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Staying at Home with Zbirka UGM / Miran Mišo Hochstätter - Nature Morte No. 2

Nature Morte is a series of nine photocollages by photographer Mišo Hochstätter created between 1974 and 1975. A similar series of photo collages, People and Trees Are Dying Together, which was created a year earlier, addresses the same themes: industrial pollution, the degraded environment, consumerism and people's attitudes towards their living environment, natural resources, nature and wildlife. During the 1970s and 1980s, Mišo Hochstätter actively worked as a photographer and participated in various graphic design and alternative theatre projects, as well as part of music and photography events. With both series of photocollages, Mišo Hochstätter conceived some of the earliest photographic projects dealing with environmental issues in Slovenia, at a time when concern for and protection of the environment was not yet a common topic in the media. With the modern technique of photocollage, he introduced certain concurrent visual practices and a touch of the alternative scene (dark tones, black and white contrasts, typography, the simple poetics of art brut) into his narratives. Fifty years on, these unique works can also be read as an expression of the artist's dark sense of intuition.