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.
The 5th edition of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale, In Our Veins Flow Ink and Fire, is curated by Singaporean artist Shubigi Rao and will bring together 80 artists and collectives with over 45 new commissions. Originally scheduled for December 2020 and postponed due to the pandemic, the event will be held across multiple venues in Fort Kochi and Ernakulam, in Kerala, India.
Group exhibition curated by Yang Beichen, including works by Cai Gut-Qiang, Carolina Caycedo & David de Rozas, Sergio Rojas Chaves, Chu Yun, Rometti Costales, Sheryl Cheung, Patricia Domínguez, Fei Yining, Jes Fan, Liu Chuang, Long Pan, Rice Brewing Sisters Club, Pamela Rosenkranz, Tong Yixin, Wu Chi-Yu, Trevor Yeung, Zhang Wenzhi, Zheng Mahler.
The first chapter of the series “Who Owns Nature?”, a research based curatorial project with three chapters at the Macalline Art Center. It seeks to re-examine our historical debt with “nature” and to explore a new non-linear cosmological model. This is an interdisciplinary and interdisciplinary project, in which we will work with different artists, scholars and cultural practitioners to create lively and serious sites on different issues.
Solo show curated by Filipa Oliveira in Casa da Cerca – Contemporary Art Center, in Almada.
“Perhaps for the first time in our history, we are beginning to have a collective awareness both of the reality of climate change that has long been predicted, but also of its immediate and long-term consequences. The result of this is a growing understanding that the world is no longer human-centered, and that to deal with the demands of this crisis a collective inter-species effort is needed. If so far we have treated plants as a backdrops for human history, the works of Uriel Orlow speak to us of plants as indispensable companions in the struggle for planetary survival. Orlow shows us how plants are active agents and not just passive witnesses of history. They are a central link between nature and humans, between various types of knowledge and beliefs, capable of revealing fragilities and inequalities, and carrying ancient lessons.” Filipa Oliveira
Critical Zones. Observatories for Earthly Politics was conceived and exhibited at ZKM Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe (2020–2022), based on a concept by Bruno Latour and Peter Weibel. For the Goethe-Institut South Asia, a traveling adaption of Critical Zones titled Critical Zones. In Search of a Common Ground is co-produced by the ZKM Karlsruhe and the Goethe-Institut/Max Mueller Bhavan Mumbai. It shows a selection of artistic positions and is complemented by further works from Indian and Sri Lankan artists. The South Asia tour of the exhibition begins in Mumbai, it will be exhibited in Colombo and Pune in 2022, followed by Kolkata, New Delhi and Bangalore in 2023. The exhibition and its activation program have been adapted for the local audiences in close dialogue between the curators, art mediators and the Goethe-Institut Mumbai.
A group exhibition at MAMAC Nice, curated by Hélène Guenin and Rébecca François and part of the Nice Biennal of Arts 2022. With works by Laurence Aëgerter, Maria Thereza Alves, Isa Barbier, Yto Barrada, Hicham Berrada, Minia Biabiany, Melanie Bonajo, Bianca Bondi, Fatma Bucak, Chiara Camoni, Ali Cherri, Jean Comandon & Pierre de Fonbrune, Marinette Cueco, Odonchimeg Davaadorj, Andy Goldsworthy, Nona Inescu, Kapwani Kiwanga, Tetsumi Kudo, Marie-Claire Messouma Manlanbien, Ana Mendieta, Marie Menken, Otobong Nkanga, Dennis Oppenheim, Uriel Orlow, Gabriel Orozco, Giuseppe Penone, Pia Rönicke, Michelle Stuart, Anaïs Tondeur, NILS-UDO, Zheng Bo.
