Expanding the horizon of established accounts of Central European art under socialism, this book uncovers the neglected history of artistic engagement with the natural environment in the Eastern Bloc. The turbulent legacy of 1968, which saw the confluence of political upheaval, spread of counterculture, rise of ecological consciousness, and emergence of global conceptual art, provides the setting for Maja Fowkes’s innovative reassessment of the environmental practice of the Central European neo-avant-garde. Focussing on artists and artist groups whose ecological dimension has rarely been considered, including the Pécs Workshop from Hungary, OHO in Slovenia, TOK in Croatia, Rudolf Sikora in Slovakia, and the Czech artist Petr Štembera, 'The Green Bloc: Neo-avant-garde Art and Ecology under Socialism' brings to light an array of distinctive approaches to nature, from attempts to raise environmental awareness among socialist citizens to the exploration of non-anthropocentric positions and the quest for cosmological existence in the midst of red ideology. Embedding artistic production in social, political, and environmental histories of the region, this book reveals the Central European artists’ sophisticated relationship to nature, at the precise moment when ecological crisis was first apprehended on a planetary scale.
Fowkes
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Acknowledgments Introduction 1. Abstract Elements in the Industrial Environment: The Land Art of the Hungarian Group Pécs Workshop 2. The Cosmic Environment of the Slovenian Group OHO 3. Ecology of the Socialist City: The Public Art of the Croatian Group TOK 4. Correlations of Geography, Ecology, and Cosmology in the Conceptual Practice of Slovak Artist Rudolf Sikora 5. Embodied Environmental Awareness in the Performative Practice of Czech Artist Petr Štembera Bibliography Illustration Credits Index
Fowkes, Maja
Dr. Maja Fowkes is Co-Director of the Translocal Institute for Contemporary Art, Budapest. She is the author of several books, including River Ecologies: Contemporary Art and Environmental Humanities on the Danube (2015) and Loophole to Happiness (2011).
Fowkes Maja:
Dr. Maja Fowkes is Co-Director of the Translocal Institute for Contemporary Art, Budapest. She is the author of several books, including River Ecologies: Contemporary Art and Environmental Humanities on the Danube (2015) and Loophole to Happiness (2011).
