European Capital of Culture and Ars Electronica, one of the most prestigious institutions in the field of new art media and contemporary artistic practices, teamed up for connection between science and art as a presentation of contemporary creative practices.
Within the opening of the Kaleidoscope of Culture, the National Pavillion of the new media art will be presented in Creative District (facility no. 11) from 2 until 5 September. Explore reality and fiction with a walk through the ‘Garden’ by Ars Electronica – the project by the Academy of Arts in Novi Sad, which presents the city as a sociocultural reflection of Novi Sad as the city of culture. The ‘Garden’ is part of the existing project by the Academy entitled ‘Differences’.
The ‘Garden’ navigates and marks the moment and connection between random and meaningful, internal and external, spatial and delusional, demographic, urban, as well as critical aspect of the environment we live in.
The work has a critical stance towards the life we life and the way we live it. The garden benchmark marks the context, i.e., the environment of the garden and nature. However, it is a mental and spiritual garden, the reflection of environmental movement during which, we are lost in our absence, we become extinct.
The starting point and inspiration for the work were founded in the Garden of Earthly Delights by Hieronymus Bosch, in the paradoxical and imaginary perception of life. However, our Garden is visually different from Bosch’s archetype since it offers contents in terms of minimalist structures characteristic of the present day, which is in token of absence.
The Garden project is focused on the metaphorical overview on life and movements within the life, in terms of general collapse of nature and warnings issued through the project itself, as a prism within which emotions intertwine and intersect, thus witnessing the collapse of life-giving elements. The garden as a term refers to the process that takes place in other dimension, observation of consequences, and sociocultural reflection.
Thematic task is based on the term of accelerated motion, ‘movement development’ of people and civilization, as well as on monitoring new circumstances regarding these movements. This is the reason why assimilation of movement can be explained by the metaphor: from the imaginary Garden of Eden to your mental garden, the soul of the garden united with wounded nature.
During five weeks, this yearlong project of culture of togetherness that connects artists, cultural institutions, non-governmental organisations, citizens and visitors through various processes, will present five types of art. At the end of summer, the Kaleidoscope of Culture will present spaces and programmes throughout the city, promoting a unique image of the diversity of Novi Sad.
