The aesthetics of green guerrilla. From activism to fine art

Los movimientos de base: - los activismos asociados con la ecologización de las ciudades, la recuperación de tierras baldías, el establecimiento de jardines comunitarios, la mejora de la calidad de vida en lugares industrializados a través de intervenciones menores basadas en la naturaleza, así como la protección y salvaguardia de los restos de la naturaleza dentro de las ciudades- lo que en este artículo llamo guerrilla verde.Quiero demostrar cómo crecen estos movimientos de base a pequeña escala; cómo sus acciones conducen a soluciones oficiales; cómo se institucionalizan y, a veces, se comercializan. Sin embargo, sobre todo, al vincularlas con las tendencias estéticas medioambientales yparticipativas, quiero indicar sus aspectos estéticos y el hecho de que con frecuencia llevan las señas del arte.

Agnieszka Gralińska-Toborek: The aesthetics of green guerrilla. From activism to fine art Resumen Los movimientos de base: -los activismos asociados con la ecologización de las ciudades, la recuperación de tierras baldías, el establecimiento de jardines comunitarios, la mejora de la calidad de vida en lugares industrializados a través de intervenciones menores basadas en la naturaleza, así como la protección y salvaguardia de los restos de la naturaleza dentro de las ciudades-lo que en este artículo llamo guerrilla verde.

What to call it?
Even though the term green guerilla became a proper name designating a particular movement in the US (in New York) which, eventually, became a non-governmental organisation, it cannot be used exclusively in reference to the mentioned group. I think green guerilla is a label good enough to define the entirety of all actions that will be described in this article because it illustrates their most characteristic features. Primarily, it is about the greenery -often very fine natural elements merged with the urban landscape. Yet, despite being encompassed by the concept of the "urban greenery", they cannot be denominated as "urban green spaces", or all the less, as "green infrastructure" (WHO reports 2017). This is not to say that the stimulus sent forth by these minor interventions should not evolve into large-scale actions. In this context, vegetation constitutes a goal in itself rather than a mean to an end (as it happens in art), even if, in these initiatives, singular plants come to represent Nature -the contact with which is becoming the basic need of many city dwellers. The latter clause of the term -guerillapoints out the informal or even illegal nature of the activities which are directed against ISSN on-line: 1139-7365 DOI: 10.1344/waterfront2021.63.1.01 Agnieszka Gralińska-Toborek: The aesthetics of green guerrilla. From activism to fine art fixed social orders; demand change; do not generate excessive costs; are collective. The war narrative accompanies many of the politically involved gardeners whose chief goal is the resistance against the top-down imposed principles of urban space management and the appropriation of the public space (Reynolds 2008, Hardman 2011, Barrere 2010). On the other hand, other horticulturalists' actions are a form of self-amusement, relaxation, or a way to embellish urban areas. From among the activities that, at least partially, share the mentioned characteristics, I want to note the following: guerilla gardening, nomadic gardens, DIY urbanism, green graffiti and some ecological art streams. In table 1 I explain to what extent they qualify as "green guerrilla".
Guerrilla gardeners -a local and social movement David Tracey perceives the origins of guerilla gardening to be embedded in the temporary gardens of nomadic Roma people and the hippie subculture. The author lists two events: the battle for "People's Park" in Berkeley, California in 1969 as well as Yippies (Youth International Party Members) "All Seasons Park" in Vancouver in 1971 (Tracey 2007:19-24, Cash 2010, Mitchell 1995, Tupper 2012, Mackie 2017. Commonly, however, the green guerilla movement is believed to have originated in the activism of a group of people in New York in the '70s. The initiator of the local movement was an artist -Liz Christy from East Village -who, together with several others, began planting flowers in various spots and leaving flowerpots on windowsills of empty buildings. East Village, Harlem and Brooklyn districts -dangerous areas known for drug trafficking -were at the time filled with abandoned houses and neglected garden plots. For the latter reason, the idea of improving the urban surroundings quickly became prevalent and encouraged locals to co-operate (Tracey 2007: 34).
The most characteristic strategy of the activists was throwing into neglected sites of the so-called seed bombs, made with a mix of soil, compost, water, and seeds inserted into balloons, or Christmas tree baubles. Today, it is a really popular way of guerrilla activism and the seed bombs can be easily made by anyone by following certain instructions.
Some look for the origins of this method in the work of Masanobu Fukuoka, a Japanese farmer and philosopher, who became a pioneer of no-till farming and natural agriculture without the use of artificial fertilizers (Biel 2016: 113). On the partisan websites, one can find instructions on how to make such a seed ball; which kinds of seeds to mix; and which season is best to sow them. Recently, however, seed bombs have become commercialised.
