How can urban gardening be reframed as public art? In this project, Magda Olchawska creates a multimedia art piece composed of natural materials such as dry flowers, plants from the artist’s urban garden and super greens that will grow and change during the exhibition. She uses video and journaling pages to share stories from her childhood in 1980s Poland, which was still under communist oppression. “Allotment” is a multidimensional project replicating real-life allotments while embodying the broader ecological and sustainable multifunctionality of urban allotments and gardens. The project identifies with ecological art and uses materials already in circulation, cultivating the artist’s plea for sustainability within her projects.
Olchawska set up a balcony garden in London in 2022 to explore the possibility of cutting down food expenses by cultivating a garden in a small urban space without access to land. Soon, the garden began integrating into her creative practice, expanding beyond her filmmaking practice and incorporating Olchawska’s environmental advocacy through art.
