SITE-RESPONSIVENESS AS AN ART PRACTICE FOR THE TIMES OF THE SIXTH EXTINCTION. by Marta Anna Raczek-Karcz. Jan Matejko Academy Of Fine Arts

Abstract:
Hill as an extension of purely visual artifacts by inclusion of elements that engage other senses, allowing audience to recognise their position in the face of the sixth mass extinction. Methodology is based on Mirzoeff’s tactics containing a “direct element of action” as appropriate tools for recognizing oneself in the catastrophe, e.g. ecological one, and the concept of site-responsive art as an approach to restoring subjectivity to areas degraded by human activity. The author also draws on selected aspects of post-media performance theory by M. Dancewicz. The research goal of the article is to introduce the term “sztuka okolico-zwrotna” as the Polish translation of site-responsive art. This is related to the observation of increasingly frequent changes in artistic activity in a given place towards cooperation with a specific place. In this practice, socio-historical context is less important than the materiality of a specific site, its rhythm, impact, and the processes occurring within it over time. The artist enters into a deep relationship with such defined reality and then strives to enable the audience to experience similar sensations and emotions. Such a creative practice—due to its inherent sensitivity and mindfulness—may constitute one of art’s possible responses to the ecological crisis we find ourselves in the midst of.

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