They can be found in garden stores wrapped with biodegradable materials, often shaped like grenades, and in some countries, such as Japan, vending machines for seed bombs have been installed. Their commercialisation goes against the main principles of green guerilla as the ideas of independent action, group work or concern for the environment are lost in the process. The trend that involves casting purchased seed bombs is being popularised amid, among others, persons who neither have the time to sow or plant nor to subsequently look after these accidentally sowed plants. Yet, green guerilla is much more than a useful pastime -it is both an ecological and social activism. It also represents a specific type of gardening that teaches patience, care, and curiosity.
It is worth noting that the green guerrilla movement has taken root in urban spaces all around the world -from edible gardens in Los Angeles, through the actions involving the planting of daffodils and cornflowers along the busy London streets or planting of sunflowers in Brussels, to the actions of afforestation of large areas in India with the use of seed bombs. In the majority of big cities of Europe, the US, or Canada, as well as other places, there emerge partisans who communicate through social media and have their own websites. The most popular website, where information about the mentioned actions can be found, is Guerrilla Gardening.org which was established by Richard Reynolds in 2004. In 2008, Reynolds established his status as a leader of partisan gardening by writing a book titled "On Guerilla Gardening" (Reylonds, 2008). It contains the history of partisan gardening, as well as stories that the author collected during his travels while visiting other partisan gardeners all around the world. The publications of this kind, both online and in the form of books, serve not only to document the activities, gather, and organise the actions, but also contain planting guides that indicate how what and when to sow. In this way, a set of rules that governs guerrilla gardening has emerged. Barrere  Agnieszka Gralińska-Toborek: The aesthetics of green guerrilla. From activism to fine art them, such as the neighbourhood scale, community mobilization, the modesty of action, land reclaim process, communication, and publicity (Barerre 2010: 3-4.).
One of the most important established principles is that the purpose of all actions is the common good, as opposed to the privatisation of places. On the "Guerrilla Gardening in Opole" (Poland) website one can read the following declaration: "Remember: cultivation of a plot or backyard is still not partisan gardening. It is rather about the adaptation of the public space which neither the garden nor the backyard represents! Nor does a balcony count as public space!" (Guerrilla Gardening in Opole).
And even though guerrilla gardeners usually constitute informal groups, there also exist official organisations that support them. The biggest such organisation, a non-profit one, is "Green Guerillas" from New York which was established in 1973 and its beginnings date back to the first actions led by Liz Christy. Today, they support communities of gardeners, conduct training, and cooperate with the local government. On their website, the organisation describes their mission in the following way: "Green Guerillas helps grassroots groups obtain the materials, volunteers, and funding they need to sustain colourful community gardens and bountiful urban farms" (www.greenguerillas.org). The most significant area of focus for "Green Guerillas" are community gardens of which over 600 have been established in New York.

Guerilla Tree Planting
One of the forms of guerilla gardening is tree planting, which can be more difficult than the planting of flowers, yet produces more durable effects. These actions can be either singular and spontaneous or planned and systematic. Gardeners act as individuals or as a part of organised groups. On a Facebook page called "Guerrilla Tree Planting UK", one can see various photos and posts of people illegally planting trees in different placesboth within cities and forests. In 2014, in one of the Polish cities -Wroclaw -after the media have reported on alleged plans for local deforestation, a group of artists, activists, and students immediately commenced an action of illegal tree planting. They named the operation ekorebelia (ecorebellion). As they recall: We knew that it was illegal, so the action would oftentimes, even visually, take the shape of a rebellion -balaclavas, a logo, an anthem, paraterrorist speeches. Sometimes we would proceed while wearing high visibility jackets to imitate the employees of the Municipal Greenery. At times, we would do it on impulse and fas. (grun.wrocenter.pl).
The Group was created spontaneously and disbanded after their singular action described above.
A permanent art group that grafts trees in cities is called "The Guerilla Grafters". They graft fruit-bearing branches onto non-fruit bearing, ornamental fruit trees. As they state themselves: Agnieszka Gralińska-Toborek: The aesthetics of green guerrilla. From activism to fine art We aim to prove that a culture of care can be cultivated from the ground up. We aim to turn city streets into food forests and unravel capitalist civilisation one branch at a time. (www.guerillagrafters.net).
