Surface mining
A mini-copy of an actual exploited surface mining hole. The intertwining of bio-social conditions within an enormous area in the territory of Bor inspired me to create a model that realistically represents the topological structure of this place.
This artificial wonder emphasise the relationship between man and nature where human explores and consumes nature as an useful object, eventually turning it into a matter of possession. According to Karl Marx, the theoretical and scientific knowledge of nature's independent laws is the tool for possessing a certain power which subordinates it to human needs, either as an object of consumption or as a means of production.
This mine is so big that it can only be seen with the help of satellite images. A faithful geographic model of the landscape and insight into the urban planning solution within the spatial complex were achieved by using photographs from the “Google Earth” and “Zoom Earth” websites from multiple different positions.
Industrial complex (Google Earth 2016.), Surface mine, north side (Zoom Earth 2016.)
Surface mine with industrial complex (Google Earth 2016.)
The complex seems like it was torn out of real space and inserted into the shape of a meteor-like stone. The materials used in the construction are a mixture of artificial and organic - gypsum, pigments, metal, moss, earth, sand, water. They are in service of achieving a living appearance of the sculpture, giving it a physicality and organic form and pointing to its eternal, evolving nature. The work is presented as an installation, exhibited with the video work ”XIII Horizon”, which follows the lives of workers inside the Pit, giving a documentary dimension to the work.
Sculpture, - gypsum, silicone, sand, water, moss, soil, metal.
Horizons
“Horizons“ (2016) presents six maps created from the deconstruction of a complete axonometric representation of the Pit Corridors.
Through Foucault's historical overview of the role of the map, we can see how power is used in the knowledge of a certain area, and thus in the use of maps. From the tool of measurement, which was used by the Greeks, to the tool of investigation during the Middle Ages, and today becoming a tool of examination, such as tax maps, these three uses of the map intertwine with each other—investigation used measurement, and examination used investigation. Geography as a discipline employs all three in the collection of information, creation of schemes, censuses, or catalogs. These raw pieces of information are not significant by themselves and can only be used in the form of power. Power is the mass of information in one place, which apparatus such as RTB Bor, uses and exploits. Thus it benefits from geography. The company conducts the power to know the Pit area, using maps as a tool.
With the intervention of decomposing this complex, networked structure into parts, its meaning changes, and they become devalued.
”Horizons”, Remont gallery, Belgrade, Serbia, 2018.