Research-Based Art Practice - Marta Węglińska

Research-Based Practice

· research-based art · fieldwork-based practice · environmental art · artistic research · posthumanism · environmental humanities · nature–culture relations · archives & field studies ·

Nature as a subject of artistic research and practice

My work is based on research. I conduct bibliographic and archival queries as well as field research - observations of the relationships within selected ecosystems and cultural ways of understanding and representing nature. I observe nature from many perspectives - biology, geology, religion, mythology, tradition, philosophy, and culture.I am interested in how artistic practice can function as a tool for ecological cognition - revealing the interdependencies between humans, landscape, and non-human forms of life.

Field research is the starting point and main inspiration for most of my work. Selected locations that are close to my heart become the subjects of paintings, photographs, drawings, and objects. In addition to the visual layer resulting from the specificity of a given ecosystem, I refer to the dynamics of change and the circulation of matter, as well as the mechanisms that occur in the formation of the terrain (geomorphology).

Water, rocks, soil, and vegetation are the subject of my work, not the background. I present nature as active, causative, and reality-creating. Although the human figure appears in selected works, it is always treated as part of the landscape. Man immerses himself in his surroundings, intertwining seamlessly with vegetation, subject to the same mechanisms that shape the terrain.

Field research on ecosystems and landscape forms

My field research includes observations conducted in protected and environmentally valuable areas of Poland and Indonesia, with particular emphasis on the oldest forest ecosystems (including monumental trees), wetlands, springs, rivers (with natural riverbeds), trough lakes and mountain landscapes (including mountain pastures), and karst landscapes (rocks and karst formations, caves, xerothermic grasslands). For my research, I usually choose natural and cultural landscapes (related to pastoral activities) and locations distinguished by varied terrain. I am fascinated by lichens, bryophytes, ferns, carnivorous plants, and rock vegetation, among other things.

I most often work in the Kraków-Częstochowa Upland, the Beskids Mountains, and the Greater Poland region. In addition to Poland, my current research area also includes Indonesia, with which I have been associated since 2016 (annual scholarship from the Indonesian government Darmasiswa 2016/2017, as well as artist residencies and exhibitions in Java). Most of my field research was conducted in the vicinity of Yogyakarta and Cirebon, searching for, among other things, the oldest trees (especially those connected to springs) and landscapes shaped by volcanic activity.

Cultural studies on the perception and representation of nature

At the same time, I am conducting library and archival research on cultural ways of understanding and representing nature. I am investigating how different cultures perceive, interpret, symbolize, and represent nature - that is how people give meaning to nature. The focus of my fascination is the fully sensual, physical, and spiritual relationship between humans and nature. I am interested in ancient beliefs, rituals, traditions, and ceremonies related to nature - referring to the elements, plants, animals, and the cosmos. Depending on the project, I work with ways of representing nature in ancient literature, traditional dance, the presence of natural materials in ancient crafts, or the use of stone and earth in megalithic and ancient constructions. I often refer to the idea of microcosm and macrocosm present in ancient beliefs.

I am interested in how symbolic systems and ritual practices shape the way human communities perceive and co-create the natural environment.

Transdisciplinary research method

By combining empirical observations with reflection on culture, I treat research as a transdisciplinary process - combining methods drawn from the natural sciences, earth and environmental sciences, and the humanities with artistic practices. I do not seek to produce knowledge - scientific content - but rather to deepen our understanding of the relationship between humans and nature through experience, presence, and creative reinterpretations of diverse data.

As a result, my artistic activities are an attempt to create alternative models of environmental cognition - ones that take into account not only observation, but also intuition, imagination, and mindfulness as legitimate forms of contact with nature.

Theoretical contexts and discourses

My work can be interpreted in the context of: deep ecology, posthumanism (decentralization of humans, emphasis on interdependence, departure from hierarchical thinking about nature),relational philosophy, material studies and material ecocriticism (the importance of matter and its own agency in the analysis of culture, literature, and the environment; living beings and non-human processes influence the world and have their own meanings); environmental humanities / environmental storytelling (art as a form of constructing new narratives about the environment); geoaesthetics / geopoetics (the aesthetics of the earth, geological processes, landscape, and time); hydro-feminism / hydro-poetics (water as a medium of connections, memory, relationships, and corporeality); and slow art.

Topics and areas of field research

→ Mountains → pastoralism, overgrowth, coexistence

→ Forests → networks of relationships, mycelium, longevity

→ Water → erosion, circulation, shaping force

→ Jurassic landscapes → geomorphology, rock, time

→ Postglacial landscape → memory of matter, deep time

→ Environment of Indonesia → trees, water, volcano, cosmology

Mountain areas / pastoral landscapes

Landscapes co-created by humans and nature, existing thanks to long-term relationships and practices.

· mountain landscapes · ancient Carpathian forest · mountain biodiversity · coexistence of humans and the environment · pastoral pastures · pastoral culture · semi-natural landscape · grazing as an ecological factor · landscape memory · overgrowth of pastures · ecological succession · disappearance of traditional practices ·

Locations (PL): Żywiec Landscape Park, Silesian Beskids Landscape Park, Little Beskids Landscape Park, Tatra National Park, Karkonosze National Park, Poprad Landscape Park, Babia Góra National Park, Pieniny National Park

Jurassic landscapes

Landscapes formed by deep geological time and slow erosion processes.

· geomorphology · limestone · remnants of the Tethys Ocean · deep time · erosion · material cycle · karst forms · geological time · caves · xerothermic grasslands · rock vegetation ·

Locations (PL): Eagles' Nests Landscape Park, protected areas around Chrzanów, Krakow Valleys Landscape Park

Aquatic ecosystems

Water as a driving force – shaping the landscape, memory, and relationships.

· rivers with natural beds · springs · wetlands · trough lakes · water erosion · matter circulation · retention · geomorphology · water as a medium of relationships · hydro-poetics ·

Locations (PL): Sierakowski Landscape Park, Drawski Landscape Park, Drawieński National Park, nature reserves in the Pila district, Rogaliński Landscape Park, nature reserves around Lake Lubiatowko

Postglacial landscapes

Landscape as an archive of deep time.

· ice sheet heritage · terrain · V-shaped valleys · trough lakes · landscape as a record of geological processes · materiality of the earth · archive of eras ·

Locations (PL): Drawski Landscape Park, Drawieński National Park, nature reserves around Lake Lubiatowko, Promno Landscape Park, Zielona Gora Nature Reserve (Pila District)

Forests and the oldest trees

The forest as a network of interdependent entities and processes.

· the oldest forest ecosystems · monumental trees · the forest as a network of relationships · symbiosis · mycelium · interspecies communication · mosses · lichens · ferns · the ecosystem as a whole · circulation of matter ·

Locations (PL): Śrubita Nature Reserve, protected areas around Chrzanów, Rogaliński Landscape Park, Puszcza Knyszyńska Landscape Park, Popradzki Landscape Park

The environment of Indonesia

Landscapes shaped by volcanism, water, and living cosmologies.

· oldest trees · trees protecting water resources · tree worship · animistic beliefs · sacredness of the landscape · local cosmologies · volcanism · volcanic landscape · elements · spiritual relationships with the landscape ·

Locations (IDN): Java Island (near the cities of Yogyakarta, Cirebon, and Bogor), Lombok Island, eastern part of Borneo Island, central part of Bali Island