Exhibition at the Optical and Mechanical Plant features the artwork 

Confederacy of Villages Archive (ConV) (2010, ongoing, together with INLAND)

Installation, 4 boxes, mixed media, 60 × 60 × 10 cm. Courtesy of the artist

The installation consists of four archival exhibition boxes that correspond to four chapters of the Confederation of Villages (ConV) research archive. ConV is a network of rural independent cultural spaces and communities across Europe and West Asia, supported by the non-profit organization INLAND since 2019. The artist, together with the organization, has been exploring rural areas for decades, looking at them as an alternative development option for social, political, economic, as well as artistic models. 

Inside the box is a fold-out map, based on the ancient Korean system for determining favorable terrain for settlement. The maps also contain a card game, figurines and a board, allowing the villagers to simulate social and territorial relationships of the project they are involved in.

Fernando García-Dory was born in 1978 in Madrid. He is an artist whose work engages specifically with the relationship between culture and nature, from microorganisms to social systems, and from traditional art languages drawing to collaborative agro-ecological projects. He has developed projects and shown his work at Tensta Konsthalle, Van Abbe Museum, Reina Sofia Museum, dOCUMENTA 12 and Biennales of Gwangju, Istanbul and Athens.