Group exhibition ‘Plants_Intelligence’ at the Badischer Kunstverein Karlsruhe

The group exhibition ‘Plants_Intelligence’, which will be shown at the Badischer Kunstverein Karlsruhe from 11 July to 23 November 2025, is a cooperation with the research project of the same name at the HGK Basel under the direction of Yvonne Volkart.

The group exhibition ‘Plants_Intelligence’, curated by Yvonne Volkart and Anja Casser, which can be seen from 11 July to 23 November 2025 in the Atrium of the Badischer Kunstverein Karlsruhe, follows on from Ștefan Bertalan's radical appreciation of plants and his scientific-artistic search for cross-species relationships. How do artists today deal with our dependence on, kinship with and love of plants? Where are the interfaces? How do they understand and shape vegetal agency and intelligence?

All of the contemporary artistic positions on display understand plants as powerful beings, as companions and relatives of humans, and make this clear using different artistic methods. Having grown together over thousands (if not millions) of years, the relationships between humans and plants are old and close (even certain genes and messenger substances are similar). But in our prevailing culture, none of this matters: mostly overlooked, they are only supposed to provide us with food, clothes, fuel or decoration - and otherwise not attract much attention. But plants are intelligent beings: They have desires and intentions, communicate and act, are flexible and solve problems. Embedded in specific locations, they constantly scan their surroundings. Although they cannot run away when things become suboptimal for them, they adapt their shape to the changing conditions. In short, plants try to thrive and use various creative means to do so. They are designers. But they are also threshold beings, energy converters, transformers: completely connected to the earth, they simultaneously reach into the ether and transform volatile substances into food.

The artists in the exhibition are interested in plants and their strategies and place them in an overarching context. This also states the aim of this project: By asserting that plants are active and intelligent designers of their modes of existence, a plea is made for the recognition of other, more-than-human forms of existence. It is shown that art plays an important role in this process: even the regular and precise observation and translation of certain plants and their interrelationships via drawing, video, painting, sculpture, etc. can ecologise our sensibility and indicate the importance of the observed beings. The selected works revolve around possible interfaces, common focal points and methods with Ștefan Bertalan, such as physical immersion paired with scientific observation (of Amaranth: Julia Mensch), computational experimentation with (dispersal) patterns (of lichens: Ursula Damm), the displacement of categorical hierarchies (Sabian Baumann), the psychological-spiritual transformation of material-atmospheric bodies (Una Szeemann) and the way in which plant bodies form space (in direct reference to a drawing by Ștefan Bertalan: Jochen Lempert).

The artists assembled in the exhibition share a passion for plants and their strategies, and situate them in an overarching context. By demonstrating that plants are active shapers of their modes of existence, we advocate recognition of another, more-than-human way of being. The presentation shows how art plays an important role in this process: already the regular and precise observation and translation of certain plants and their environments via drawing, video and other media is capable of heightening our ecological sensibilities. Beyond this, Plants_Intelligence also seeks to reclaim central aspects of life that have been expropriated by Neoliberalism, among them, attentiveness, growth, flexibility, intelligence or learning, and to render them tangible as fundamental aspects of relational existence.

In addition, Plants_Intelligence also attempts to reclaim central aspects of life that have been expropriated by neoliberalism, such as attention, growth, flexibility, intelligence and learning, and to make them tangible as fundamental characteristics of relational existence. These multi-layered issues will not only be explored in depth in the exhibition, but also with other guests in a programme of events.

The exhibition and programme of events are a collaboration between the Badischer Kunstverein Karlsruhe and the research project Plants_Intelligence. Learning Like a Plant (2021-25), initiated and led by Dr Yvonne Volkart, Head of Research at the Institute Art Gender Nature (IAGN) at the HGK Basel, which is based at IAGN and funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF).

With Sabian Baumann, Ursula Damm, Kyriaki Goni, Ingela Ihrman, Jochen Lempert (invited by Christiane Meyer-Stoll), Julia Mensch, Mathilde Rosier, Una Szeemann, Zheng Bo.

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