The Biodiversity Artist
{BioDivArt}
Manifesto
by justnago
The Biodiversity Artist Manifesto is rooted in the conviction that every element, whether in the realm of culture or nature, plays a vital role in the mosaic of existence. By embracing unique perspectives, valuing diversity and sustainability, I seek to illuminate the profound interconnections that unite us all.
I am Justyna Gostkiewicz (justnago) and my art is a deliberate inquiry into the natural world. During the process, I explore the amusing play between life and decay, revealing the complex logic and enduring beauty in every detail of our environment.
I was in the forest, and I had an interesting conversation. The trees spoke to me as if they were my companions. I listened to the little sounds, the cracks, the voices. They all talk: the old, wise creatures, the fallen ones, the leaves, the leaves, the leaves and the sticks underneath. They all have something to say.
By truly observing their shape, form, color, smell, I’ve learned that to observe is to ask: What is the sole purpose of your existence? What may seem like just an object—an integrated part of nature, commonly seen, repetitive—is actually a unique stamp of time, a mark of the cycle of life on this planet.
II. THE ART OF BIODIVERSITY
The simplicity and singularity of my findings are often hidden from me at first but are deeply present in the world. The deeper I go into a place, the smaller the details become, and the larger my understanding grows. It has become a treasure hunt—seeking elements that seemingly don’t fit and making sense of them. I affirm that every detail is a doorway to a greater understanding of life’s variety
I started to see. To see what is truly around me is to learn to be. I’ve been in sync with the waves, the moon, the seasons, and the climate shifts around me. Wherever I go, I take an interest. Biowaste, detached algae, dead insects, decaying flowers, bones, sticks, and stones—I carefully arrange them into a vision, into a scene. Always a scene.
III. THE SILENT DIALOGUE OF EXISTENCE
I dare:
There are landscapes, but what I see is a composition of millions upon millions of pieces. Not just my immediate view, but what lies beneath, above, in all directions. I capture the essence of a region. The art of biodiversity is the story of an ecosystem. It’s all interconnected. At this point, there is no nature without us. We live in nature. Nature lives in us.
here I am, creating images—monuments of diversity—by asking questions:
Why are you here?
Where did you come from?
Where are you heading?
It’s almost like an interview with a silent ghost—one that is often deceased. I let them speak.
My process is based on intuition mixed with obsession, on being here and now, while working beside the timeline. Ironically, I believe that talking to the dead is best done through the mediation of someone very much alive.
My challenge:
I discover nature through the stories of local people. Their curiosity feeds mine. I could care less about a plant 5,000 miles away—until I empathize with the person who knows that plant or until I get to know it myself. I hyperfocus on these encounters, and they show me that everything has meaning. There is solace in our existence. We are not doomed (yet), there is only detachment and the building of walls. Let this challenge inspire us to dismantle barriers between all forms of life.
My solution? To break the walls. To show that humans are as important as that dead fly on my porch. That a small plant is as meaningful to an Indigenous person as a child is to their parents. When I care about the existence of these elements in balance, my purpose becomes clear: to celebrate the extraordinary, unimaginable diversity of life.
IV. THE CYCLE OF LIFE AND TRANSFORMATION
I declare:
I believe we already sense our deep connection to nature. I declare that recognizing our bond with nature is the first step toward transformation. To be more conscious of who we are, where we are, and the role of the elements, objects, and climate around us.
My dream:
For now, I have found that existence itself is both formative and transformative. We are sentenced to change. Nature will deteriorate, but humanity must adapt—to be in sync with the cycle of life. Instead of searching for a perfect solution that keeps us safe in an Eden, we must recognize: this is Eden.
The dead I depict in my art signify both an ending and a beginning. By accepting death, I build a bridge to celebrate life. I once felt like a misfit on this Earth, like I wasn’t meant to be here. But now I know: I am. I have a place, just as every tiny piece of life around me does. They all seek to be present, to have their little place on this planet.
V. THE ILLUMINATED SPIRIT OF THE NATURAL WORLD
I observe:
I have spent years observing humans. It taught me about the nature of human behavior—how we deal with sadness, happiness, love, and pain. I have seen how these emotions are woven into the natural world.
When we begin to fear for ourselves, we build defense mechanisms—barriers based on luck and hurt. Simple existence is incredibly hard for us to achieve. Over the many years I worked in advertising, I’ve learned that creating for brands, corporations, and virtual entities prove something: we like to be elusive. We crave magic, because reality itself is magic.
When I watch the sun sink into the sea, and the water glows with light, it feels unreal. But it is real. Not everyone can experience that beauty at every moment, and the farther we are from it, the more we focus on artificial systems of belief.
I see that the human spirit, with its longing for magic, mirrors the wonder of nature itself.
My magic:
I believe in giving attention to nature—to dead nature, to the lost fragments of biodiversity. I let them shine. I give them a blast of presence, so they may glow like the sea under the sun.
I love that magic. That’s why I use natural light. It’s the same brilliance that advertising mimics and longs to capture, the surreal depth of color and light. Yet, it already exists, unfiltered and whole, in nature itself.
In art, I use the transformative power of natural light, blending media — from living sculptures and carefully arranged scenographies to their ultimate expression in photography, video, and poetry. I emphasize on colors, structures, and forms and add sparkles and rainbows to enchant the complex arrangements. I am playing with the reflections and the plasticity of the objects, and the scenes in the scenes that are soaked in my feelings.
VI. A PLACE IN THE UNIVERSE
I state:
I am here as a witness, capturing small fantasy worlds—the shakes, the forces, the shines in water and light. The species —they offer me their most distinctive elements.
My he/art carries the spirit of a region, a moment in time and space, the nature, the culture and people within it.
