Funeral of Pristine Wilderness was a ceremonial procession to commemorate the death of pristine nature. A silent march to mourn our imagination of untouched wilderness. A participatory installation which aims to collapse the separation between nature, culture and ecology. An attempt to create new practices, narratives and aesthetics which allow for the complex messiness of human and non-human interrelations.

The event took place in the Siberian village of Bolschoe Goloustnoe, and responded to a particular problem the community is facing: for some unknown administrative failure, their household waste hasn’t been picked up for years. As a result, heaps of rubbish pile up in the village, on the shore of Lake Baikal and the surrounding forests of Pribaikalsky National Park.

After gathering at the Church, the artist and participants embarked on a silent march to carry some of the waste to a beautiful forest location nearby. Some of it was transported on a historic motorcycle sidecar, while selected pieces were periodically thrown onto the floor in reference to a local funeral tradition. The ceremonial walk took the group out of the village, along the shore of Lake Baikal and uphill into a pine forests. Upon arrival at a beautiful gorge dotted with trees, bushes and rocks, the participants roughly separated the waste by color and started to consciously place it in the woods. How to dress a forest with plastic, glass, metal tins? And, how to do it beautifully?

Project Lead: Meka Muratova
Aerial footage: Sergey Shevchenko
The project is part of Kontext Artist Residency, curated by Mariya Dmitrieva and organised by Dekabristen e.V., Berlin.