Series Title: A Breathing Space for the Sava River (also cited as The Sava River, Yugoslavia / Atempause für den Sava Fluss)
Timeframe: 1989 to 1994
Exhibitions:
Timeframe: 1989 to 1994
Exhibitions:
- 1989, The Sava River, Yugoslavia, Neuer Berliner Kunstverein, Berlin, W. Germany, May 23 – June 24 (catalogue)
- 1990, The Sava River, Yugoslavia, Moderna Galerija Ljubljana, Slovenia, April 4–29, traveling to Muzeju Revolucije Naroda Hrvatske, Zagreb, and the Palmer Museum, Penn State University, PA (catalogue)
- 1991, Changing the Conversation: Environmental Projects Proposed and in Progress, Ronald Feldman Fine Arts, New York, NY, March 2-April 6 1991
- 1991, Nagoya Biennale (Artec '91), Nagoya, Japan — 2nd Prize awarded for Atempause für den Sava Fluss (note: the Harrison CV's "Honors and Awards" section files this under 1992, but the biennale itself — and the project's own page — date it 1991)
- 1991, Centre International d'Art Contemporain de Montréal (as part of Savoir-Vivre, Savoir-Faire, Savoir-Être, catalogue)
- 1992, Fragile Ecologies: Artists' Interpretations and Solutions (feat. Atempause für den Sava Fluss), Queens Museum of Art, Queens, NY, Sept 15 – Nov 29, traveling to Whatcom Museum (1993), San Jose Museum of Art (1993), Madison Art Center (1993–94), De Cordova Museum (1994), Center for the Fine Arts, Miami (1994) (catalogue)
- 1994, Breathing Space for the Sava River, Laguna Art Museum, Laguna Beach, CA (lecture/performance) **
In 1989, while on a DAAD fellowship in Berlin, we were invited to Yugoslavia by Dr. Hartmut Ern, of the Berlin Botanical Gardens and asked if we could help with the formation of the nature reserve in the area that had once been a no-man’s land situated at the border between the former Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman Empires. This nature reserve existed as a many hundred sq. km. floodplain and the last of its type remaining in that part of Europe with endangered species and an ancient farming community who lived by an endangered wetland oak forest in oak pinframe homes, a miraculous place. We felt that such a reserve would find its uniqueness under attack from effluent of the surrounding industrial farming. Therefore, we proposed a nature corridor to protect it that would run the length of the Sava River from its twin beginnings above Ljubljana to its ending in Beograd at the Danube River, where it supplies the lower Danube with one third of its clean water.
A catalog with full color illustration exists in German and English, and some copies in Serbo-Croatian as well, with translations into Serbo-Croatian, French and Japanese. The text, with several accompanying black and white images, has been reprinted in the Journal of International Synergy. The work has been exhibited in Berlin at the Neuer Berliner Kunstverein; the Museum of Modern Art in Ljubljana (Slovenia); the Museum of the Revolution in Zagreb (Croatia); the Centre International D’Art Contemporain de Montreal; the Palmer Museum at Penn State University; in New York at Ronald Feldman Fine Arts; at Washington University at Saint Louis and it won second prize at the Nagoya Biennale in Japan in 1991. Additionally, the work travelled as the centerpiece of an exhibition, Fragile Ecologies, touring the United States for three years
Where: See history above
When: 1988-1990
Scientists: Dr. Hartmut Ern and
When: 1988-1990
Scientists: Dr. Hartmut Ern and
Dr. Martin Schneider-Jacoby
Commissioned by: The Neuer Berliner Kunstverein and the Moderna Galeria of Ljubljana. Supported by the Berliner Künstlerprogramm of the DAAD and the Water Department of Croatia in Zagreb.
Commissioned by: The Neuer Berliner Kunstverein and the Moderna Galeria of Ljubljana. Supported by the Berliner Künstlerprogramm of the DAAD and the Water Department of Croatia in Zagreb.
