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LANDSCAPE, SOCIETY AND ART AS A KIND OF PROTEST. SOCIOLOGICAL VIEW

Miloslav Lapka, Eva Cudlinova

Abstract

In our study we are stressing the social function of land-art as a kind of protest going far beyond the professional land-art work and taking the form of bottom-up social movements. We have labelled this process Land, Society and Art – LSA. LSA is often a free, spontaneous movement against the losing of a memory of a place. The aim of LSA is to create common society symbols in the landscape; professional land-art installation is not the main purpose. A common issue with land-art is the element of protest. Protest against commodification of the art, protest against isolation of the art and nature, but, from the sociological point of view, the main issue is the underlying protest against the consequences of the modernisation process; against the ‘demagification’ (demystification, disenchantment) of the world, according to Weber’s interpretation. Our aim is to show the differences and common issues between traditional land-art and the LSA using cases in The Czech Republic - Vodnany in 2012, Konigsmuhle – both created in 2012, as well some conceptual generalisation. We are witness to the spontaneous protest against the erasing of the memory and symbols from the landscape, history and culture in LSA.

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