with Ori Gersht, Richard Green, Christian Hellmich, Wolf von Kries, Ines Lechtleitner, Mahony, Christl Mudrak, Tommy Støckel/Paul McDevitt, Sinta Werner, Ella Ziegler et.al.

12.09. 11-18h / 13.09. 11-22h

Empathy II
13.09.2023 Performances: 7 pm CargoCult and Kashka, 8 pm Hannelore, 9 pm Manfred Peckl
Curators: Sienna Mac Anna, Olivia Reynolds, Julia Wirxel

Elastic forces work in plants, in blossoms, blooming and withering. Plants are sedentary beings and cannot approach the world. So, through their flowers' beguiling appearance and fragrance, they entice the world to them. In the process, there may be an explosion of colors and forms. With its inherent attraction, Blooming serves as communication between plants and myriad beings.

The complexity of the (as yet largely disregarded) ‘thinking’ of plants is characterized by the fact they possess a material rather than a neuronal brain. The flower can be interpreted as the rationality of the plant, the blossom as “reason’s form of existence par excellence” (Emanuele Coccia). The terms ‘knowledge’ and ‘thought’ stretch, become elastic, and continue to grow.

Plants were the first beings of this world. They collaborated in their own creation and are cosmogonic. For them, existence means world-making and vice versa. All animal life feeds on the gas exchange of these beings. Even we humans are immersed in the atmosphere, penetrate it even as it, with each breath, penetrates us. Breathing, in this sense, becomes a kind of cannibalism: we feed on the gaseous excretions of plants, a life consuming the life of others.

The blossom is inextricable from its own transience. The vanitas motif of art history, it is used as a symbol of the impermanence and preciousness of life. Plants are symbolically and politically loaded on many levels. How many people know that the name dahlia obscures the transplantation of the cocoxochitl from Mexico to Europe, and the plant’s subsequent association with a Swede by the name of Dahl? (Rebecca Solnit) Another example: for some time, roses have been associated not only with expressions of love, hope, and sorrow, but also with destruction, and exploitative and life-threatening work practices.

Plants' immense significance and blooming have long been forgotten and repressed. We are at a precarious tipping point, profligately overwhelming the world of plants with the carbon it is expected to absorb.

The exhibition Blooming Brief will deal with several of these aspects. Performances on the theme of empathy and sym-pathy will take place in parallel with the exhibition. Catherine Lorent, Tom Früchtl aka Hannelore, Manfred Peckl, the artist collective CargoCult and the artist Kashka, in cooperation with the Jugendmigrationsdienst Mitte-Wedding, will investigate the theme with young people.