Nature is unity in diversity.
Alexander von Humboldt 1845
“INSPIRING PLANTS 智性植物” is an art intervention exhibition at Taipei Collectible Botanical Garden, which is a modern green house in the heart of Taipei city.
The exhibition with nineteen artists features a collection of botanical and contemporary artworks inspired by plants. Art is juxtaposed and integrated to the existing collection of living plants of the garden: from tropical, to subtropical, temperate and alpine species. This coexistence not only creates a dialogue of diversity: vegetal and aesthetic, yet represents the manifestation of a relation between man-plants, man-nature stimulating an ecological thinking beyond anthropocentrism. With the possibility of sliding into the exhibition, shaking and letting go of our way of thinking, the narrative starts with the encounter of plants themselves and their significance for our ecosystem, counteracting our human incapability to see plants in one's own environments, so called “plant blindness”. The exhibition is articulated horizontally through art and plants and vertically through the philosophical connection between and beyond these fields.
Botanical art represents the objective eye, the conscious observation in slowed down time, while contemporary art represents the subjective and innovative force of creation across architecture and robotics and multiple media. The fascination of beauty through carved painting, photography, sculpture, performance art, drawing, video, sound.. indirectly suggests and stimulates a harmonic dialogical approach to nature as direction of our future.
P.S. The exhibition was ready to open on 22nd of May, but due to covid outbreak in Taiwan, I had to cancel it and then I’ve planned to make it virtually. We have built the space entirely in 3D according to the real place and the conceived exhibition for it, so this exhibition is an hybrid.
WELCOME to the VIRTUAL TOUR.
The curator Sita Spada
自然是一種多樣性的整體
亞歷山大・馮・洪堡 1845
“INSPIRING PLANTS 智性植物” 一個藝術介入的展覽，位於臺北典藏植物園 ，一座位於台北市中心的現代溫室。
本展覽以19 位藝術家展示了一系列受植物啟發的當代藝術創作。這些藝術作品和植物園中現有收藏、活生生的植物並置融合在一起，從熱帶到亞熱帶、溫帶和高海拔物種。這樣的共存的狀態 不僅創造了植物與美學之間多樣性的對話，還展現了人與植物、人與自然之間關係，並激發了超越人類中心主義的生態思維。從滑進到展覽裡，會搖動和張開我們思維方式的各種可能性。展覽的敘事從植物自身之間的相遇、以及它對我們生態系統的重要性開始，消解我們人類無法在環境中看到植物的缺點，即所謂的「植物盲」。 展覽通過橫向—藝術和植物，以及縱向—通過不同領域之間的哲學性所連結.「植物藝術」代表著客觀的觀看，是在放慢速度下有意識的觀察。而當代藝術則呈現了跨越建築、機器人和多媒體等主觀和創新的創作力量。通過浮雕、攝影、雕塑、表演、繪畫、錄像、聲音等它們美的吸引力，間接地暗示和激發了一種和諧的對話方式，迎向自然作為我們未來的方向。
策展人宋思婷
TEAMWORK: Puneet Hans 3D Designer, Hio Cheng Choi (Hillz design) visual communication designer, Fang-Yen Hsiang English/Chinese translation and expertise, Yi-Fen Jan English-Chinese translation, George assistance coordinator.
SPECIAL THANKS: My thesis advisor Prof. Lin Chi-Ming for the precious guidance. All participating artists, Dir. Jer-Ming Hu Institute of ecology and evolutionary biology NTU, Prof. Shang-Jin Wang Environmental Ethics NTNU, Prof. David Zeleny Vegetal ecology Lab NTU, President Alessandro Chiarucci Societa’ Botanica Italiana, CCSCA Department at National Taipei University of Education, Prof. Nabuo Takamori for the discussions.