Per monstra ad astra? Atlas śmiecioroślin Diany Lelonek
Per monstra ad astra? Diana Lelonek's Wasteplants Atlas

Summary/Abstract: The article is an interpretation of Diana Lelonek's projects: the Center for the Living Things and the Wasteplants Atlas accompanying the activities of this para-institution. It is an attempt to understand the botanical and artifactual entities, as they are presented in the Atlas, as hybrids, primarily in the context of history and criticism of modern reason (with emphasis on the role of compendia, atlases and cabinets of curiosities). The author analyses the formula of the atlas from the perspective of Georges Didi-Huberman's thought (“Atlas, or the Anxious Gay Science”). He assumes that the practice of the Center of Living Things characterizes a tension defined by Didi-Huberman after Aby Warburg’s notions astra and monstra. Diana Lelonek's initiatives are seen here as an attempt to broaden awareness, and perhaps even a preliminary sketch of knowledge (astra) about the anthropocenic reality. The artist's desire to question the distinction of culture/nature is also interpreted in the context of Alexander von Humbotdt's pioneering holistic view of nature - from this perspective Center for Living Things may be seen as an artistic update of Humboldt's postulates in the Anthropocene era.

• Details
• Contents