The planting of fruit-bearing trees is usually explained with the goal of redistributing abundance. However, there also exist gardeners who advocate for biodiversity and, consequently, plant fruit trees at the edges of woodlands in order to ensure that wild animals have access to nourishment during the winter months (just like the founder of the website www.treehealthcare.co.uk/guerilla-planting).

Nomadic and Community Gardens
The green guerrilla activism is also embodied in the history of the community gardens movement, the beginnings of which date back to the early 20th century (Pasquali 2006:17). Even though city officials tend to permit land use, they reserve the right to manage undeveloped areas.
In Europe, the community gardens movement is still under development, mainly because another tradition leads the way there -namely, one that involves the setting up of allotment gardens. Allotments are small plots used by families or individual persons, managed by local authorities or associations (Bell et al., 2016:10)  Agnieszka Gralińska-Toborek: The aesthetics of green guerrilla. From activism to fine art United Kingdom, and, subsequently, similar initiatives emerged in the 19th century in 14 of the European countries, and then in the rest of Europe after the end of the First World War (Ibid. 10). I present some of the differences between allotment gardens (in Poland) and community gardens in Table 2.
The differences between these two types of gardens result from the purposes they serve and for which they are established (Maćkiewicz, Asuero, Pawlak 2018: 135-136).
Community gardens are social, bottom-up initiatives created by locals who want to cooperate for the sake of the common good. These gardens constitute a supplement to the public space. Allotment gardens, on the other hand, are allocated as quasi-private Agnieszka Gralińska-Toborek: The aesthetics of green guerrilla. From activism to fine art property. In Poland, they are a part of the free market, and their value is established based on their users' financial input into their maintenance. Although there exist common initiatives emerging, for example in Poland, for the users of community gardens and allotment gardens to make the latter more accessible to the wider group of people (such as the "Bujna Warszawa" [Luxuriant Warsaw] project), there remains a lot to be done in terms of making them both equally established within communities -be it in the legal or customary understanding. Allotment gardens should not be considered as green guerilla as opposed to community gardens that, to a certain extent, do fall under this category. Especially because temporary or nomadic gardens constitute a unique kind of community gardens. They are created spontaneously, without the process of land acquisition or lease, and they are constructed in a way that would allow for their quick relocation. They tend to be ephemeral, as, in the space of 10 years, roughly 12% of these gardens disappear (di Pietro et al. 2018:131).
Landscape architects usually classify mobile gardens (set up near campers and tents), occasional garden decorations, trade stands with plants or flowers, season coffee and beer gardens, green outdoor advertisement or artistic installations as temporary gardens (Herman 2011,7-8). Nevertheless, what does qualify as community gardens are only the areas that are accessible to anyone, which does not encompass, for example, gardens near campers or personal gardens belonging to the homeless (Balmori, Morton 1995 Agnieszka Gralińska-Toborek: The aesthetics of green guerrilla. From activism to fine art Christa Müller, a researcher of urban gardening, claims that it is a new movement that differs significantly from the last century's community gardens: "More or less at the same time (around 2009), a new type of gardening started emerging in Berlin as well as in New York. It is a type that deliberately avoids given rules, rejects fences, explicitly understands itself as political, and experiments with an "independent-do-it-yourself approach" and with upcycling, the process of giving new value to items that are worn out and worthless according to industrial logic". (Müller 2017: 50) An example of such a garden can be the Nomadic Community Garden that existed in the area of London called Shoreditch from 2015 until 2019. It was created on a wasteland by the underground, by residents of a nearby housing estate. The project was led by two activists -James Wheale and Junior Mtong -but dozens of individuals from diverse and multicultural backgrounds were involved in its execution. Initially, the founders of the garden wanted to create a place where one could easily connect with nature and the earth -a place destined to be a communal workspace. On the garden's website, under the tab called "Ethos", it reads as follows: Agnieszka Gralińska-Toborek: The aesthetics of green guerrilla. From activism to fine art "Let's start from the ground up, at the grassroots, with dirt under our fingernails, where we have always started and regain what we have dearly lost-our connection to the land, each other and the intimate knowledge that allows them to commune harmoniously with one another" (http:// nomadicgardens.weebly.com/) Still, after a while, the garden was transformed into a popular space that would welcome anyone. Apart from crates with herbs and vegetables, additional facilities were built, and these included a playing field (that served as a stage), kiosks, and stalls where one could get a coffee, or exchange clothes, shoes, and homemade preserves. Over time, apart from the greenery, the garden started hosting street art, graffiti, and art installations as well as cross-cultural meetings, concerts, or, among many others, artistic, culinary and sports events. Unfortunately, in 2019 the area was closed, and the site was returned to its owners -the act which, consequently, fulfilled the idea of the garden as nomadic. For the time being, no alternative spaces for its reopening have been found, but the concept and plan to create new places like that have started spreading a long while ago.
