Branimir Ritonja has devoted many years to researching the relationship between nature and man. In his series Edge of the City and Remains of Light, he has questioned the causes and consequences of the unnecessary expansion of human progress into natural areas. Series ECHO OF TIME functions as a replica of these two series, it is conceived as an empathy with nature itself - its response to human intervention, while at the same time summarising the essence of the project. ROCKER OF IDEAS. The photographs, exhibited in the Maribor Regional Museum's Furniture Depot, are a reminder of the resilience of nature, especially wood used for practical purposes and art. The images of an overgrown railway reveal the resilience of trees and bushes, which also dominate and dominate the iron rails. The undergrowth and bushes hide the barely visible carriages and erase memories of their time. In the photographs, which come closer to the city, the modern buildings and spaces are presented as alien.

In an era of low-quality, artificial materials, solid wood furniture appears particularly unattainable despite being closest to a respectful relationship with natural resources – environmentally friendly and durable, eventually destined for an inevitable reunion with its origin. By placing the photographs in a highly specific environment, a mental split between product and source is challenged, as there is no boundary between them, just as there is no boundary between humans and nature. The intervention in the exhibition space creates a symbiosis between the natural, the crafted, and the artistic, highlighting the simplicity of a harmless coexistence that preserves natural and material heritage.

Branimir Ritonja with the series ECHO OF TIME completes a subtle narrative trilogy that is a profound reflection on the relationship between the artificial and the natural. In doing so, the artist highlights his current focus of artistic exploration of the human relationship to the environment, including the everyday and the exhibition space, and presents an artistic realisation of a personal meditation on the question of sustainability and the respectfulness of existential choices.