The ‘Landscape, Revisited’ event took part in Dúbravica from 24th to 29th September. This year, we invited the UNIMO project (Architects Martin Lepej, Martin Bosík and Róbert Sekula) to bring their architectural monolith and interact with the local landscape. The experiment had excellent results, because besides the alteration of our common perception of landscape, they provide the Kunstdorf with a new structure that can be used in multiple levels: hostel, cultural space, belvedere or simple as creative spot.
At the same time, we invited a young duo of artists (Sofia Herrera and Paulina G. Mena) to use their creativity and solve a piece on a short time. They sure did not disappoint, since immediately found the way to articulate extremely simple materials to bring a revelation in the meadow: windows that contain, frames than open a different reality in the small hills that take to the forest. The work by this Mexican girls is a naive and delicate apportion to Dúbravica’s open gallery.
Another installation was made by Romanian artist Marginean Andrei. By placing horizontally fallen trees in a beech forest, he offers to us an incredible 3D natural grid that can be appreciated by visitors. The intervention immediately pops out on a place which nature is long and vertical. Marginean also has been recording sounds in the surroundings that he is planning to use for future works related with Dúbravica and its Kunstdorf.
On his side, PhD student Ján Kostolanský also accepted to leave his print on the Dúbravica’s green meadow. Kostolanský has been always a frequent collaborator of Periférne Centrá and knows the surroundings very well. In that spirit, he tided lots of branches to made them look like linear pyramids on the limits with the forest. On the distance, his works can be perceived in many ways: like a improvised drawing on the landscape surface, a ghostly city composed only by tepees, or perhaps like a group of aliens running together away from the dark forest.
A longer project is build an amphitheater in the center of the village. Using old wood from an demolished house (the engravings on the wood date from more than 100 years!), young architect Natalia Velká is planning a very simple structure that intends to match the rustic atmosphere of the old bell tower and use it as a backstage and screen for movie projections. Due the heavy and difficult to handle materials (and bureaucratic permissions), Velkás architectonic creation will be finished in the upcoming weeks, and will be available to all Dúbravica’s inhabitants.
As has been mentioned before, the works produced in ‘Landscape, Revisited’ and the residencies, are intended to be part of an open gallery that is focused on the responsible use of natural materials for create art. In Periférne Centrá, we like to call this Land art open museum Kunstdorf (cultural village), in opposition to the concept of Kunsthalle, the space that serves as a closed vitrine of the art in European capitals. Kunstdorf is part of a much larger project that aims to include surrounding villages and transform the whole region in a eco touristic destination.