Dates: Summer 2024
Artists: Robert Bernath, Richard Forrest, David Kapl
Facilitators: Ľudmila Jankovichová, Michal Mitro
Location: ssesi.space

In proposed project we aim to create a safe space for exploring the context of human in nature and nature in human that is strongly present in given space. We’d like to take a look at improvised wooden sheds built some decades ago. These don’t server their original function anymore and are being reclaimed by the burgeoning forest. With invited artists we'll collectively investigate and enact ways of respectful and meaningful transformations the space is undergoing as a result of changing human-nature dynamics. We hope to inspire each other, find inspiration in the ongoing natural processes and enrich them with our own aesthetic and technical expertise.

We perceive transformation as a continual circle of creation and decay that has its own dynamics which may be assisted, ignited or suppressed. By spending time in a ssesi.space, a place that is in the midst of a transformative process, we are offered a genuine opportunity to learn, design and test ways of highlighting its invigorating aspects while getting on terms with those connected with change and loss. We encourage selected residents to activate the space and its architecture by means of collaborative intervention that would benefit both humans and non-humans inhabiting the space. We imagine one of the decaying sheds being repurposed to a community space - perhaps sauna, playground, or sundeck(?) - which would in turn regenerate its natural surroundings whilst appreciating its feral identity.

With proposed project we seek to acknowledge the beauty of garden being surpassed by forest. Still, we’d like to look for ways to intervene in it, repurpose and regenerate it so that it benefits every stakeholder involved, human or not. The intervention shall be bonding in an aesthetic experience, create a sense of inclusion and belonging and ultimately, brings about transformative futures. To that end, we seek to create supportive environment of diverse practitioners, connect them with local experts across disciplines and propose outputs that are rooted locally and applicable globally.

Selected practitioners are invited to explore how architectural and performative intervention can activate not only physical but also societal and mental space. Together, we hope to perform inspiring, aesthetic, and sustainable architectural gesture that would trigger visitors imagination and also make given space more welcoming and inclusive. Visiting and using such space shall in turn plant a seed of curiosity that may eventually grow into cognitive and behavioural patterns and give birth to new approaches and narratives.

This project is supported by European Union under Culture Moves Europe mobility scheme.