Since the disturbance of the civil wars from 1991-1996 a multiplicity of ruined, abandoned and contested landscapes can be found in the city of Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Defining those spaces today implies not only thinking of the violent circumstances that shaped them, but also of the slow but persistent transformation caused by neglect since then. Abandonment of these spaces to the process of ruination and decay that has led to the return of non-human actors shaping them. This layering and entanglement of human and non-human actors, species and processes has resulted in the flourishing of new, unplanned and ephemeral ecosystems.
This project looks at the ruin of the former University Library, with its new collection of ruderal plant life, it’s heritage value and its role in the city. The project aims to find new ways to negotiate the space for both man and nature to come together through a co-cultivation of the ruined landscape.

Exhibition Matera Cultural Capital of Europe, Matera IT@en