds […] disturbing their delicate organizations so ruthlessly, and making such invidious distinctions with his hoe, leveling whole ranks of one species and sedulously cultivating another/ […] a long war, not with cranes, but with weeds, those trojans who had sun and rain and dews on their side. daily the beans saw me come to their rescue armed with a hoe, and thin the ranks of their enemies, filling up the trenches with weedy dead. many a lusty crest waving hectors […] fell before my weapon and rolled in the dust”/ the result for him is confusing, there is a dilemma between cultivation as a human need for survival and the right of all organisms to sustain their vital connection with the land/ is it the wilderness or the interference that constitutes the preservation of the world?/ is it a matter of aesthetic pleasure and quality of life?/ it is definitely a matter of culture (cultivating) as we discriminate the good from the bad, we make choices based on our intelligence/ setting up alternative communities and economies challenge the aspects of contemporary society’s view on matters like these/ social processes and experimentations often offer solutions or forms of utopianism/dystopianism as contemporary formations/
bookshop projectspace/ skaftfell institute for visual arts/ seydisfjordur/iceland
installation by maria glyka & vassilis vlastaras/ mixed media
in literature h. d. thoreau’s “walden; or life in the woods” (1854) sets a moral question in relation to what is correct and what is violent regarding human intervention: “but what right had I to oust the johnswort and the rest, and break up their ancient herb garden?”/ each morning he struggles with the weeds, putting soil, transforming the grass: “consider the intimate and curious acquaintance one makes with various kinds of weeds […] disturbing their delicate organizations so ruthlessly, and making such invidious distinctions with his hoe, leveling whole ranks of one species and sedulously cultivating another/ […] a long war, not with cranes, but with weeds, those trojans who had sun and rain and dews on their side. daily the beans saw me come to their rescue armed with a hoe, and thin the ranks of their enemies, filling up the trenches with weedy dead. many a lusty crest waving hectors […] fell before my weapon and rolled in the dust”/ the result for him is confusing, there is a dilemma between cultivation as a human need for survival and the right of all organisms to sustain their vital connection with the land/ is it the wilderness or the interference that constitutes the preservation of the world?/ is it a matter of aesthetic pleasure and quality of life?/ it is definitely a matter of culture (cultivating) as we discriminate the good from the bad, we make choices based on our intelligence/ setting up alternative communities and economies challenge the aspects of contemporary society’s view on matters like these/ social processes and experimentations often offer solutions or forms of utopianism/dystopianism as contemporary formations/
