Participants of the Ecologies of Curating webinars met in person in Ljubljana to explore possibilities for future collaboration and to learn about local examples of ecology of care.

We also visited two examples of community-based interventions in long dormant construction sites, both examples of temporary use of space and ecology of care:

Beyond a Construction Site, A Community Garden in Ljubljana (2010–2022). A long-fenced-off plot of land in Ljubljana was transformed in a collaborative effort between neighbourhood residents and art and culture organizations Obrat and Bunker into a community space intended for urban gardens, socializing, education, and culture. Many trees have come to grow on the site over the past 12 years, which became an important green oasis in the neighbourhood. In 2021 Obrat, in collaboration with garden participants, proposed that the municipality preserve the site as a public green area and not to build on it, as was intended according to the city's spatial plan. The Municipality of Ljubljana rejected the proposal to keep the site as a public green area but accepted the second proposal to keep the land in public ownership for non-profit housing. As activities on the site wind up, most of the plants will be given to new caretakers, and several bigger trees will be transplanted from the site that is soon to become a construction site under the City of Ljubljana’s Public Housing Fund.

Krater in Ljubljana (2020–) is an emerging production space for transdisciplinary practices, which sprouted from the neglected, crater-like construction site in Ljubljana. Different groups, organizations, and communities active on the site continue to explore the potential for world-making projects atop and among these anthropogenic ruins.

Krater is set to produce environmentally conscious materials, practices, and alliances that invite urban communities to open their eyes to the land and each other anew. In so doing, it reimagines wastelands as spontaneous gardens of human-plant relationships working together towards more interconnected futures.

The Ecologies of Care working meeting was organized by the Igor Zabel Association, International Centre of Graphic Arts (MGLC), and Elke Krasny.