Un-war Space Lab is a cross-media research-based practice on material transformations of rivers, land, architecture, and the interspecies society during and after the war; it is led by Armina Pilav, feminist, architect, and researcher in ecologies of war destruction. It works as a fluid collective of researchers and practitioners across the disciplines of landscape architecture, film, archaeology, visual arts, and environmental humanities, to mention a few. Plurennial research on the Neretva River and its inter-species ecologies is developed in collaboration with Damir Ugljen – an archaeologist and independent researcher who explores the cultural significance and ecological consequences of the material transformation of landscapes, with a particular focus on adaptive responses of non-human and human subjects to newly formed conditions.
Armina Pilav is a feminist, architect, and lecturer at the Department of Landscape Architecture, University of Sheffield. Her research, practice, and teaching intersect and focus on the politics of re-presentation and re-production of physical, mediated space, bodily experiences in extreme conditions of war destruction, or other disaster conditions. Armina uses cross-media tools, psychospatiality, and radical observations to expose ecologies of transformations of rivers, lands, and related natural forms, architectures, and society. She publishes in magazines, academic journals, and exhibits regularly. The research on the destruction of Sarajevo, Mostar, and the inhabitants' transformation of violence has been exhibited at the Venice Biennale of Architecture (2018, 2016), at the Architecture of Shame in Matera (2019), and as an autonomous archive represented with the Un-war Space device (2018–2022). She is developing a research and curatorial program Toxic Lands on human destruction of lands, rivers, and other, non-human species. Armina is the founder of Un-War Space Lab, a member of the Association for Culture and Art Crvena in Sarajevo. She is currently based on Brač Island where she is learning about wild plants, their growing media, and their use in everyday life as a cure and as food.
Damir Ugljen is an archaeologist and independent researcher interested in the fields of archaeology, social anthropology, and environmental inquiry. He explores the cultural significance and ecological consequences of the material transformation of landscapes, with a particular focus on adaptive responses of non-human and human subjects to newly formed conditions. His research methods stem from the understanding of embodiment processes as a working method and extend to experimental and critical practices. Currently, Damir is engaged in different research projects related to post-war landscapes. He is a member of Un-war Space Lab and one of the founders of Alternative Library in Mostar.
www.toxiclands.eu
https://futurearchitectureplatform.org/projects/9c1c4883-c1ce-4ef1-93ed-62bf0aa572ff/?fbclid=IwAR0wJjmtBgxkNbqxQpAqG26C2mjR-qqk5TuWNUzpWGWVJrG3NNXcNPbb3C0
Instagram: @toxic_lands
