Raising stone walls as windshields
Martin Piaček
Wednesday, 27 May
11:00 - 18:00
The Experimental Station for Research on Art and Life
Intrarea Primăverii 10, Siliștea Snagovului
GPS coordinates
The Cultivators of Life programme continues this year with a new series of artist residencies, talks, and workshops. We are delighted to host Martin Piaček in a short residency from 25 May to 31 May, continuing his previous visit to the Station in October 2025.
During his time at the Station, Martin will develop a series of permanent stone installations intended to protect some of the garden’s more fragile plants, including the fig tree, the Japanese willow, and other shrubs. The project extends a practice connected to his orchard in Rajka, a small town in Hungary near Bratislava, where he lives and works. Composed of fig trees, walnuts, and a variety of fruit-bearing species, the orchard functions as a space where cultivation intersects with leisure, utility with beauty, labour with contemplation, and landscape-making with forms of sharing and care. Through this ongoing work, Martin brings into relation ecological processes, interpersonal exchanges, and forms of coexistence between human and more-than-human life.
The ancient practice of stacking stones carries a range of practical, symbolic, and ecological meanings. Beyond their historical role as markers or defensive structures, stone piles may also be understood as forms of small-scale garden architecture: spatial interventions that invite life to gather around them. Through their material presence, they create conditions for biodiversity to emerge, generating microclimates, shelter, and spaces of coexistence.
Short bio
Martin Piaček is a visual artist and the head of Studio vvv at the Intermedia Department of the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava. Trained in sculpture, he works with a broad range of media and strategies, trying to reconsider the traditional sculptural techniques and materials. Although his long-term interest lies in individual and collective memory, national heroes and myths, mostly from modern European history, his recent projects open towards a broader environmental focus. In addition to his art and teaching practices he is involved in many curatorial and organizational projects, providing expertise on public space and the politics of monuments.
In addition to his own artistic work in the field of sculpture and video, he also organizes exhibitions, symposia and international projects. He has been working on the dramaturgy of the Soft Norm lecture series and most recently, the globally oriented Liquid Dogmas project (http://www.liquiddogmas.org). He is a founding member of the civic association Public Pedestal (www.verejnypodstavec.com), the exhibition format DiStO (www.disto.sk) and of the KU.BA platform (www.kulturnabratislava.sk). Together with the architectural studio N/A, he is currently working on the realization of the Freedom Monument in Veľká Macha (www.slobodaslova.sk).
The event is part of the program Cultivators of Life, a multianual project organized by tranzit.ro/Bucharest Association and co-financed by The Administration of the National Cultural Fund. The program continues and supports the activities started in 2021 at the Experimental Research Station for Research on Art and Life in Siliștea Snagovului, focused on conserving biodiversity, testing ecological prototypes, and rethinking the relationship between soils, materials and artistic production. Curated by Adelina Luft, the program proposes the study and formulation of a new lexicon and practices related to an emerging relationship between indigenous/ancestral knowledge, land cultivation and natural sciences, realized through a series of artistic residencies, open events in gardens around Bucharest, applied workshops, conferences with indigenous thinkers and a final group in 2026 at MODEM – Center for Modern and Contemporary Art in Debrecen.
The program does not necessarily represent the official position of the Administration of the National Cultural Fund. AFCN shall not be held liable for the program's content or any use to which the program outcome might be put. These are the sole responsibility of the beneficiary of the funding.
