Abstract
Untertannowitz - Dolní Dunajovice. A village in former German South Moravia, a unique region of endings and new beginnings. The surrounding landscape recounts the story of German inhabitants and their expulsion in 1945; of newcomers and their struggle with the unfamiliar environment; of large riparian forest and deforestation due to dam-building in the 1970s and 1980s; of socialist collectivization and capitalist exploitation after 1989. At present, South Moravia is among the regions especially endangered by climate change impacts, particularly drought.
This landscape has been ruined, that's for sure. But as Anna Tsing argues (2015), ruins also have the capacity to act productively. In my presentation, I will trace the transformative acts of human and non-human inhabitants of this landscape. I will focus on activists, winegrowers, solitary trees, tumbleweed, and maps, and I will show how they move together towards sustainability and resilience despite ruination and environmental degradation.