Bodies, Objects and Performance Practices Research Group
Silvia Battista
Presentation – 05/05/11
The Ecology of Participation in
Wolfgang Laib’s Work with Pollen:
A Comparative Approach
ecology |iˈkäləjē|
noun
1 the branch of biology that deals with the relations of organisms to one another and to their physical surroundings.
• (also human ecology) the study of the interaction of people with their environment.
2 (also Ecology) the political movement that seeks to protect the environment, esp. from pollution.
Abstract:
Wolfgang Laib’s work with pollen consists of rectangular shapes realized sifting pollen, through muslins, on floors of
gallery spaces. The pollen is collected by Laib himself in the surrounding fields, forests and bushes around his
studio/house in Germany. For months, every day, in solitude, he carries on this activity, patiently collecting, in small
jars, the pollen necessary to this activity. This performative, repetitive action is highly regarded by Laib due to the
emphasis and value placed on slowness, silence, solitude and participation to natural processes.
The resulting pieces are mesmerizing shapes of different intense yellow shades meant to absorb the viewer into
contemplative states. To Laib, the pollen pieces are not paintings or sculptures but rather presentations of the pollen in
its intensity and essentiality and he considers himself as participant to its natural process. As such, he views the role of
the artist as a bridge that allows others to enter in contact with the healing properties of this natural element in line with
the tradition of art as healing practice.
I am not going to explore further this aspect of his work but I am going instead to focus on other questions raised
around issues of human agency in relation to the natural environment. My argument is that his work and his creative
processes should be interpreted as symbolic forms of ecological resistance. Accordingly my analysis is open to those
avenues of interpretation that let me draw a comparative net of parallels with other forms of resistance.
In order to do that I will focus on four main points:
Laib’s ontological position;
Laib’s modalities of participation in natural processes;
Laib’s Cultural references;
Other forms of “Glocal” ecological resistance.
Laib’s artistic practice is not located in the framework of the artist/subject/creator employing the material/object for
representational purposes. On the contrary his notion of art consists in participating to processes already taking place in
“nature” such as the production of milk, wax or pollen. His ambition is to participate to those processes engaging with
their products as “performing materials”. His role is then reduced to minimal interventions like: collecting the pollen,
isolating it from the natural context, and finding the best modality of presentation in gallery spaces.
It is interesting to notice that Laib’s main points of cultural reference are eastern philosophies, mystical and radically
ecological religious traditions such as Jainism, and pre-modern western figures such as San Francesco (Saint Francis)
that is a central inspiration to his practice. Those cultural references with their radically ecological approach to “nature”
provide Laib with alternative narratives from which not only to construct his practice but also his life.
Following this line of logic I intend to explore further the role that those cultural models play in Laib’s approach to art
and to draw from here parallels with other fields of human endeavor where alternatives, to the ongoing human
exploitation and manipulation of natural resources, are offered, investigated and experimented through different means
of engagement. For example, just to mention few, his approach resonates with the scientific hypothesis of the “Earth
System Science” (Gaia Theory) articulated by James Lovelock; with the “biodynamic agriculture” method theorized by
Rudolph Steiner; the global movement of Slow Food initiated by Carlo Petrini; and “Navdanya” the Research
Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology Founded by Vananda Shiva.
Most of these approaches rehabilitate slow paces of life, participative modalities of intervention, and listening as a
modality of approaching “nature”. These are all forms of glocalization where people is engaged in local forms of
commitment to the territory, however in communication with a global network of non-violent form of resistance.
In conclusion, although Laib’s work has developed and it is distributed within the art system, the modalities in which
Laib’s creative process unfolds suggest that other contexts, rather than the artistic, should be attended to interpret it.