My final statement:
I am one with all biodiversity that lives, passes or is immortal and I will stand for those who cannot say a word, but have so many stories to tell.
Justyna GostkiewiczI am Justyna Gostkiewicz (justnago) and my art is a deliberate inquiry into the natural world. During the process, I explore the amusing play between life and decay, revealing the complex logic and enduring beauty in every detail of our environment.
I. THE VOICE OF NATURE
I herald:
I was in the forest, and I had an interesting conversation. The trees spoke to me as if they were my companions. I listened to the little sounds, the cracks, the voices. They all talk: the old, wise creatures, the fallen ones, the leaves, the leaves, the leaves and the sticks underneath. They all have something to say.
My claim:
By truly observing their shape, form, color, smell, I’ve learned that to observe is to ask: What is the sole purpose of your existence? What may seem like just an object—an integrated part of nature, commonly seen, repetitive—is actually a unique stamp of time, a mark of the cycle of life on this planet.
II. THE ART OF BIODIVERSITY
I affirm:
The simplicity and singularity of my findings are often hidden from me at first but are deeply present in the world. The deeper I go into a place, the smaller the details become, and the larger my understanding grows. It has become a treasure hunt—seeking elements that seemingly don’t fit and making sense of them. I affirm that every detail is a doorway to a greater understanding of life’s variety
My vision:
I started to see. To see what is truly around me is to learn to be. I’ve been in sync with the waves, the moon, the seasons, and the climate shifts around me. Wherever I go, I take an interest. Biowaste, detached algae, dead insects, decaying flowers, bones, sticks, and stones—I carefully arrange them into a vision, into a scene. Always a scene.
III. THE SILENT DIALOGUE OF EXISTENCE
I dare:
There are landscapes, but what I see is a composition of millions upon millions of pieces. Not just my immediate view, but what lies beneath, above, in all directions. I capture the essence of a region. The art of biodiversity is the story of an ecosystem. It’s all interconnected. At this point, there is no nature without us. We live in nature. Nature lives in us.
here I am, creating images—monuments of diversity—by asking questions:
Why are you here?
Where did you come from?
Where are you heading?
It’s almost like an interview with a silent ghost—one that is often deceased. I let them speak.
My process is based on intuition mixed with obsession, on being here and now, while working beside the timeline. Ironically, I believe that talking to the dead is best done through the mediation of someone very much alive.
My challenge:
I discover nature through the stories of local people. Their curiosity feeds mine. I could care less about a plant 5,000 miles away—until I empathize with the person who knows that plant or until I get to know it myself. I hyperfocus on these encounters, and they show me that everything has meaning. There is solace in our existence. We are not doomed (yet), there is only detachment and the building of walls. Let this challenge inspire us to dismantle barriers between all forms of life.
My solution? To break the walls. To show that humans are as important as that dead fly on my porch. That a small plant is as meaningful to an Indigenous person as a child is to their parents. When I care about the existence of these elements in balance, my purpose becomes clear: to celebrate the extraordinary, unimaginable diversity of life.
IV. THE CYCLE OF LIFE AND TRANSFORMATION
I declare:
I believe we already sense our deep connection to nature. I declare that recognizing our bond with nature is the first step toward transformation. To be more conscious of who we are, where we are, and the role of the elements, objects, and climate around us.
My dream:
For now, I have found that existence itself is both formative and transformative. We are sentenced to change. Nature will deteriorate, but humanity must adapt—to be in sync with the cycle of life. Instead of searching for a perfect solution that keeps us safe in an Eden, we must recognize: this is Eden.
The dead I depict in my art signify both an ending and a beginning. By accepting death, I build a bridge to celebrate life. I once felt like a misfit on this Earth, like I wasn’t meant to be here. But now I know: I am. I have a place, just as every tiny piece of life around me does. They all seek to be present, to have their little place on this planet.
V. THE ILLUMINATED SPIRIT OF THE NATURAL WORLD
I observe:
I have spent years observing humans. It taught me about the nature of human behavior—how we deal with sadness, happiness, love, and pain. I have seen how these emotions are woven into the natural world.
When we begin to fear for ourselves, we build defense mechanisms—barriers based on luck and hurt. Simple existence is incredibly hard for us to achieve. Over the many years I worked in advertising, I’ve learned that creating for brands, corporations, and virtual entities prove something: we like to be elusive. We crave magic, because reality itself is magic.
When I watch the sun sink into the sea, and the water glows with light, it feels unreal. But it is real. Not everyone can experience that beauty at every moment, and the farther we are from it, the more we focus on artificial systems of belief.
I see that the human spirit, with its longing for magic, mirrors the wonder of nature itself.
My magic:
I believe in giving attention to nature—to dead nature, to the lost fragments of biodiversity. I let them shine. I give them a blast of presence, so they may glow like the sea under the sun.
I love that magic. That’s why I use natural light. It’s the same brilliance that advertising mimics and longs to capture, the surreal depth of color and light. Yet, it already exists, unfiltered and whole, in nature itself.
In art, I use the transformative power of natural light, blending media — from living sculptures and carefully arranged scenographies to their ultimate expression in photography, video, and poetry. I emphasize on colors, structures, and forms and add sparkles and rainbows to enchant the complex arrangements. I am playing with the reflections and the plasticity of the objects, and the scenes in the scenes that are soaked in my feelings.
VI. A PLACE IN THE UNIVERSE
I state:
I am here as a witness, capturing small fantasy worlds—the shakes, the forces, the shines in water and light. The species —they offer me their most distinctive elements.
My he/art carries the spirit of a region, a moment in time and space, the nature, the culture and people within it.
My final statement:
I am one with all biodiversity that lives, passes or is immortal and I will stand for those who cannot say a word, but have so many stories to tell.
2025 version