Becoming flower? At a time when ecosystems and climate breakthrough is leading us to rethink our relationship with nature and the living world, we can wonder what can we learn from flowers, from their resilience, from their constant adaptation to their environment, from their sobriety? Vulnerable and essential, they are an indispensable driving force of life: they produce the food that humans, animals and insects consume and the oxygen that we breathe. With scientific advances in plant intelligence and a new approach to life, our fascination for them is growing – far beyond mere aesthetic pleasure. Symbols of fragility and rebirth, they are becoming a particularly powerful indicator for lighting up current issues. Through the eyes of artists, “Becoming Flower” attempts to bring a new and a sensitive light on contemporary ecological, anthropological and geopolitical issues. The exhibition brings to light a botany of world history, as well as new forms of attention, sensitivity and thought.
Screening of the film The Crown Against Mafavuke in Mascara Film Club, an intermittent artist-run film club which takes place in a bar in North-East London. It regularly screens artists’ moving image in more convivial contexts, “batting lashes to the rhythm of the unexpected, the seductive, the challenging, the political, the overlooked and the underseen”. Mascara Film Club is organised by Rufus Rock, Daisy Smith and Kasia Lukasik.
Held every five years to showcase the work of British artists who have made a significant contribution to international contemporary art, the ninth British Art Show (BAS9) is curated by Irene Aristizábal and Hammad Nasar and includes work by over 40 artists. In The Levinsky Gallery are exhibited works by Cooking Sections, Sean Edwards, GAIKA, Maeve Brennan, Grace Ndiritu, Katie Schwab and Abigail Reynolds.
Collective exhibition in Danielle Arnaud contemporary art, London, including artists Anna Barriball, Daphne Wright, David Cotterrell, Edward Chell, Gerard Ortín, Gunther Herbst, Harun Morrison, Helen Maurer, Helen Walker, Joseph Banks, Joy Gregory, Laure Prouvost, Lea Maelzer, Leelou Gordon-Fox, Maria Thereza Alves, Mariele Neudecker, Nick Laessing, Nils Norman, Owen Griffiths, Peter Hofer, Pia Ostlund, Rosa Nguyen, Stephen Lee.
In the 1830s, East London doctor and amateur naturalist Dr. Nathaniel Bagshaw Ward invented a sealed glass case, an ecosphere in which plants could survive heavily polluted air. The Wardian case was soon being used for the transport of plants by sea around the world. From garden plants such as jasmine and rhododendrons to cash crops like bananas and tea, this simple invention transformed global economies and environments and shaped our world. Transports of Delight, will explore the impact of this simple but world-changing invention which links themes of colonialism, environment and the collection and display of plants associated with broader historical narratives.
The exhibition will feature around twenty artists from Britain and abroad with an accompanying publication.
Screening of the film Remnants of the Future, by Uriel Orlow, in the second edition of Villa Medici Film Festival, from 14 to 18 September 2022. Created in 2021, the festival is dedicated to artists and film directors who explore contemporary practices of the moving image. Essays, fictions or documentaries: it shows films that invent their own form and offers a glimpse of the most contemporary filmic creation.
Screening of Theatrum Botanicum Trilogy by Uriel Orlow, including the films Imbizo Ka Mafavuke (2017, 28min), Muthi (2016-2017, 17min) and The crown against Mafavuke (2016, 18min), as part of a film programme that expands on the topics of the journey of seeds between the Svalbard Global Seed Vault and Lebanon, patent battles over traditional plant medicine in South Africa and the traces of colonial ambitions of explorers in the Natural History Museum Berlin. In the context of the three-day performative conference UNEXPECTED LESSONS #2, part of the festival Goethe Morph* Iceland at Nordic House in Reykjavik, September 13th – 15th, 2022.
Just like its predecessor event in Berlin and Nairobi, UNEXPECTED LESSONS #2 is dedicated to the theme of decolonization. This time we put a focus on nature, from different perspectives. What makes nature the other? What role does the decoupling of nature and culture play in this? Is the culture/nature dichotomy tenable at all? And how can we decolonize our view of the world and think nature differently?