A Conversation Between Two Mountains is a work that is introducing viewers to an undiscovered realm of mountain’s consciousness. The work concentrates around two mountains – one Scottish (Roineabhal) and one Croatian (Ivanscica) and they are visually represented by two elevation maps. The main part of the work are writings in between the maps – “found” conversation between two mountains, presented in a manner of online chats. These writings are presenting mountains histories, casual anecdotes, but most importantly, human relationship towards them. Two mountains were chosen deliberately – Roineabhal is an example of the resistance of a small local community towards big capitalist machinery and Ivanscica is Roineabhal’s unfortunate opposition (two big stone quarries still exist on the western slopes of Ivanscica).

 

Through semi-philosophical and poetic language, mountains are drawing viewers – readers to explore their side of the story which was existing long before people started writing history, and will surely exist after them. Mountains can’t speak, but various indigenous cultures used to personify mountains – give them a voice, face, character to highlight their existence and position within their shared cosmologies. Their continuous spiritual and/or religious significance underlines the importance of these landscapes for a local community and even culture in general. Moreover, this is a landscape where “interaction of people and environment produced an area of distinct character with significant cultural values and strong community attachment” (Brown, 2008). It is a notion of “caring for country”, a concept explored by Wright et al. (2015) and heavily supported by Berkes through knowledge – practice – belief complex (1999), as a vital basis for traditional ecological knowledge of indigenous people. Although the people of Lewis and Harris are not identified as indigenous people, their activism and passionate defence of the mountain gave the mountain a voice and presence.