The biennial starts from the postulate proposed by Latour and Guinard that “people around the world no longer agree on what it means to live ‘on’ Earth”. Curated by Bruno Latour and Martin Guinard.
A contemporary art exhibition examining the connections between humankind and the environment through the works of five artists and one group all active in Japan and internationally. Curated by Oko Goto.
The artists in this exhibition illustrate principles of nature, give voices to plants from a wide range of different perspectives and testify to the extraordinary qualities of these creatures inextricably linked with our survival. Curated by Christiane Meyer-Stoll with Annett Höland, co-curator of the project space.
Research project and group exhibition about the notion of the exotic in Switzerland and elsewhere.
RIBOCA2: and suddenly it all blossoms grew out of the urge to change our way of inhabiting the world through reaching out to other voices, sensibilities, and ways of making relationships. As an alternative to the deluge of hopeless narratives, the notion of re-enchantment became a frame for building desirable presents and futures, where the end of “a” world does not mean “the end of the world”. The present global circumstances resonate dramatically with the project and its urgent call for reinvention.
Group show curated by Giulia Lamoni and Vanessa Badagliacca.
In 1981, the American feminist art magazine Heresies dedicated its 13th edition to the relationships between feminism and ecology. Entitled “Earthkeeping / Earthshaking”, this edition featured contributions from authors of various nationalities, including art critic Lucy Lippard, artists Ana Mendieta, Faith Wilding, Bonnie Ora Sherk, Cecilia Vicuña and Michelle Stuart, as well as writer Gioconda Belli. Departing from the question “What can women do about the disastrous direction the world is taking?”, Heresies #13 intended to question the relationship between feminisms and ecology from multiple perspectives. Taking Heresies #13 as a starting point and as a historical and political archive capable of stimulating a fertile reflection on the triangulation between art, ecology and feminisms, the exhibition Earthkeeping / Earthshaking aims to affirm the pioneering role played by numerous artists in this specific context and, at the same time, analyse the potential of their ideas today.
A cabinet of ephemeral works, drafts and concepts, that are often not included in gallery exhibitions but are part of the daily practice in most artists’ studios shown at new space in Zurich.
For a long time the reactions of Earth to our human actions remained unnoticed, but in recent times with the protest movement Fridays for Future climate crisis has moved into public consciousness. The thought exhibition »CRITICAL ZONES« invites us to deal with the CRITICAL situation of the Earth in various ways and to explore new modes of coexistence between all forms of life. Curatorial Team: Bruno Latour, Peter Weibel, Martin Guinar, Bettina Korintenberg
A group exhibition directly concerned with taking up political positions and engaging in interventions, ground work and various forms of activism. With works by Paloma Ayala, Baltensperger + Siepert, Daniela Brugger, Luke Ching, Chto Delat, Enar de Dios Rodríguez, Harun Farocki, Jeff Hong, Marc Lee, Yoshinori Niwa, Dima Nechawi, Mohamad Omran, Uriel Orlow, Ursula Palla, ” le peuple qui manque – a people is missing (Kantuta Quiros, Aliocha Imhoff), Robert Schlicht + Romana Schmalisch, Jonas Staal.
And with participation of the activist and cultural groups: Architecture for Refugees Schweiz, Autonome Schule Zürich, The Creative Memory of The Syrian Revolution, Love Lazers, Libreria delle Donne, foodwaste.ch/OGG Bern, Progetto Oreste, Stadtlücken, Video Activism, Warsaw Biennial, Who writes his_tory ?, The Media Office of Kafranbel.
Solo exhibition.
In Learning from Artemisia at La Loge, Orlow explores plant healing and global power relations through Artemisia afra, the African wormwood, an indigenous medicinal plant cultivated in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, alongside other African countries, and used for the treatment of malaria. Despite its proven effectiveness and simplicity, the World Health Organization does not recommend the use of this plant material, in any form, including tea, for the treatment or the prevention of malaria.
A group exhibition with works by Marwa Arsanios, Rossella Biscotti, Paz Errázuriz, Bouchra Khalili, Teresa Margolles, Carlos Motta, Uriel Orlow and Daniel Otero Torres
Leave No Stone Unturned [Remuer la terre] is a collective exhibition, curated by Clelia Coussonnet, that highlights the links between plants and politics in Morocco and other countries of the global South, while rejecting the idea that nature is ornamental and neutral. By scratching the visible surface to plunge into the interstices and gaps of history, the selected works show plants are intertwined in power networks and suffer from the paradox of being knowledge resources simultaneously accessible and subjected to processes of invisibility. While human impact on climate and environmental change is increasingly discussed in public and scientific debates, still few institutions and individuals explore in depth the largely underestimated relations between plants and politics. Flora is indeed an actor, a pawn and a witness of History, revealing narratives forgotten and eluded by official history’s records.
A survey exhibition which brings together Theatrum Botanicum, Soil Affinities, Wishing Trees and Learning from Plants. Trees as actors in history, the migration of flowers, and medicinal plants testifying to neo-extractivism – these are some of the themes that Uriel Orlow pursues in his research-based art. Concrete circumstances and developments invariably form the basis of his multi-layered, multi-media works. In recent years his attention has mainly focused on entanglements between the African continent and Europe. Plants are both the narrators and protagonists here, anchoring all the events in the present day. For his solo show at Kunsthalle Mainz the artist has developed a route through the exhibition that takes visitors room by room from the origins of colonialism via the anti-apartheid movement through to contemporary concerns.
with Anne-Laure Franchette, Vidya Gastaldon, Clemens Klopfenstein, Marie Matusz, Gianni Motti, Uriel Orlow, Denis Savary, Rico Scagliola & Michael Meier, and Ian Wooldridge
Works by Art & Language, Jordan Baseman, Paul Chan & Badlands Unlimited, Matthew Darbyshire, Joseph DeLappe, Lisa Denyer, Jacqueline Donachie, Caitriona Dunnett, Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Mona Hatoum, Juneau Projects, Navi Kaur, Smirna Kulenović, Uriel Orlow, Lis Rhodes, Shirana Shahbazi, Larissa Shaw, Thomson & Craighead and others.
Curated by Sandrine Colard de Bock with Sammy Baloji, Jean Katambayi, Georges Senga, Ruangrupa, Uriel Orlow, Sinzo Aanza, Simnikiwe Buhlungu, Wendy Morris, Emeka Ogboh, Vincent Meessen, Pamela Phatsimo Sunstrum and Pélagie Gbaguidi, Kemang We Lehulere, Maarten vanden Eynde and others.
A group exhibition, with works by Sirine Fattouh, Stephanie Dadour, Claudia Salamanca, María Ordóñez and Uriel Orlow.