(your) nature is fake,
an intervention
This project focuses on man-made landscapes idealized as natural. Almost every, if not all landscapes we have encountered in our lives are man-made. There is nothing natural, wild or untamed about them. They are regularly pruned, trimmed, controlled, marked, measured and cut.
When we step into a forest, we like to image that we leave civilization, a little bit - for a little while.
The way we perceive nature is a loss of our control. Therefore, we control it.
Less than 2% of Germany can be considered areas of natural environment. National and biosphere reserves only need to consist 5% of a truly untouched natural state to earn the title and with it all its touristic value. The forest and parks we walk through on our holidays create an illusion of a wilderness happyland, a place marketed to relax and recharge.
But please don’t leave the path.
Viewed from above, this illusion becomes blatant. Over 50% of Germanys total area is used for agriculture. This includes the forests we perceive as natural, but which are a in truth carefully constructed habitats, cultural landscapes that we have mislabelled and misunderstood.
(your) nature is fake uses satellite technology as a neutral, unbiased observer to confront our almost fairly-tale like understanding of a natural habitat.
Deconstructing these images by using an old cartographic printing process on glass, folded over and manipulated, they are brought back to the places they depict – a staged confrontation between perception and reality.
