46 applications from all over the world came to the competition “On Accepting The Undesirable” and the artistic jury chose the proposal See Glass Again as the winning work, which will be realized in October 2023 in Lončari, Croatia. The artist is Dodd Holsapple from Santa Monica, California (USA).
Holsapple will thus become the eleventh resident for five weeks, where he will work on an art installation for the creation. He will use more than a ton and a half of glass debris that was collected in two volunteer eco-actions to clean up the canyon of the River Bijela in 2020 and 2022
The collected glass waste will be used by Holsapple to create a drywall design construction with a mosaic layout of eels made from glass in the shape of a ring that will form a space for sitting, hanging out, performing or talking, a destination installation.
His stay at OPG Pueblo Escondido will be accompanied by several public events and workshops which will be announced.
The curatorial team consisting of Davorka Perić and Zoran Pantelić says that the winning project represents the metamorphosis of glass waste into a viewpoint, a toponym in the landscape and a gathering place with an artistic intervention, which also has the the useful function of a rest place in the form of a circular bench.
The inspiration for the creation of the circular form comes from ancient historical sources (snake, dragon, lizard), and the proposal emphasizes cyclic energy and symbolic spiritual regeneration, and in this case incorporated into an authentic local context through a circular shape with an illustration of an eel fish species, characteristic of the Three Seas area.
European eel fish is a favorite animal among the locals, who place it into their wells to clean the water. The locals used to take it in the rainy seasons when it comes out of the sea and moves on the wet grass. They would put it in the rain water tanks to protect their water by eating the pests that would appear in the collected rainwater.
Therefore, European eel is a participant in an interesting and sustainable process, the bond/connection between the sea and land ecosystem. It originates from the eel family, it is an inhabitant of rivers and seas, and lives in the Karin, Novigrad and Starigrad seas precisely because of the existence of three rivers: River Bijela, Zrmanja and Karišnica which flow into the sea.
About the project:
The Ecological project IT IS NOT TOO LATE in its focus defines sea grass beds and their importance for the overall ecosystem, at first glance an undesirable element in our environment. For this reason, the transfer knowledge of those who know the role of sea grass beds for the ecosystem and the quality of life of fish which is important to society in order to change people’s awareness and perception of this natural phenomenon. Namely, the knowledge that 1% of sea grass in the sea produce 12% of the oxygen we recieve from the sea, can connect residents, associations and all interested participants with the goal of preserving the ecosystem. The project deals with changing the perception of sea grass beds, its valorization and protection. In addition, the focus of the project was the removal of a significant part of pollution from the area of the River Bijela basin, during which 1.5 tons of glass waste was collected in the spirit of Environmentalism. The glass will serve as a resource for the creation of the artistic intervention, which will be placed in a public space and thus permanently point to the problem of environmental pollution.
The creation of an art installation is part of the project „#itIsNotTooLate – Seagrass Beds: Zostera Marina, Zostera Noltei and Cymodocea Nodosa, their significance for fish life and the overall healthy ecosystem of the Three Seas area“.
The project was approved through the Three Seas FLAG competition under Measure 2.1. Support for the evaluation, protection and promotion of the natural resource base – rivers, seas and coasts” in order to implement activities removal of waste/pollution located in the watershed, mapping the state of seagrass surfaces and making people aware of their footprint on natural resources with the aim of valorizing and protecting seagrass as a source of marine life and with the aim of raising the quality of life of the fish stock.
The project is co-financed by the European Union from the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund.