The artistic initiative Leave Nature Alone reclaims territories—big, small, dispersed—and leaves them alone!
Wilderness shall take over and we, humans, will have to step aside and give back both space and autonomy to nature. This initiative wants to give nature autonomy and aims to stop interfering with her affairs. The dominant anthropocentric belief is that human beings are central to the planet—a status quo that is hardly reversible. It is evident that interactions with plants, animals and other »thi
ngs« in the wild can do more harm than good. This does not only relate to the exploitation of natural resources, but also to the protection in form of zoos, parks and natural reserves. Protection is likely to be a form of domination and protected areas are carefully controlled spaces serving humans in the first place. Human interaction with nature is certainly controversial and worth to be re-considered. Can this initiative provoke a new mindset, that reverses the anthropocentric perspective? What if humans not only assign rights to nature, but let nature assign rights? In 2017, the two artists Martin Schick and Mirko Winkel spent 3 weeks at Rabbit Island Art Residency, on a remote and uninhabited island on Lake Superior (Michigan/USA). While researching the topic of Nature Politics and being surrounded by this vast wilderness, they realized, when taking the needs and rights of nature seriously, fundamental ethical questions have to be clarified first in order to enter a new relationship between humans and nature. Therefore it is necessary to introduce a moratorium, a time period and designated area, where humans and nature should reduce their interactions to a minimum and create territories where nature is left alone, until a better idea comes up.
