The event and the exhibition were created in cooperation with Božidar Jakac Art Museum and LandArt Diessen’s founder Lia Stravens, within the frames of III. Circular Change Conference. The spatial installations or artistic interventions in the nature were created by five Slovenian and five Dutch artists. The installations are placed in the Forma Viva Sculpture Park surrounding the Božidar Jakac Art Museum. The materials used emphasize sustainable development aimed at protecting nature and solving environmental questions of our time.


The artist Boštjan Kavčič (SI) has in his work titled No Exit, created a barrier that prevents access to one of the rooms in the art museum. By doing so, he symbolically depicted the current hopeless state of mankind unless concrete changes in the direction of sustainable development occur. The balance in nature has become increasingly fraught under the harmful influence of humans, as can be seen also in an alarming decline in the number of insects. One of the most important insects for humans is without doubt the bee, as a pollinator, maker of honey, wax and propolis, which is the message of a work by Mireille Schermer (NL) titled BEE good. The coexistence of humans and bees, and at the same time transformations in nature, are represented in the work by Polona Černe (SI), Untitled, in which the sculpture made of wax melts and transforms by the means of a beekeeper solar wax melter and under the influence of the heat of the sun. An important dimension of her work is the time, since her sculpture exists only as long as the transformation of the wax from solid to liquid and back to solid state lasts. The process of transformation of the caterpillar to a butterfly was a source of inspiration for Mirjam Korse (NL) and her work Cocoons, made of wool and jute, reflecting the emerging power of ever transforming nature. The artist Mateja Kavčič (SI) has, for her work titled Shadow, chosen a tree completely surrounded by asphalt and throughout the day outlined the shadows of its crown, thus showing the size of the tree and its wide impact on the surrounding area, which people are normally unaware of.


The processes of circulation of matter and energy in nature were the source of inspiration and the cause for the creation of several works. The artist, Marijan Mirt (SI), has in his object Human Clouds transformed the human figure into the shape of clouds, while Urša Toman (SI) cut out the shape of tree branches in the grass and filled them with gelatine in her work titled Traces of the Sun. Both artists present each in their own way, the process of water circulation in nature and draw attention to its importance. The work by the artist Carla Cremers (NL) titled Energy Flow depicts the human body in three positions of the Chinese martial art Tai Chi, in which the man is in synergy with himself and the nature surrounding him. Human figure, completely covered with moss, created by the artist Els Franken (NL), Untitled, bears the message that man is only a (small) part of nature, not her master. Natascha Rodenburg (NL/NZ) created the work titled Food for Thought, Experiment 5: Experiencing “Remembrance of Unlimited Potential” - a research into roots – Slovenia. She spread small containers made from biopolymers on a grassy surface. Each of them symbolically represents the artist's ancestors - her roots. The ancestors are no longer here, even the containers will eventually decay and become a “fertilizer", which in the symbolical sense became also the knowledge of the ancestors, passed on to the future generations for their brighter future.


Kristina T. Simončič, curator of the Božidar Jakac Art Museum

Most Recent Posts