ImPlanting by Natalia Ershova

The modern city is an environment of steel, concrete, and glass that shapes and constrains all living things. “Implantation” is the observation of nature's return to the city, but only on its own terms: orderly, trained, and controlled.

The modern city is a construction of steel, concrete and glass. Belgrade is no exception. The space created by man for himself has become an environment that shapes, dreads and confines himself wand all living things trapped in the city. This work is an observation of the process of nature’s return to the strictly delineated confines of the urban landscape. It is no longer wild, spontaneous nature, capable of breaking the boundaries, but ordered, trained elements: neat flowerbeds, planted trees, ornamental bushes, carpets of artificial lawns. Vegetation is embedded in the architectural fabric of the city as a necessary but controlled, safe and subordinate element. These green inclusions enliven the environment but also mask, primarily for ourselves, our alienation from the world around us, creating a collective illusion of caring for the environment. ImPlanting records the return of plants to the place from which they were previously displaced – under conditions dictated by the city and man.