The Third Space

***

It began seven summers ago, exactly seven rain cycles back. At the edge
of the swamp, a radiation phenomenon was observed. The underground
network of roots extended toward that anomaly to investigate. What followed
is unknown. Changes came. From the earth, one could feel moisture and the
flow of pollen. Mosses, fungal threads, and lichen colonies spread, covering
places where human traces still persisted in the soil. But it did not last long.
Within a few seasons, it will spread to stone structures, and then further
through metal, concrete, and cracks. Buildings whose lights could once be
seen glowing for kilometers at night now appear empty.
In that transformation, certain new organisms made their home. They had a
different form of communication within nature. They whispered, they called out
to one another, they found reason to speak.

Look! Have you noticed them?
Who?
The people… they’re standing not far from us.
What about them?
They’re walking by the swamp again, spreading without order, moving
past everything that grows, they are noisy.
I’d rather not notice them.
One male voice can be heard.
What is he saying?
He’s saying that in life, moderation matters as much as proteins,
nutrients, fiber. He says it’s his duty to teach them that. He sounds like
their father.
Perhaps he simply wants to draw attention for his own interest, for love, or
perhaps he has good intentions?
I’d sooner think he is worn out. I’d say he has… has some strange pain in
his legs. Perhaps it’s the weight of some serious experience?
How did you recognize that?
By the way he speaks. I’ve noticed that in people, the burden of the past
often settles into the body.
But you can see he keeps talking anyway.
Yes, yes… The heavier the burden, the more they try to explain the world.
Listen to him…
Yes, he says the temperature will keep rising. That the stock market has
fallen. That everything must be responded to in time.
That sounds important.
Perhaps, but he hasn’t mentioned the swamp he’s standing beside. Not
once.
Maybe he doesn’t see it.
Look.
What?
He’s stepped one foot into the swamp.
Why would he do that?
He didn’t notice. Yet another poor human judgment. A clear example of
what it looks like when the mud of old beliefs drains down your leg into a
world of untouchable interests. The first time you try to feel what it’s like
not to calculate, you slip into the swamp.

*** short pause ***

Do you feel how the flow of water is shifting beneath us.
Where?
Toward the northern edge of the swamp.
You think it’s because of the rain?
Yes. Here they are, the first channels have opened.
Come, come, we’re late. Too much time has been wasted here on trivial
talk.
You mean talk about…
Irrelevant, are you still thinking about them?

***

What follows is unknown.

Exhibition text: Ivan Šuković
Exhibition sound: Miloš Hadžić

Emir Šehanović (b. 1981, Tuzla, Bosnia and Herzegovina) is an artist based in Belgrade,
Serbia.
His practice focuses on sculpture and installation, exploring speculative futures shaped
by the Anthropocene. Through hybrid, pseudo-organic forms and synthetic materials, his
works evoke fossil-like remnants and posthuman artifacts, reflecting on transformation,
ecological fragility, and the unstable boundary between the organic and artificial.
Šehanović has exhibited in solo and group shows internationally including
eastcontemporary, Milan;
Space O+A, Tokyo; Vienna Contemporary; Liste Art Fair Basel; Kunstraum Riehen; Jeune
Création at Beaux-Arts de Paris; AQB Project Space, Budapest;
Ultrastudio, Los Angeles; Gallery Weekend Berlin; and Athens Video Art Festival.
Šehanović, in collaboration with Ivan Šuković and Dejan Todorović, represented
Montenegro at the 19th International Architecture Exhibition – Biennale Architettura 2025,
in Venice. He has participated in major art fairs such as Liste, Parallel Vienna, and Art
Genève, and was recently included in 100 Sculptors of Tomorrow (Thames & Hudson).