Similar gardens exist in many European countries. In Berlin, there are currently around 200 community gardens that have become popular places for people to spend time out.
However, this is inevitably followed by the increased attractiveness of these sites and, consequently, by the danger of their commercialisation. Several German urban gardeners concerned with the latter phenomenon have compiled a manifesto titled "The City is our Garden" [Die Stadt ist unserer Garten]. In the publication, the authors underline such advantages of gardens as cooperation and partnership, cultural diversity, contact with nature, raising awareness on ecology, environmental justice [Umweltgerechtigkeit] as well as preventing loneliness, anonymity, and violence within cities. At the same time, the manifesto advocates for granting of the right to design urban spaces to city dwellers, for the non-commercialised access to the gardens, and the legal protection of the latter: "We call on politicians and urban planners to recognise the importance of community gardens, to strengthen their position, to integrate them into building and planning law, and to initiate a paradigm shift towards a 'garden-friendly city'. Urban gardens are our living space as diversity meets here, perspectives grow here, a society based on sustainability is emerging here. We want these gardens to take root permanently. The city is our garden. (https://urbangardeningmanifest.de/hintergrund) Green guerilla as a part of DIY Urbanism Bottom-up urbanism is a broad notion that encompasses both collective and individual actions aiming to improve life in the city. Urbanism of this kind tends to be defined by various terms that partially overlap and partially indicate distinctiveness (graf.1.). Kickert and Arefi describe this characteristic as urban informality (Kickert, Arefi 2019:5 Agnieszka Gralińska-Toborek: The aesthetics of green guerrilla. From activism to fine art DIY used to customarily refer to the act of casual tinkering or, alternatively, to the way of making ends meet in times of scarcity and financial hardship. In the '60s and '70s, DIY became an essential part of hippie subculture (handmade clothes, jewellery, interior furnishings) and punk subculture (which was mostly about music and fanzines). At that time, there also developed movements that are now considered to constitute the roots of the modern understanding of DIY, such as Guy Debord's situationism, The Right to the City movement, and community gardens established by locals within neighbourhoods (Finn 2014:385-386). In the 21st century, DIY became a much broader term referring to a specific set of attitudes and actions that aimed to change the environment and improve Graf.1 Bottom-up urbanism is a broad notion that encompasses both collective and individual actions aiming to improve life in the city. Urbanism of this kind tends to be defined by various terms that partially overlap and partially indicate distinctiveness life conditions -not only for individuals but rather for the sake of the well-being of the wider community, without the involvement of institutions or authorities. DIY urbanism "refers to a broad range of self-initiated, temporary and low-budget interventions in existing cities that are enacted by local communities as remedies to perceived problems of mainstream urbanism". (Smith, 2015: 617). The large variety of acts that can be referred to as DIY makes it challenging to create a precise definition of the term. However, one of the common features that characterizes all of these acts is performing non-commercial actions in public space. Other terms, such as communality, amateurishness, informality, or even the grassroots approach, do not always qualify as DIY indicators. Sometimes these activities are performed by individuals, other times by large communities, and, frequently, by professionals who choose to do it informally and nonprofit or to collaborate with communities. Frequently, various groups enter partnerships, establish foundations, and prepare projects partially funded by local authorities. DIY urbanism has also become an impulse for top-down actions that involve the inclusion of the citizens in the decision making and execution processes. The latter is the principle behind lean urbanism dictating that specialists, activists and non-profit bodies work together to facilitate the process of arranging the surrounding environment in line with Agnieszka Gralińska-Toborek: The aesthetics of green guerrilla. From activism to fine art the needs of small businesses, communities, and organisations. Thus, even though the action is initiated by the authorities, it is based on grassroots needs and activities. Such facilitation is essential as it is not unusual for local governments to hand the initiative over to the citizens which, in turn, entangles the latter in the administrative and bureaucratic processes. From the features of the movement listed by Sandy Sorlien in "The Lexicon of Lean Urbanism", many are also characteristic of green guerilla, some of which include: agility. cooperation, creativity, patching and simplifying. Besides, lean green was included by the author as one of the seven platforms for action, which also encompass: building, development, business, governing, infrastructure, and learning (Sorlien 2015).
