Muhammad Ali

 

The urban development we experience can be a reason for not being in touch with nature, sometimes leading to a fear of nature or, biophobia.
We as humans are part of wilderness. We refer to ourselves as being apart from it, growing up without experiencing or learning about it creates a blindness that transplants this fear into our children.
As the author Richard Louv, who investigates the relationship of children and the natural world in current and historical contexts, says:
" There's a generation now that didn't grow up in nature. Some of these adults are parents, and they know that nature is good for their kids, but they don't know where to start."
This fear increases when you move from the land you grew up in and experienced its nature in your childhood to another land where you don't know much about its wilderness or how to act within it.
But being afraid of nature, does it mean that you have to live with this fear that keeps you and your loved ones far from the pleasures of enjoying nature or learning from it? When do we have to be careful? How do we protect our children from the negative fear we have?
Can art help to take the first step in dealing with this fear and seeing the beauty of wilderness at a time when our children and we have already lost a big part of our relationships with nature because of urban life, TV, and new technologies?
Can we use new technologies to reconcile with wilderness? Could Digital art, for example, work as a first step in perceiving the importance of nature to humans?
During this project, artist Muhammad Ali and curator Abir Boukhari were invited to spend time in Öland to meet up with nature.
As a result of this time and the conversations about nature and human relations, Muhammad Ali got inspired to produce a new VR work where humans are invited into a process of reflecting, thinking, and understanding nature more deeply.
Referring to Richard Louv, "If you can't live in the land you love, love the land you're in."

//Abir Boukhari