Whether they are indicators of global warming, resources for the pharmaceutical industry, Tik Tok trends or embodiments of sustainable food, plants in our contemporary societies reflect  complex and often paradoxical relationships between humans and the natural world. Source of scientific knowledge, product of a globalised market or object of decoration, they are in this exhibition the subject of multiple investigations by artists, ranging from documentary work to speculative or experimental forms, in an attempt to grasp their multiple cultural meanings. While the monstera genus, though exotic and a direct consequence of colonisation, is seen in the West primarily for its decorative potential, the Ticino palm has, in the space of a few years, become a symptom of biological invasion and global warming. While many plants are discredited as insignificant, invasive, ‘useless’ or unphotogenic, others are invading shops, private interiors and social networks.

Through a wide variety of works, ranging from personal narratives to scientific documentation, virtual exploration and archival images, this exhibition aims to acknowledge the multiple meanings of the plant world in today's cultural context, while investigating the multiple forms that these can take for artists. By looking at the varying degrees of importance attached to specific species, their virtual representation, their aesthetic potential and their medicinal value, the exhibition aims to understand what our relationship with plants might be symptomatic of.

With Saskia Groneberg, Yann Gross, Yann Haeberlin, Felicity Hammond, Hilla Kurki, Yann Mingard, Lea Sblandano, Berit Schneiderheit, Bernard Tullen, Magdalena Wysocka & Claudio Pogo, and the Geneva Conservatory and Botanical Gardens

Image : © Yann Mingard