Green guerilla activities are, therefore, embedded in DIY urbanism because the result of the gardeners' own work is a visible transformation of the urban space, and because they stem from the needs that Cathy Smith defines as 'a fundamental desire of people to connect to a place' as well as 'self-identification and individual narratives that make a community unique' (Knight 2020). Sometimes these activities, as it was with the old DIY, result from the irritation and frustration of communities that cannot count on the help of the authorities or civil services, and, in turn, decide to take matters into their own hands. A frequently mentioned example of such a situation is the city of Detroit, which is currently being rebuilt by its inhabitants themselves after a major economic decline (Kinder 2016, Herbert 2021. A community movement that takes on the responsibilities of the authorities and services in bringing life back to the town involves, among others, establishing food gardens and tree planting. In many rich and highly developed cities, DIY activities constitute a way to empower the citizens and are anti-consumerist and anticapitalist in nature. Luvaas calls this process the DIY ethos: "DIY is, in a sense, a cultural reaction against living in a consumer society where we hire others to build our houses, design our clothes, and fix our appliances and where the final products of our labours are shipped off. Sold off and profited from by a whole series of intermediaries who likely get more credit for it (and money from it) than we do". (Luvaas, 2012:6) Green graffiti and street art Agnieszka Gralińska-Toborek: The aesthetics of green guerrilla. From activism to fine art strictly artistic projects require a lot of work and a significant financial contribution, as was the case with a piece titled "Empty Lot", created by a Mexican artist called Abraham

Cruzvillegas. In 2015, Cruzvillegas put together a large installation in the Turbine Hall of
Tate Modern, where he assembled 240 triangular wooden planter boxes filled with soil that came from various parks in London. The artist did not plant anything in these boxes as he was waiting for something to emerge from nothing. And even though the visitors were encouraged to bring "seeding bombs" with them, the access to the crates was limited (Lane Fox 2015). Therefore, the plants that eventually grew constituted a creation of nature itself. Now, the gallery describes the work as a large geometric sculpture, and, in the film that accompanied the exhibition, the artist mentions that his main goal was to create a self-portrait. Thus, he uses the green guerilla strategy for purposes other than the urban gardeners usually do.
On the other hand, what could qualify as green guerrilla is street art due to its illegal and urban nature that constitute some of the most vital characteristics of this movement.
London-based Steve Wheen, who can be said to be a genuine street gardener, since 2010, has been creating a project called The Pothole Gardener. Inspired by guerrilla gardening, he sets up mini garden plots -installations created on scraps of earth protruding from the potholed roads and paving slabs. One of his original ideas is setting up tiny props, such as small pieces of furniture or mini-figurines and arranging them to portray various genre scenes. Subsequently, he photographs the result and posts the photos on his website.
Images of such miniature gardens can be found on nearly all street art websites.

In various locations across New York, there have emerged flower installations called
Flower Flash, and initiated by Lewis Miller -a florist. As he recalls, working in his studio on commission-based projects for wealthy clients did bring him income and peace of mind, but it was the arrangement of the flowers left over from one of the local events into John Lennon memorial frames in Central Park, New York that was the effect of a true creative impulse (Miller, TED 2020). It was one of the first illegal activities initiated by his studio. Since then, many ephemeral, flower-based interventions appeared in various public, generally accessible places, and VOGUE hailed their author a "genius bandit" (Pérez 2017).
However, in the broad stream of street art dominated by painting, the creation of green places is not a common strategy. A technique that is currently becoming popular is mossgraffiti. It involves painting with a mixture of moss, sugar, and youghurt, which makes moss grow on walls. This method, however, has been quickly intercepted by advertising companies that now utilise it for commercial purposes, which are not related to ecology, but rather serve the so-called greenwashing. Agnieszka Gralińska-Toborek: The aesthetics of green guerrilla. From activism to fine art of hair. Such compositions, although not related to gardening, draw attention to the presence of greenery in the city, and often contribute to its protection. A curious example is a famous mural by Natalia Rak in the city of Białystok in Poland, which portrays a girl watering a tree that grows right next to the building. The mural had become so popular that when the media reported a planned renovation involving the façade, the city officials, under public pressure, decided to protect the whole composition: both the mural and the neighbouring tree. Artistic actions in the form of happenings or street art interventions can, therefore, be a socially accepted way of preserving urban greenery as the common good against destruction or appropriation.
Today, the boundaries between what does and does not embody art -be it everyday life or extraordinary human endeavours -is fluid and difficult to grasp. The phenomenon concerning these borders getting more and more blurred has emerged with the avantgarde of the beginning of the 20th century and continues to this day. In fact, it is rather difficult to find a specific criterion by which a given action or a given object could be classified as art. Even approval by an art institution, the so-called art world, is not necessary for an object or an action to get qualified as art -the example of which is grassroots street art which declares itself art while avoiding the artistic mainstream. However, by following individual green guerrilla actions, one can come across certain features that may, but need not, indicate their connection with art.
