The green bloc : neo-avant-garde art and ecology under socialism

Expanding the horizon of accounts of art under communism, The Green Bloc uncovers the history of artistic engagement with the natural environment in the Eastern Bloc. The book focusses on artists including the Pecs Workshop from Hungary, OHO in Slovenia, TOK in Croatia, Rudolf Sikora in Slovakia, and the Czech artist Petr Stembera, Fowkes's research brings to light an array of distinctive approaches to nature, from attempts to raise environmental awareness among citizens to the exploration of non-anthropocentric positions and the quest for cosmological existence in the midst of red ideology. The study deals with the specific historical period of the early 1970s in the light of the changes in cultural spheres brought by the social and political upheavals and disturbances of 1968, recognizing the more systematic appearance of art practice in the natural environment, as well as art's engagement with environmental problems. Embedding artistic production in social, political, and environmental histories of the region, this book reveals the artists' sophisticated relationship to nature, at the precise moment when ecological crisis was first apprehended on a planetary scale. Expanding the horizon of established accounts of Central European art under socialism, this book uncovers the neglected history of artistic engagement with the natural environment in the Eastern Bloc. The turbulent legacy of 1968, which saw the confluence of political upheaval, spread of counterculture, rise of ecological consciousness, and emergence of global conceptual art, provides the setting for Maja Fowkes's innovative reassessment of the environmental practice of the Central European neo-avant-garde. Focussing on artists and artist groups whose ecological dimension has rarely been considered, including the Pécs Workshop from Hungary, OHO in Slovenia, TOK in Croatia, Rudolf Sikora in Slovakia, and the Czech artist Petr Štembera, 'The Green Bloc: Neo-avant-garde Art and Ecology under Socialism' brings to light an array of distinctive approaches to nature, from attempts to raise environmental awareness among socialist citizens to the exploration of non-anthropocentric positions and the quest for cosmological existence in the midst of red ideology. Embedding artistic production in social, political, and environmental histories of the region, this book reveals the Central European artists' sophisticated relationship to nature, at the precise moment when ecological crisis was first apprehended on a planetary scale