Imagine 2020 (2.0) – ART, ECOLOGY AND POSSIBLE FUTURES SUMMER LAB #1: TOXIC TOUR

Photo: Tanja Radež

Locations: University Botanic Gardens Ljubljana, Ljubljana Marsh Nature Park, Planina Cave

Participants of the Imagine 2020 Summer Lab will engage in a 3-day field trip, starting from the University Botanic Gardens Ljubljana to the Ljubljana Marsh Nature Park and the Planina Cave.
They will focus on the changing interrelations and co-relations imposed by the increasing pollution on the fragile equilibrium of Ljubljana’s marsh ecosystem, by observing and giving voice to its non-human dwellers whose languages we may only imagine – waters (rivers, sources, undercurrents), plants (invasive and indigenous species), animals (birds, frogs, wild pigs, mosquitoes) – and entities such as the geological period, micro-climate and specific geography of the locations.

We’ll follow the logic of the so-called Toxic Tours, educating attendees while also encouraging them towards discussion that can potentially impact the decision-making of various parties involved in situations of direct pollution. The participants of the lab are artists, researchers and activists who in their practices address the issues of toxicity (in its more vast social, gendered, political meaning), reflect on the concepts of the so-called era of Anthropocene and its abolition of division between nature and culture, explore human/non-human interaction and co-living and are interested in the legal rights of nature.

The Summer Lab will be moderated by Nataša Petrešin Bachelez and Nevenka Koprivšek.