Planetarische Bauern

Iza Tarasewicz (born 1981 in Bialystok, Poland) grew up on a collectivized farm in north-eastern Poland and returned there after completing her art studies. The fate of the land and the creatures that live on it has remained central to her artistic practice. Ruins and Promises brings together artefacts of a vanished pre-industrial agriculture with elements from a world powered by solar energy and steered by satellite. A fragile structure evocative of the International Space Station arises from a discarded hay cart filled with old scythes. Futurism was already inscribed in the doctrines of socialist revolution, which radically transformed Tarasewicz’s home region. In its unwavering belief in the world’s malleability, however, it often overlooked the land, the present moment, and the needs of its inhabitants. The same holds true for agriculture in the capitalist West. Where is the progressive future of contemporary agriculture to be found?