Goitzsche lignite strip mine in 1998, before flooding;
view from 30 meters below todays water line.
"Sprawl Garden, an improvised
garden on a piece of urban wasteland on Leipzigs eastside; 2000.
What
is a landscape? It is not an absolute but something vastly artificial.
It is not simply a presence but comes into existence through our gaze. By our
specific ways of looking at the environment, we create a landscape image. The
individual elements in our environment already exist out there, but they do
not blend into a unified whole and become a landscape without us
looking at them from a certain, culturally defined perspective. Usually, we
only see those landscapes that we have learned to recognize as such. But how
can we arrive at new ways of seeing landscapes? How can we develop new landscape
images?
Atelier Latent engages in the new discipline of the Strollology in order
to develop new ways of recognizing and analyzing undiscovered latent
landscapes.
Gardens
carry meanings. In that regard, they are different from merely decorative clusters
of plants. But meaning is a volatile phenomenon. What remains when a garden
loses its purpose, or if its purpose falls into oblivion? Then, even the most
magnificent flowers are of no use to the garden.
By learning how to pay attention and how to read latent locations, meanings
will emerge on the surface of our perceptions.
Atelier Latent is dedicated to this art.