Ritual of Self-Nature was the winner project from Isa Carrillo, who won the popular vote organised by IZOLYATSIA as part of the Social Contract 2017. This was preceded by an international competition for projects of a temporary art intervention at the former site of the Lenin monument in Kyiv. 

The idea of the Ritual of Self-Nature was using the healing powers of nature. Isa Carrillo proposed to neutralise the ideological tension around the vacant pedestal by ‘taking over’ the monument by living plants. On the one hand, mint and rosemary masked the stone column, while on the other hand, they worked as purifying agents on the site that is associated not only with the Soviet leader, but also with a gallows that was placed here during the Nazi occupation.

In the numerous discussions around the potential new monument, both its advocates and opponents mention negative energy surrounding the site. Responding to this argument, the artist proposed to cover the empty pedestal with healing plants: mint known for its calming and analgesic effect and rosemary whose aroma lifts the mood and helps recovering after illness. The artist invites the citizens to use the green column as a meditation tool to seek for internal harmony. At the end of the project, the plants were given away to passers-by who adopted them.