Kruno Jošt

“Natural Intelligence” pays tribute to Ivan Ladislav Galeta, renewed Croatian video and conceptual artist. Performance shows a very simple act of mowing with hand scythe, in the spiral form from the centre towards the outer edge and after finishing mowing returning to the centre of the spiral from where mowing started. This act evokes tradition, work, agriculture, the relationship between man and nature in past times, though the very name of the performance has additional suggestions. “Natural intelligence” is the antithesis of today’s much hyped “artificial intelligence”. By a simple action, which I learned from my grandfather who was a farmer I want to say that nature has an intelligence that should be given attention and respect.

Symbol of spiral has a reference in many artists who use it in their work, perhaps most prominent being “Spiral Jetty” by Robert Smithson. I also want to remember anecdote from Galeta’s life where he mows in the shape of a spiral on his property in  a small Croatian village (as opposed to the usual way of mowing in the shape of a rectangle) and thus attracts the curiosity of passers-by who approach him with the desire to correct his work, to which Galeta answers: “If I didn’t mow like this, they would never approach me and never talk about why I mow like this”.

Spiral is a direct trace that man leaves in his relationship with nature and symbolizes life and growth, evolution and expansion. A large number of plants and animals develop in a series of patterns that are directly related to the spiral. From the shape of DNA known as the “double helix” to seashells, cones and fingerprints, the growth of hair on the head (during the performance I stops and pas due respect to the spiral on my head).

It symbolizes development, expansion, rotation and progress – the cyclical nature of evolution where rhythms repeat. It evokes the archetypal path of growth and transformation, both physically and spiritually. The spiral is the bridge between the harmony in the cosmos and the harmony within us — the infinite resonance or life energy. Connection and union with divine and cosmic energies. Revolutions of time, stars, planets and ways of natural progress.

The performance “Natural Intelligence” was designed and performed by Kruno Jošt, produced by UKE in 2023.

During nonconsecutive three months artist in residency in Halland region of Sweden, a research was conducted around the problematic toxic sediment created by extensive industrial history of the Borås city on the Viskan river as a part of proposals for the theme of artistic “ecological literacy”.

During residency, for the project purposes Viskan was visited on many occasion. Canoe travel was undertaken to collect samples of the river that were later used to examine microbiological life of the river.

As known from scientific research, some forms of toxicity can be remediated with microorganisms so this was taken as an inspiration to look into ways of enlarging their numbers and activity locally.

Microorganisms can be influenced trough certain sound frequencies in certain volumes that in some cases enlarges their number in shorter time, and without any unwanted effects to environment.

After conducting a research on sound frequencies and its influences on observed microorganisms in the collected samples some of them were designed for the informance (informative performance) on the river itself.

Canoe was arranged into a vessel that can take one participants on the river trip. This canoe had an installation for playing sounds beneficial for the bacteria, but was also tailored for each participant to get into a state of appreciation of the river. At the same time participants could release what is known as Miracle Enzyme, organic compound beneficial for the microorganisms that was created in a prior workshop. An intimate visual reference was tailored for each individual observance of Viskan river and its inhabitants, with accompanying sound and information about micro and macro cosmos.

Research and performative action were executed during Art Inside Out residency Between the Rains in region Halland, Sweden in 2022.

Whole photo-log can be seen below

Post-normal Art is a diary that draws its inspiration on the Ziauddin Sadar text “Welcome to Postnormal Times” from 2009. in the form of a blog with texts, parts of Sadar’s translated texts, photographs, sound and video shorts.

Diary is leading us deeper in understanding how to manage post normal times with art practice, what that practice should be, and how to realize it.

Nature Like is an artist research of coexistence with his immediate environment using permacultural methods and photography that documents seasonal time-span.

NK uses artists labor to develop and organize “multi-cultural” garden (not “mono-cultural”) that will eventually become permanent and autonomous – people independent. Slide show documents artist arrangement of the garden, using its shape like a painter would use a canvas, and gardening materials as a paint. Elements of this composition include wind, sun, rain,  microbes, fungi, plants, insects, soil, stone, compost, birds, larva, worms, frogs, snakes and other small animals, straw bales, water, wood, plastic canvas (tarp), plastic cups and water containers, water hoses, plastic compost containers, snow and temperature.

“16 Channels Sound Fertilizer” sound installation uses renewable energy sources to run multiple speakers that are playing the sounds offered by various sound-for-plants researchers. Sounds include different frequency ranges, noise generators and musical interpretations as well as sound compositions offered by French mathematician and physicist Joel Sternheimer who developed a study on protein synthesis activation. Installation is questioning an alternative to “art-for-humans” position as well as alternative to industrial agriculture and its extensive usage of pesticide and chemical fertilizers that is contributing to climate change.

“In some situations water is full of energy, sometimes it is sluggish and exhausted; in some conditions it dies. “To an untrained eye dead water still looks like water. So we expect it to do the same job as healthy energetic water.” Charlie Ryrie, author of The Healing Energies of Water.”
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