Landscape as an expression of cultural identity and its interpretation as an art form

Abstract

The essay elaborates the thesis that reality, in its universality, cannot be captured by descriptive scientific methods. Whatever we see as reality is conditioned by human intention and subject to historical and temporal circumstances. The text suggests the possibility that our landscape awareness could be extended to include the artistic reflection, focusing on objects whose structure is seemingly less clear and graspable, and preferring thinking more abstract than contextual. Despite the progress in, and the extent of, scientific knowledge – or because of it – we realize that such knowledge has its limits, presupposed and insurmountable. One of the meanings of a valuable work of art – a result of the cognitive process of its own kind – is that it gives us an information more or less accurate on something that is beyond our practical and theoretical experience, something elusive and yet existing. A possibility is also suggested that through artistic exploration and understanding of the landscape, a nation’s cultural identity can manifest itself.