Photography
Common Beauty
Project description
During Covid-19 pandemics lots of urban dwellers were trapped in their apartments, without contact with their families and friends. Thus, urban populations turned to their balconies and terraces for a breath of fresh air, and even minimal contact with nature. So, common images were people cleaning their terraces and balconies, painting and renovating these spaces and making them beautiful and enjoyable. Citizens living in houses used these limitations as stimulations to clean their backyards, garages, years of collecting and leaving for later. Other common images around the City of Novi Sad were piles of broken furniture, old cooking utensils, clothes, various bits and pieces - even old wedding pictures, in and around garbage bins and containers. There were texts in papers stating that home renovation depots and greenery stores were the only ones doing better during than before pandemics. And those living on premises without balconies or gardens to attend to turned to the surrounding space and no man’s land around residential buildings. Through cultivation of these small ad hoc gardens, they tried to make something beautiful, enjoyable and to keep themselves busy, healthy and sane. Before the pandemics, this activity was - as a prejudice or statistically confirmed?! - associated with lonely elderly ladies, with little social contact. During the pandemics this became something more neighbours from all ages took part in, or at least supported and helped with. And all of this was happening silently, even secretly, as if self-sown cultures just appeared, and arranged themselves in this particular manner. Since social contact was forbidden, this activity was happening in some awkward hours. Many of these gardens appeared around residential quarters with previously only public greenery, lawns and tree lanes, near building entrances or playgrounds. Since it is not allowed by law to cultivate anything on public land, no matter how dilapidated or ruined it is, people were discouraged by fines and communal police attitude towards any attempt of beautification. Peculiarity of the pandemics situation changed this - at least for some time. It offers some hope that people and communal services learned to tolerate and understand each other more during pandemics, not being bothered by these spatial interventions as before. It remains to follow how many of these gardens will survive, now that life is back on almost regular track?!
Author's presentation text
Miljena Vučković is Spatial Designer and Observer, Art Director & Location Scout, Stage & Production Designer. Her main interest and common topic of her work is Space and its performative qualities, which she explores through various activities, approaches and methods. During previous years, she gained significant professional experience working on projects various in style and scale: theatre plays, performances, movies, music videos, but also theoretical studies, spatial interventions and installations, exhibition design, commercial events organisation and sets, etc. Miljena serves as vice-president in “Scenatoria”, Organisation that promotes (performative) arts through their “staging” in abandoned and neglected built heritage, and education about these fields - walks, talks, publications, workshops. She considers continuous education exciting and crucial for any development.