SIEKIERKI COMMUNITY GARDEN
(02.2020 - now)
My main field of interest is socially engaged art contributing to the development of democratic education and politics. I believe that through art’s potential for world making, more sustainable, caring future can be created at least as a local, temporary intervention. My main practice that defines this statement is a guerilla community garden I co-established on a field abandoned by the municipality in a post agricultural district of Warsaw, currently under fast gentrification performed by private estate developers. The garden’s main aims are to strengthen local communities identification with the landscape, practice permaculture, familiarise with the concept of guerilla gardening and grabbing unused land from the municipality. The artistic part of it lies in the conceptual framework of choosing the artwork’s medium that would best fit the idea. In this case the best artwork for me to suit the climate crisis was experimental ecological education as I believe that mainly through educating the society and pressuring politicians we can create a better future. In the garden, apart from debating sustainability, permaculture and property dynamics in the city we also perform DIY workshops in capturing water, building willow structures and benches, wild food foraging and composting amongst others. We also debate human-animal interactions on the example of a wild boar, which is a frequent visitor. The practical activities serve as a medium for intergenerational conversations between neighbours. Another aspect which relates the community garden to art practice is the context of cultural institutions being taken over by authoritarian pons to serve as tools for right wing propaganda. In the age of censorship in post-soviet Europe and the climate crisis, cultural institutions should move outdoors to continue their functioning and reconnect with the environment.