According to the classical understanding of art, the feature that was supposed to differentiate it from craftsmanship was the pursuit of beauty. Gardening was also treated as art because it used vegetation as a material for shaping all kinds of forms (the art of topiary), as well as creating colourful compositions (parterre, carpet bedding), and, in turn, achieving the harmony of the classical beauty. Therefore, distinguished gardeners, often with an academic background in architecture, would compose gardens based on principles closely connected to these encountered in architecture, as well as in paintings (from the 18th century onwards when English parks started being established), and they would set similar goals for themselves.
Contemporary guerrilla gardeners often mention embellishing and beautifying the city, but their actions are rather spontaneous. Besides, they rarely take a step back to look at their actions from a distance or prepare a project implementation strategy. Thus, their methods come much closer to the methods used by avant-garde artists, as they employ accident, transgression, ready-made, ephemeralism, and, often, military rhetoric (Reynolds 2008 It is not a surprise then that even if gardeners do not consider themselves artists, the art world will always be interested in their work. More and more often, the documentation of green guerrilla campaigns is shown in art galleries and museums, and gardeners are invited to meetings and get to deliver lectures (Reynolds 2011). Cultural institutions also organize workshops during which participants learn about guerrilla gardening and permaculture strategies, as some of them still follow the trend, which has existed since the 1960s, that considers art to be socially and politically engaged. While continuing the postulates of the constructivist avant-garde, it has changed its strategies for the purpose of the social shift -be it through immersing itself in protest activism and anarchism or through placing itself on the side of the distanced criticism that exposes the flaws of the system but does not provide ready-made solutions. Green guerrilla constitutes a more constructive proposition, although it leads only to small-scale changes -yet, they are explicit and carry a sense of agency.
It can be said then that green guerrilla is not so much art, as it is a craft. As Betty Greer aptly states: In promoting the idea that people can use their own creativity to improve the world, craftivism allows those who wish to voice their opinions and support their causes the chance to do just that…but without chanting or banner waving and at their own pace". (Geer 2007: 401 Agnieszka Gralińska-Toborek: The aesthetics of green guerrilla. From activism to fine art Even though craftivism mainly pertains to handicrafts such as knitting or sewing and originates from the feminist movement, gardening can also be associated with it, as it focuses more on producing something to induce change rather than on art itself or political engagement. "Current political discourse no longer relies on the power of words or slogans -but rather on the virtue of sending out signs or symbols" (Müller 2007: 53).
It represents, then, positive activism that, quite literally, takes matters into its own hands.

Green guerilla aesthetics
Regardless of whether we consider green guerrilla to be art or not, the movement has its own aesthetic character and can be analysed from an aesthetic perspective. In fact, it could be scrutinised from several aesthetic perspectives, as today, there exist numerous forms and methods of aesthetic reflection. Depending on which green guerrilla element we choose as the leading one, we can analyse it in the spirit of artistic criticism, environmental aesthetics (Berleant 2012) or relational aesthetics (Bourriaud 2002).
However, it needs to be remembered that each point of view is selective. Green guerrilla offers us something new that we will only try to capture theoretically, so it is worth using all possible approaches to create a multidimensional reflection on the topic.

As Christa Müller aptly notes, informal gardening of the recent years differs significantly
from what took place in the '60s and the '70s in the US, and, therefore, it can be considered a new movement (Müller 2007: 49-52).
Although the author only writes about gardens, many of the characteristics she mentions can also be found in other green guerrilla forms. The first and the most overwhelming feature that Müller lists is the idiosyncratic use of old every-day materials from the surrounding urban environment (Müller 2007:52). The latter is, precisely, the most sensually discernible green guerrilla quality. "Recycling style" is directly related to the idea behind DIY, and, at the same time, it is a radical departure from the ideal of classical beauty understood as perfection. It could be said that it is an aesthetics of imperfection. Agnieszka Gralińska-Toborek: The aesthetics of green guerrilla. From activism to fine art disorganisation, and demonstrative chaos. Visually, it comes close to what the poorest neighbourhoods in many countries around the world look like, as well as to the way citizens of the Eastern Bloc used to cope during the communist era.
