Nature, City, Art

Document Type : Review

Author

Abstract

City is a paradoxical creature for human beings; it is the cause of their separation and alienation from Nature, on the other hand it is regarded as the cradle of bonding and forging social relations. Thus, city plays a role between Nature at one side, and the society at the other. The dynamism of contemporary cities is the distancing from one and taking into account the other.  Modern, technological and nature-phobic life grows more and more; human relations which develop more and more by the means of new media have exerted an influence on the character of individual and society significantly. An issue which is of high importance today revolves around the virtual relations rather than actual ones. It seems that even in the development of human relations, Nature-phobia is the big issue: the relations based on the "information from human and space" have been substituted for the relations based on the "the nature of human and space" through the new media. Therefore, a human being can feel alienated from Nature more and more in his new life. With the emerging and creation of the industrial cities, parks were taken into account as the alternatives for the nostalgia of the humans who had been estranged from Nature ─ the areas which were a sign of meaningful Nature of the humans’ old environment. This was not the primary fundamental measure of the city dwellers for the retrieval of their former source of inspiration. The desire of Nature had already shone through in their art. The imitation of Nature and the adoption of some elements of that within the text of artworks were inspired by encountering Nature. The depiction of allegorical scenes from the Nature, as manifested like a garden in scriptures of different religions, reflected the dreams of city-dwelling humans. Since then, the gardens and parks as the part of Nature entered the cities in order to fill the void of isolation of that. The approaches toward combining art, as the city-dwelling human’s accomplishment, with nature in modern cities have given a new form to them.Urban planning based on organic architecture and civic arts along with the contribution of Nature are taken into account as new reactions of city-dwelling humans to restore relationswith the two inspiring aspects of the story of civilization: Art and Nature.
The request of today’s human is apparent from this mural applied on the buildings of a modern city which is isolated from the nature: the city still contains multi-story buildings and metal fences as the symbol of modern life have been installed on the walls of that, but some allegorical elements such as cedar, cloud, a flock of birds and the human busying himself with the Nature are combined with the painting. This scene can be considered as a symbol of an ideal city for the future generation: a city combined with both chosen art and Nature.