Take to the Field(s)

As they bear witness to global ecological concerns, artists today are becoming more and more engaged. The turn to the plant world accompanying this evolution, which has led to a profusion of nature-oriented works, may bring to mind different art-historical movements, from nineteenth-century naturalism to the environmental art of the 1960s and 1970s. Currently, however, there is an overwhelming trend toward collaborating closely with those who labour on the land — farmers — to highlight their common concerns.

So, it’s not surprising that Esse is “taking to the field(s)” with the artists. The play on words isn’t haphazard here: it speaks of the magazine’s propensity to branch off into paths parallel to those of art and aesthetics in an attempt to stimulate societal debates—specifically, in this issue’s thematic section, about agroecological questions. Although the blurring of disciplinary boundaries in the visual arts isn’t new, it will always be essential to rethink why it occurs. We have therefore decided to highlight agricultural imaginaries and relationships between human beings and the land in order to reassess how we approach agriculture, its connections with different colonial histories, and its transformation toward fairer and more sustainable practices.