property line
Tell your tree where the property line is!
In a neighborhood context, trees and shrubs whose branches, blossoms, and roots grow (more or less) wildly beyond property lines can cause conflicts—healthy trees are then pruned, branches are sawed off, shrubs are radically cut back, and ground cover is torn out along the fence.
Neighborly relations determine the fate of nature, while ecological aspects play a subordinate role.
As if drawn with a ruler, nature follows the human plan.
Trees and shrubs not only contribute to improving air quality and regulating temperature, especially in densely populated cities, and promote biodiversity. Nature also creates a sense of privacy, as trees and shrubs provide a natural barrier.
After interference with natural growth, this function is lost and property owners often replace it with plastic products.
A plastic mesh stretched along the fence provides privacy – a solution with significant consequences for the environment when the plastic material loses its structure due to UV radiation and weathering, decays, and ends up directly in the soil and later in the groundwater.
The project addresses these aspects. The works consist of photographs and video works and will soon be supplemented by expert talks, objects, and an exchange with artificial intelligence on legal aspects of the topic “Nature at property boundaries.”
Around 70 meters of plastic mesh was used on this fence to restore privacy after the vegetation had been radically cut back. The minimalist video work captures the “negative image” of the trees and shrubs, which are located at a considerable distance from the fence and cast their shadows on the mesh in the sunlight. The material moves slightly in the wind, as does the eye, so the camera scans the mesh structure that slides between the viewer and the environment and blocks the view. In the background, dogs can be heard barking, a sound typical of the location, which suggests a more tolerant attitude towards the rural environment and nature. Far from it—associations that are not confirmed in everyday life. Where do they originate?
