Sunday, September 23, 2018

Workshop with Špela Petrič: Phytocracy in situ: Prototyping tools for the investigation of plant governance

In connection with the exhibition Strange Encounters with Vegetal Others

How did wheat manage to domesticate the human? From Pollan's perspective-bending "Botany of Desire" to the environmental humanities' "vegetal politics", the entanglements between plants and people are ubiquitous, mundane and often hiding in plain sight. As part of the inquiries into Vegetal Otherness, Špela Petrič set out to produce her own phytocracy-revealing onto-epistemological tools that are inspired by actual institutions/domains/cultural practices framing plant-people relations, but also playfully oblivious to their axioms and boundaries.






Photo by Miha Tursič

Photo by Miha Tursič


Photo by Miha Tursič


The open session invites participants to reflect on plant governance as governance of plants by joining in a fast and funny tool prototyping session to investigate the river Panke in the vicinity of Art Laboratory Berlin. The exercise connects to a wider questioning of artistic methodologies, mediations, narratives, with which we try to convey experiences with the vegetal that often escape words.


Photo by Miha Tursič










Photos by Art Laboratory Berlin unless otherwise noted

The workshop is based on Deep Phytocracy: Feral Songs, the work-in-progress Petri
č has been developing at Nida Art Colony, Lithuania and Osmoza, Ljubljana, Slovenia.

More information at: http://www.artlaboratory-berlin.org/html/eng-events-archive.htm

Saturday, September 22, 2018

Opening: Strange Encounters with Vegetal Others Špela Petrič

Slovenian artist Špela Petrič approaches art production with a background in Hybrid Arts as well as a PhD in Biochemistry. These dual epistemological approaches inform her work with the Plant Kingdom as part of a multi-species collaboration exploring the ontologies, methodologies, ethics and practices of care involved in our relationship to the vegetal. Her first solo show in Berlin will give an insight into her multi-species endeavour.

Plants Sex Consultancy - Špela Petrič, Pei Ying Lin, Dimitris Stamatis and Jasmina Weiss



Plant Sex Consultancy - Photo by Miha Tursič


Strange Encounters: Metaühysics. Algae and Carcinoma. Photo by Miha Tursič

Photo by Miha Tursič

Photo by Miha Tursič


Photo by Miha Tursič




Background: Skotopoeisis - Špela Petrič, Photo by Miha Tursič

Photos by Art Laboratory Berlin unless otherwise noted.

More information on the exhibition: http://www.artlaboratory-berlin.org/html/eng-exh-archive.htm

Thursday, September 20, 2018

Preparing for 'Strange Encounters with Vegetal Others'

Slovenian artist Špela Petrič approaches art production with a background in Hybrid Arts as well as a PhD in Biochemistry. These dual epistemological approaches inform her work with the Plant Kingdom as part of a multi-species collaboration exploring the ontologies, methodologies, ethics and practices of care involved in our relationship to the vegetal. Her first solo show in Berlin will give an insight into her multi-species endeavour.




The green kingdom, upon which we depend for our very survival, functions on a radically different biological basis from us: seemingly inert, literally vegetative and endowed with unexplored forms of intelligence. Yet science reveals an intricate world of mysterious chemical conversations, interspecies networks and non-centralised operations alien from our own existence. Through her work Petrič proposes novel modes of human-plant communication, intercognition and exchange. 









Strange Encounters with Vegetal Others
Špela Petrič

Opening: 21 September 2018
Workshop (registration necessary: register@artlaboratory-berlin.org ): 22 September 2018, 1-6PM
Exhibition runs 22 September - 18 November 2018
Fri- Sun, 2-6 pm and by appointment