Plant_Intelligence Exhibition
(2025)

Plants_Intelligence, on view in the atrium at the Kunstverein, extends Stefan Bertalan’s radical appreciation of plants and his scientific and artistic search for cross-species interrelationships. How do contemporary artists address our dependence upon, relatedness to and affection for plant life? Where are the interfaces situated? How do they comprehend vegetal agency and intelligence, and how are they shaping it artistically?
Using a variety of artistic methods, all of the invited artists conceive of plants as having agency, perceiving them as companions that are biologically related to human beings. Having evolved in tandem for millennia (if not millions of years), the relationship between humans and plants is both ancient and intimate (even certain genes and neurotransmitters are similar). In the eyes of the dominant culture, all of this is of little consequence: overlooked for the most part, plant life is expected to supply us with foodstuffs, fabrics, fuel, or decorative objects – otherwise remaining inconspicuous. Yet plants are intelligent beings: they have desires and intentions, they communicate and act, are adaptable, capable of solving problems. Embedded in a specific location, they continuously scan their surroundings. Although incapable of fleeing when a situation becomes suboptimal, they do modify their forms to accommodate changing circumstances. In short, they strive to flourish, and deploy a variety of creative resources in the process. They are designers. But also liminal beings, energy converters, transformers: fully earthbound, they simultaneously ascend into the ether, transforming volatile substances into nourishment.
The exhibition and program events resulted from a collaboration between the Badischer Kunstverein Karlsruhe and the research project Plants_Intelligence: Learning Like a Plant (2021-25) by Yvonne Volkart, Felipe Castelblanco, Julia Mensch and Rasa Smite. Funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation and hosted by the Institute Art Gender Nature, Basel Academy of Art and Design FHNW.