Community Herbarium

The Community Herbarium is a kind of scrapbook for nature lovers. It is a notebook in which the citizens could write down their emotions towards nature by pressing a plant from their immediate environment.

The rules are easy like in a game: You get a notebook, press a plant, write an emotion, your name, the location where the piece of the plant was picked, and pass the notebook on.

There are ten to twenty such volumes per city and they move based on friendly relations, without the influence and control of the author of the project.

The project is based on five principles:

1. Trust - handling the sensitive material, following the rules, not breaking the chain

2. Communication and connection - nature lowers are connecting, 100 to 200 participants get to know each other at the final event.

3. Collaboration - many people are part of the bigger project, the making of an artwork from material gathered (by the author)

4. Creativity - people are invited to create and take part in an artistic project

5. Ecology - raising the voice about the importance of nature and environment

The number of completed volumes that will be returned to the author of the project in the following year shows the strength of the community.

On the final event participants and the public are be invited to take a look at all the herbariums, the track the routes that all the books have taken, and participants will receive the thank you certificates. Also, the collected plants will be used for making new artworks as the author usually uses herbal motifs in her art. Artworks will also be presented at the event so everyone can search for and recognize the details of the artwork that is there thanks to them.

Community Herbarium is a slow project, going from personal to public and the main goal is to strengthen the project principles and complete the Herbariums.

The project is ongoing in several cities around Europe:

BELGRADE: Herbarijum građana

Since 2022 in capital city of Serbia - #građanskiherbarijum. The project is already presented in media, but final event is not made yet.

SINT-NIKLAAS: Gemenschapsherbarium

Since 2024 as a new citizen in Belgium, Vesna makes efforts to be recognised as an artist in her community and also make some new contacts.

SLAVONSKI BROD: Građanski Herbarij

In April 2025 the Community Herbarium project was launched in Slavonski Brod, as a tribute to the city’s beloved writer and her deep appreciation for nature.

PECKA OUTDOOR: Herbarijum susreta

Encounters Herbarium, interactive installation that connects people and nature through plants and stories, at Pecka Outdoor Festival 2025.

Summary

The Community Herbarium is an ongoing participatory art project by artist Vesna Opavsky, launched in Belgrade in 2022. It brings together ecology, collective memory, and artistic expression through the pressing of plants, personal reflections, and collaboration. Each contribution becomes part of a shared herbarium — a growing testimony to the connection between people and nature.
Since its beginning, the project has expanded across different countries and communities, with each version adapted to its local context and values:

#GrađanskiHerbarijum, Belgrade, Serbia (since 2022)
#Gemeenschapsherbarium, Sint-Niklaas, Belgium (since 2024) supported by WARP
#HerbarijGrađana, Slavonski Brod, Croatia (since 2025), inspired by the character and world of Ivana Brlić Mažuranić supported by the Gallery of Fine Arts of the City of Slavonski Brod
#HerbarijumSusreta, Pecka, Bosnia and Herzegovina (2025), developed during and around the Pecka Outdoor Festival supported by Bio Awaking Project

In each location, participants are invited to select and press a plant from their surroundings, adding it — along with a written reflection — to a shared notebook. These community herbariums grow organically, carrying traces of local flora, human experience, and collective emotion. The project continues to evolve, offering space for new encounters and interpretations.

For more info contact the artist.

Artworks

Vesna's artworks come printed on various materials (paper, canvas, cardboard...) with original file placed on a memory stick...

Biography

Doctor of Arts, specialized in digital graphic art. She uses unique technique to present her impressions about nature...

Vesna Opavski