Ready for Assembly
The Ready for Assembly installation emerged as a subtle yet fundamentally significant intervention in public space — a place created for the city’s non-human inhabitants. In his work, Jan Fabián consistently challenges the notion that an artwork must be designed strictly for the human eye, comfort, or aesthetic expectations. Instead, he proposes environments that are prepared — spaces waiting for what time, weather, birds, plants, and other communities (possibly including humans) might bring.
His approach draws on experience in ceramics, architecture, and work in public space. Fabián deliberately uses worn or overlooked materials, pulling them from established cycles of production and consumption. At the same time, he questions cultural norms around landscape care. The neatly trimmed lawn — a symbol of order — is replaced in his practice by conscious non-mowing: a deliberate allowance for growth, transformation, and the return of other forms of life. The work is a call for sensitivity. Much of society still thinks in binary terms: wild animal versus pet, nature versus city, art versus utility. Fabián’s assembly challenges us to move beyond such categories. He reflects on who has the right to inhabit urban space and proposes a shared environment that welcomes diverse types of residents — including those we usually overlook or push out of our cities.
The project responds to the urgent need to rethink relationships between humans, place, and other forms of life. Ready for Assembly is thus not only a physical installation, but a gesture toward a more open society — one capable of listening, and of sharing space across species, generations, and aesthetic expectations.
His approach draws on experience in ceramics, architecture, and work in public space. Fabián deliberately uses worn or overlooked materials, pulling them from established cycles of production and consumption. At the same time, he questions cultural norms around landscape care. The neatly trimmed lawn — a symbol of order — is replaced in his practice by conscious non-mowing: a deliberate allowance for growth, transformation, and the return of other forms of life. The work is a call for sensitivity. Much of society still thinks in binary terms: wild animal versus pet, nature versus city, art versus utility. Fabián’s assembly challenges us to move beyond such categories. He reflects on who has the right to inhabit urban space and proposes a shared environment that welcomes diverse types of residents — including those we usually overlook or push out of our cities.
The project responds to the urgent need to rethink relationships between humans, place, and other forms of life. Ready for Assembly is thus not only a physical installation, but a gesture toward a more open society — one capable of listening, and of sharing space across species, generations, and aesthetic expectations.
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