Rouch Sulima, an anthropologist, in his book titled "Anthropology of the commonplace" describes the principles of the arrangement of allotment gardens in communist Poland by using several phrases, such as: 'anything is useful', 'things are looking for their own place (allotment is a place to fill up), DIY, the aesthetics of incompatible materials (bricolage), the nursery aesthetics, the aesthetics of useful beauty' (Sulima 2000: 28-33). The difference between the aesthetics described above and the green guerilla aesthetics is the fact that the former came into being out of pure necessity, and the latter is a result of a conscious choice and often involves resignation from the visual harmony.
Practicality, frugality, and resourcefulness are not temporary ways of coping with life difficulties but rather a sign of concern for the future and a demonstration of the lack of consent for wastefulness. Yet, apart from this disposition, what one can also find there is the pleasure stemming from making things by hand, fun and joy brought about through independently creating objects and a large dose of humour.
The artistic and professional creation gets replaces with creativity, ingenuity, and spontaneity. If we assume that the term 'design' has its source in the Rennaissance-derived concept of disegno understood as a project or a detailed plan, then green guerrilla is not a design. On the other hand, it constitutes free expression, the purpose of which is not the form but the matter -that is nature. The form, however, as Nicolas Bourriaud observes in his "Relational Aesthetics", appears together with the gaze of an onlooker: Forms are developed one from another. What was yesterday regarded as formless or "informal" is no longer these things today. When the aesthetics discussion evolves, the status of form evolves along with, and through it" (Bourriaud 2002: 21).
The status of green guerrilla, just like the status of graffiti a while ago, will keep shifting along with our reflections upon this matter and with the changing ways in which we will perceive these phenomena. Certainly, there exist instances of planned and refined projects, especially in the domain of street art. Yet, even in such cases, we are clearly dealing with disharmony as the flower installations, or mini gardens that we encounter, are situated in places that are not destined for such purposes, and where one does not expect to find nature. Just as our gaze changes the status of green guerrilla, so too does green guerrilla shift our glance. Its transformational power lies in its ability to change the space, objects within that space, and our perception. It is a kind of an impropriety (indecorum) that forces us to modify our habits, change our tastes, and to look for pleasure not through consumption, but through discovering, acting, and trying, as well as through exploring new forms in places that, up until now, we considered as unattractive or shapeless. Other aesthetic qualities that characterize green guerrilla are evanescence, processuality, and "the emphasis on mobility" (Müller 2007:53). All of these features relate to the change that happens over time. The vegetation planted in the cities by partisans is not permanent -it is seasonal and, additionally, vulnerable to destruction. It is not under legal protection, as is the case with plants in private gardens or urban parks. Greenery planted by partisans, just like works of street art, is situated in the public space as a shared gift for everyone, even though gardeners often secretly tend to them. It is exactly the process of taking care of and observing plant growth that is becoming an important motivation, and an aesthetic experience, for the gardeners. When, in the middle of a conversation with Richard Reynolds, one of the participants asked whether it was boring to wait for the plants to germinate because one has no control over them, he replied that no gardener would ever ask such a question. "Waiting is a part of the pleasure, and it's not just awaiting, it's the almost a constant sense of change" (Reynolds, 2011b: 29-30 min.).
Pleasure is easily found in walking around, checking and observing the growth when each Guerrilla gardeners leave flowers and small plant installations across urban spaces as signs of their existence and work. They also remind us about the existence of nature in the city and the life that defies the rules of the technicized and pre-designed world. Moreover, they fulfil the co-existence criterion that the author of "Relational Art" explains as follows: "So there is a question we are entitled to ask in front of any aesthetic production" Does this work permit me to enter into dialogue? Could I exist and how in the spaces it defines?" A form is more or less democratic" (Bourriaud 2002:109) Green guerrilla aims to democratize the urban space, and it emphasizes its universality.
It also leads a dialogue with both the recipients -the users of the space, and with its "supervisors". It invites us to give in to the fleeting feeling of admiration -to stop, but also to act. The anonymity of green guerrilla and its resignation from the authorship are Agnieszka Gralińska-Toborek: The aesthetics of green guerrilla. From activism to fine art factors that encourage us to get involved. Müller refers to it as "the codification of the social in new urban habitats" (Müller 200:54). He also draws attention to the radically inclusive character of community gardens, which are, in principle, open to cultural diversity, cooperation and sharing.
"Knowledge-sharing forms a precondition and basis for social intercourse which is not so much about speaking to each other, however: those involved want to do something jointly -to create, alter, break up or reconstruct a space (Müller 2007: 54).
