Milena Kosec, Slovenia

Residency Period: 1 October 2013 - 30 September 2014


Bio

Milena Kosec was born in January 1947 in Ljubljana (Slovenia, EU), where she has lived and worked her entire life.  In 1974 she graduated in technical mathematics at  Ljubljana University.  In 1971 she started her first job at the Jožef Stefan Institute. She planned and led the elaboration of new applications for different fields in different companies, usually by means of the most current computer technology.  By the end of year 2002 she was retired. In the years between1975 to 1983 she primarily devoted herself to her family.

Her artistic work began spontaneously with her first work “Državica Ptičjestrašilna” (The Pocket-size State of Scarecrows) in 1992.  After that, she performed several public actions which commented on events in Slovenia intertwined with her own intimate stories.  In  2007 she decided that she would no longer produce anything material-based nor document her work.  In 2008 she was invited to the European Contemporary Art Biennial MANIFESTA7, with one of her immaterial projects Random Private Conversations.

URL: www.3via.org/MilenaKosec


On-hiatus Proposal Summary

After her last art action in 2012, Milena read a lot about the situation in her country and the world in general. Bewildered by the vast and contradictory information available and the number of the contemporary artists with similar practice, she became unsure if her critical approach to art was still relevant. This has made her stop her art practice and return to the question: "what are the basic needs for life?" Having "water and food" as her answer to this question, she decided to improve her knowledge on them through manual work and organic gardening. Her first attempt at gardening this past year made her realize that she needed more education about various aspects of organic gardening.

During her residency, she will continue to educate herself on this front and provide a monthly report on her experiences in gardening for a year, from one autumn to the next autumn. She feels that this on-hiatus activity may be helpful for her art practice in the future.


Final Report

At the beginning I would like to express my thanks to Matt and Shinobu, co-directors of RFAOH, for the unusual experience of being in residence for a full year.

First of all, as a RFAOH resident, I feel it is the greatest luxury and privilege, in light of today's normal western life style, that I have had the opportunity to grow my own organic vegetables, prepare, cook and eat them fresh every day. I had this rare opportunity to spend my time mainly for nourishing myself in the best possible way. It seems that this is possible only in very primitive societies or in art. Thinking that we could go back and produce healthy organic food for everybody is a big romantic utopia. Only very rich people can afford to buy strictly organic food and only healthy owners of good land with a lot of time can, in favorable climate conditions and clean air, produce enough for himself and his family.

Another benefit of RFAOH is to be in contact, with other unknown residents from afar, on the internet. Suddenly I feel a personal contact with so many different residents from all over the world. I recognize that the web offers an additional dimension to our normal life.

If I look back at the beginning of my residency, I see that I quickly stopped thinking about art and art systems. All my thoughts have been focused on organic gardening, world problems about healthy food, physical work in the garden and in the kitchen. Thanks to the residency, I take gardening very seriously. I improve in my organic gardening practice which changes my outlook on life and western art.

Last month I couldn't work in the garden, so I had more time to think about my future in art. I decided to postpone my artistic activities for one more year. Meanwhile I will continue with my organic gardening. For me, personally, art is finding out about the unknown discoveries in life. I think my work is art when I feel I achieved more than I had ever expected (something bigger than I am). I think that for an artist, it is important to do, with an open heart, that which feels good and right. That is all. One can use, or not, art system for the realization of ones work. For art per se, this is not important. Art systems are always only at the service of ideology. Better not waste words about it. In general art reflects a specific epoch. Only time will tell us what is good, bad or not art at all.

Thanks again to all who have followed me on the internet.


archives

SunMonTueWedThuFriSat
      1
2345678
9101112131415
16171819202122
23242526272829
30      
   1234
567891011
12131415161718
19202122232425
262728293031 
       
 123456
78910111213
14151617181920
21222324252627
282930    
       
     12
3456789
10111213141516
17181920212223
24252627282930
31      
  12345
6789101112
13141516171819
20212223242526
2728293031  
       
1234567
891011121314
15161718192021
22232425262728
2930     
       
    123
45678910
11121314151617
18192021222324
25262728293031
       
  12345
6789101112
13141516171819
20212223242526
27282930   
       
      1
2345678
9101112131415
16171819202122
23242526272829
3031     
      1
2345678
9101112131415
16171819202122
232425262728 
       
   1234
567891011
12131415161718
19202122232425
262728293031 
       
1234567
891011121314
15161718192021
22232425262728
293031    
       
     12
3456789
10111213141516
17181920212223
24252627282930
       
  12345
6789101112
13141516171819
20212223242526
2728293031  
       

 

recent comments


The Last Month: more rain

September Garden Report

 At the beginning of the month sunrise was at 6.26 am and sundown at 19.37 pm. At the end of the month the day was 12.38 hours long. Goodbye long days. It keeps raining with some sunny days, but with continuous clouds. Average temperatures varied between 12C in the mornings and 20C or less in the afternoons. Only last few days are beautiful. Normally Septembers used to be more beautiful and much warmer than this year. 

As I have had an operation on my left eye I can’t work in the garden at all. Now snails and all kind of insects are having a festival.

Anyway I still have enough season vegetables: different sorts of chicory (radicchios) and kales, a lot of endive, leeks, celery, carrots, parsley, red cabbage, beans, broccoli and now I am waiting for new pumpkins and sweet fennel (Foeniculum vulgare). For the winter I will store cabbage, beans, pumpkins, carrots, celery, potatoes and kohlrabi. Radicchio, kale, spinach, lamb’s lettuce, winter lettuce, parsley, sweet fennel and leek will stay in the beds. Fortunately the apple tree has produced a lot of tasteful apples, but all of them are worm eaten. I have enough for two months. All together I am more satisfied with the harvest this year than last year, when in the summer we didn’t have any rain at all. Now I don’t know if I need an irrigation system or not.

Till now I haven’t said anything about compost. I have three places for it: one small one near the entrance of the house for the winter, another one closer to the vegetable garden and one among bushes for grass and foliage from the decorative garden. On the compost I put only healthy remains from my garden produce and food waste.  In autumn and spring I mix them together. Then I use it as mulch or I put it on the beds as manure.

When I look at my plans written in November, 2013 I see, I was:

–         wrong: I have bought chemical substance against snails and another small plastic greenhouse  (propagation bed),

–         right: I do all the work myself,

–         right: I collect my own seeds and exchange them and plants with friends,

–         my vegetables aren’t cheaper than vegetables bought in a super-market, but they are cheaper than from organic suppliers.

 My favourite dish: porridge of buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum) with mushrooms (or with leek). Porcini mushrooms (Betulus edulis) are the best. We need also thyme, marjoram, onion, garlic, parsley and (sweet) cream.  We cook together porridge of buckwheat with a pod of garlic and marjoram. Separately we blanch mushrooms with finely cut onion, adding thyme and diced garlic.  When both are cooked, we mix all together with cream (as much as you want), salt and pepper. We wait for a while. At the end before serving we sprinkle with parsley. Normally this dish we eat with lettuce.

 

Leave a Comment (1)

shinobu wrote on Sep 30:

Milena! I hope you are recovering quickly so that you can get back to the garden -- you can't have the snails keep partying on!