Dušica DRAŽIĆ

[2007, site-specific intervetion in Worpswede, Germany]

To break the rules imposed by:

• tradition
• environment
• state
• guilt
• community
• moral
• self-censorship
• in order to abolish the inescapability, in order to recognise the potential in the offcasts.

I have sown Amaranthus retroflexus L. – a type of weed, on the lot next to corn and wheat fields. There is no visual difference between the shape of these allotments or the way it is sown. This project has been completed with the help of prof. Dr Ljubinko Jovanović. A flyer was printed and distributed with a scientific text by Prof. Dr.  Jovanović about the potential use of weeds in agriculture..

The work was realised with the support of the city of Worpswede and with the hepl of the Drees family.

                “Weeds are undesirable species of plants which grow in conjunction with the cultivated plants, taking a part of their mineral nourishment, light, water and space. One of many definitions of weed is that they are plants growing in the wrong place at the wrong time[...]
                [...] Weed species can survive in any unfavourable conditions much better than the cultivated ones. The types of weed resilient to the herbicides are a particular problem since multiple use of herbicides on tolerant species has no effect except in being unfavourable for the environment.
                On the other hand, there are those species which do not grow in conjunction with the cultivated plants, but on poor or contaminated soil (ex. Verbascum thapsus L.) as pioneer plants. Some weed species, however, have a substantial share of biomass and can therefore be used for extracting energy (heat, gas, electricity etc.). In the process of photosythesis, by using the energy of the Sun, carbon-dioxyde and water, plants accumulate large quantities of energy in the form of organic matter. The amount of fixed carbon in the form of plant biomass is roughly 200 billion tons per year. However, human population uses only 800 million tons (or 0.4%) of this enormous amount for thier needs[...]
                [...]Weed species usually occupy the areas of poor soil, reducing evapotranspiration, improving the richness of the soil by increasing the organic matter of the the soil with the leftovers after the period of vegetation. In this way they enable the re-use of the pooor soil for human needs. In the places where the soil has been contaminated with different toxic metals and organic compounds (oil and chemical industry) plants start growing after a certain number of years and gradually clean the soil of the pollutants due to their specific survival mechanisms. [...]”

Dr Ljubinko Jovanović, WEEDS – USEFUL PLANTS, 2007. (excrept)

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Dušica DRAŽIĆ

The works used for this presentation are clear indicators of the focus of my production where the concept and the form have equally important roles in opening the work towards a multilayered interpretation, that is, towards the author’s loss of control over the appearance of new passageways directed at the reader/observer. It is this inconstancy, temporarity, instability which is created as a result of the relation of cause and effect between the individual, surroundings and the given moment  and the thread winding through my production.

I am searching for spaces without laws, spaces od irregularity, difference, flexibility, intuition which make up the invisible part of the city and which are marked by the traces of unknown passers-by.

In the past two years, beside my artistic work I have accepted the role of a “culture activist” and act as project iniciator, producer or graphic designer.

To learn more about the work, go to: dusicadrazic.wordpress.com

Contact: dusica.drazic(at)gmail.com