Green guerrilla is, therefore, focused on creating bonds and reflecting on various relationships: interpersonal, intercultural, and connections such as human-nature, citynature, city-nature-power. The factor that accounts for the sole creation of these bonds is the placemaking character of green guerrilla. However, it is not about planned, top-down placemaking proposed by town planners and officials, but rather about the spontaneous transformation of neglected, bland places covered in concrete with the use of vegetation.
Even planting daffodils or pansies on the lane separating a road or around a tree surrounded with concrete makes such places unique and unusual. They become aesthetic events and draw our attention; they constitute a meeting point between the technical and the natural, and, often, they come to be a motive for an exchange of opinions, a conversation, and, subsequently, for cooperation.
Green guerrilla can also be seen as hope for an authentic and unforced contribution to creating the urban landscape. The increasingly loud critique of participation promoted by officials or artists supported by art institutions causes the term to become less and less valid (Bishop 2012, Miessen 2011 The type of engagement proposed by green guerrilla may consist in creating new green places, in the sensual perception itself or in reacting -taking photos, leaning over, carefully examining, purposefully staying in a given place. Such an approach is promoted by aesthetics of engagement which is a part of the broader field of environmental aesthetics. "(…) the aesthetics of engagement stresses the contextual dimensions of nature and our multi-sensory experiences of it. Viewing the environment as a seamless unity of places, organisms, and perceptions challenges the importance of traditional dichotomies, such as that between subject and object. It beckons appreciators to immerse themselves in the natural environment and to reduce to as small a degree as possible the distance between themselves and the natural world". (Carlson 2020).
The modest fruits of partisans' actions support the aesthetic engagement and belong to the perceptual commons. The latter term was introduced by one of the most important representatives of environmental aesthetics -Arnold Berleant -while defending the right to aesthetic (sensual) experiencing of our environment (Berleant 2012:187-188). In his concept, he also emphasizes the continuity rather than separation of the subject and the object; nature and everything created by man; the history of the object and its present; creative action and aesthetic reception. From this point of view, green guerrilla constitutes the continuity of action and the act of sensually experiencing nature. Gardens are created to be experienced -and one can experience them during the process of their formation by observing plants as they grow and letting them shape the place without being overly controlled. They are presented with an aesthetic form through mere active observation.

The ending -or what else could be said about green guerilla
The word "in-between" is a term that probably best describes the character of green guerrilla, which was already mentioned in the description of Berleant's concept of the continuum. Let us begin the list of extremes, in-between which the actions described above can be placed, with the 'pugnacious-conciliatory' opposite. Proponents of clear demarcations would want to see green guerrilla only in illegal, politically declared, and militant acts that bring about sharp disputes with the authorities.
Meanwhile, when we look at this phenomenon more broadly and include community gardens and some street art forms, we can see that green guerrilla can also assume a more gentle, often conciliatory, shape. Besides, guerrilla gardeners can not only fight with authorities and administration of a given site but also with other users of common spaces who constitute a threat to vegetation -such as cyclists or dog owners. Possible solutions include constructing fences and leaving prohibition signs, as well as planting flowers in tall pots, boxes, bags, and other DIY end products (Baudry 2014:7).
One can act illegally under cover of night, but also initiate cooperation, set up legal associations, and establish community gardens. Some believe that this will cause the grassroots movement to dissolve in the process of institutionalisation (Knight 2020), while others notice new solutions for urban planning and a chance to change the functioning of government institutions that will effectively share public space with its users (Baudry 2014:14). Agnieszka Gralińska-Toborek: The aesthetics of green guerrilla. From activism to fine art The concept of green guerrilla is also stretched in-between other opposites, such as the beautiful and the useful; the urban landscape and agriculture; the political (public space) and the neutral (nature); the individual and the collective. And then, also between contemplation and action, amateurism and specialization, and velocity and patient waiting.
Consequently, the last word that green guerrilla can be described with is diversity. It brings together people of different ages, differing views, various cultures, and acting with diverse goals in mind. As Muller writes about community gardens, they provide one with "an opportunity to bring a real diversity of people together: elderly people from the neighbourhood, urban hipsters, bottle collectors, immigrants, seasonal farmhands and other passers-by" (Müller 2007:56).
Many of them would likely be surprised to be referred to as partisans -yet their actions are consistent with the definition of the term provided by the Cambridge Dictionary: "using unusual methods to create or get attention for your ideas, art, products, etc., usually ones that cost little money and involve using public spaces". Thus, green guerrilla is a real mixture of cultural, social, and aesthetic practices which, while carrying a critiqueladen load, above all constitute a positive practice that builds a new urban landscape.