Inter-species Conservation

Material objects are utilized by non-human organisms, such as animals, plants and bacteria. Architecture, which satisfies primarily human needs, is inhabited by other entities whose intervention determines the future of a construction, exacerbating or mitigating its decay. Are those organisms capable of initiating the process of conservation?

The exhibition addresses the practice of conservation pertaining to nature and cultural artifacts. Material objects are utilized by non-human organisms, such as animals, plants and bacteria. Architecture, which satisfies primarily human needs, is inhabited by other entities whose intervention determines the future of a construction, exacerbating or mitigating its decay. Are those organisms capable of initiating the process of conservation? In fact, if bacteria, fungi and plants do stand guard to the tangible products of human imagination, one can only be certain that those objects will ultimately be absorbed into the natural environment.

The exhibition showcases the documentation of three different projects, including: a defunct electrical substation (Joanna Rajkowska), a pallet of black oak (Karolina Grzywnowicz), and a photograph of camp barracks (Anna Zagrodzka). The artists engage non-human agents in conservation. In case of architecture, conservation practice is performed by plants, bacteria and fungi. Whereas, black oak is the effect of natural processes that keep the matter intact on their own. Decay affirms the planetary metabolism. As such, a certain transformation is deemed desirable. Heritage defies materiality, formerly protected at all costs. It’s a process, correlation, metamorphosis.