Artificial Gardening

In ARTIFICIAL GARDENING, the Kampnagel Avant garden is declared a festival venue and plants are deemed the paragon and organisational model of the 21st century: In a 14-day experiment, we will explore to what extent plants can be the force behind alternative social, economic and ecological conditions. The tensions between the two concepts of nature and culture crystallise particularly clearly in the model of the garden, which for French philosopher Michel Foucault represents the oldest example of a ‘heterotopia’. By his definition, heterotopias are ‘real places, influential places, in which the furnishings of society are inscribed, in a manner of speaking, counter-placements or abutments, utopias actually realised (…)’. In the Avant garden, different cultural and natural notions enter into a specific dialogue, in which artists take on roles as gardeners and put the performance potential of the plant world under the spotlight. So vegetables will be traced in art, politics and metaphysics, while we explore connections with migration and climate change. The Vegetal Turn demands rhizomatic (i.e. rooted) ways of thinking and production conditions, and ARTIFICIAL GARDENING translates these into a collective practice. All artists have a space in the Kampnagel Avant garden and will present their work there (weather permitting). Grow and glow!

The Avant garden is open daily for visitors, with activities from 6pm, weather permitting. Entry is always free! In the evening shows of PROJETO BRASIL (June 1-11,2016).

Im Rahmen von Imagine 2020 I Art and Climate Change, gefördert von der Europäischen Union / Europa fördert Kultur.

The Kampnagel AVANTGARTEN is located here.