Industrial Arboretum
hand-made book, ink-jet printing; photograph, ink-jet printing
145 cm x 210 cm; 45 cm x 50 cm
edition: 14; edition 40
2012
During her residency within the MS Dockville Programme in Hamburg, Dušica Dražić explored the natural potentials of an abandoned industrial area in Wilhelmsburg. Originally, the work implied setting up of 11 observation platforms (like those used by ornithologists) and talks with locals, who contributed to the realization of a book containing almost all the plant species found in the mentioned area. Throgh her interest in transformations of different spaces, the artist also provides an insight into the changing of society.
Dušica Dražić participated in the 51st October Salon, The Night Pleases Us, with the work The Winter Garden, specifically made for that occasion, from plants found around and inside the building in which the exhibition was held. Her work was exhibited at the 55th October Salon, Disappearing Things, at the invitation of Curators Vanessa Muller and Nicolas Schaffhausen.
The work is produced by the Dokville Festival in Hamburg. It consists of two parts. Eleven platforms were set up in an abandoned industrial area, for which visitors were provided with a map with accurately marked positions, so that they could explore the mentioned place themselves and track daily changes in its urban landscape. The second part, which is in the Collection, is the book Industrial Arboretum, a collection of all the samples of vegetation found at the time when the work was created at that location. The work talks about the relationship among industry, nature and culture.
© Cultural Centre of Belgrade, October Salon Collection and the artist
Gift Contract: III-5-286/22.9.2014.
Inventory No. 1344
Photo: Milan Kralj
Landscape
plaster
30 cm x 30 cm x 13 cm
2013
The work belongs to the Landscapes Series, seven pieces in total, which were realized during her residency in Vienna and preceded the work Constructed Landscape, created shortly afterwards.
Looking at the landscape, observing its topography we stay in oblivion, not knowing how much time has past and how much force was needed to come to this moment we gaze into. By cutting into the landscape, we discover multiple layers. Although often invisible, a radical change of the surface we walk on is caused by deep, inner, continuous drifting of tectonic plates. Due to the slow, invisible migration of these plates and their interaction, this seemingly static landscape in front of us is constantly being recreated. Time is the crucial factor, but the most difficult to grasp.
If buildings are observed in the same way, we notice similar changes in their seemingly stable structures. “Landscapes” are precise plaster casts of cracks of architectural elements in the city. Placed horizontally, on plinths they start to resemble these slowly formed landscapes. (https://dusicadrazic.wordpress.com/portfolio/landscapes/)
In cooproduction with bm:uk (Bundesministerium fur Unterricht, Kunst und Kultur)
© Cultural Centre of Belgrade, October Salon Collection and the artist
Gift Contract: III-5-517/24.12.2014.
Inventary No. 1390
Photo: Milan Kralj
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
The issues that Dušica Dražić (1979, Belgrade, Serbia) explores within her art practice deal with the ambivalent interrelationship of the citizen and the city, their mutual support and protectiveness, but also their isolation and destruction. Dražić searches for spaces of irregularity, difference, flexibility rethinking them at the level of cultural continuity, symbolic irregularities and individual actions. She looks for traces that show how culture is constantly being negotiated, redefined and transformed. Dražić exhibited works internationally in solo and group exhibitions and was a resident at Q21/MQ (Vienna), Iaspis (Stockholm), ISCP (NYC), KulturKontakt (Vienna), Tobačna 001 (Ljubljana). Dražić also initiated and curated collaborative projects and exhibitions. In 2018 she founded Out of Sight_ A venue for contemporary in Antwerp, together with Wim Janssen. More information at www.dusicadrazic.com and www.out-of-sight.be