Listening to the Language of Plants: An Interview with Michał Duda & Małgorzata Devosges-Cuber at the Milan Triennial
The curators of ‘Greenhouse Silent Disco’, the Polish exhibition at the Milan Triennial, discuss plant beings, looking into the eyes of ferns, and the relevance of the Romantic vision of nature in today’s world.
Anna Cymer: As curators from the Museum of Architecture in Wrocław, you created an exhibition for an event associated primarily with design and decided to show plants from Polish forests. How was it possible to connect all of this?
Michał Duda: These themes only appear to be unrelated. After all, we are now fully aware that the realm of nature constitutes an important part of the ecosystem in which we live, i.e., the spaces we transform through urban planning and architecture. Today, design and architecture are so intertwined that their coexistence is no longer strange or unusual.
Still, I’d like to emphasize that we are not presenting a botanical exhibition in Milan, we are not focusing on the appearance or features of various plant species. We aim to reflect on the meaning of plants in the contemporary world, how we treat them and how we should or could treat them in the future, and how this reflection can affect our approach to design.
Małgorzata Devosges-Cuber: The idea for the show came from the slogan proposed by this year's Triennial curator, Ersilia Vaudo – [the] ‘Unknown Unknowns’. Ersilia Vaudo, an astrophysicist working at the European Space Agency, wanted the exhibitions to revolve around the search for links between science, art, and the unknown. We came to the conclusion that the world of plants fits this idea perfectly because it remains quite mysterious, and we are constantly developing new tools to get to know it better.
One example of this is the method developed by Professor Hazem Kalaji from the Department of Plant Physiology of the Institute of Biology of the Warsaw University of Life Sciences, which allows us to observe, study, and assess the welfare of plants. Based on the observation of chlorophyll fluorescence, Professor Kalaji is able to evaluate whether a particular plant is doing well and how it reacts to various external stimuli. His method demonstrates that plants are not passive organisms – their needs are much more complex than we previously thought. Plants are much more sensitive to the environment than humans, they are able to communicate with each other, and respond to outside stimuli. This is fascinating – not just in terms of our awareness, but also in terms of recognizing their subjectivity.
Anna Cymer: How come the research of a plant physiologist has become a part of the exhibition on design? Did you know the work of Professor Hazem Kalaji before?
Michał Duda: When the Adam Mickiewicz Institute [IAM] asked us to create a curatorial concept for the Polish exhibition at the Milan Triennial, we were told it will take place as part of the Year of Polish Romanticism celebrations.
‘Greenhouse Silent Disco’, Polish exhibition at the Milan Triennial, photograph by IAM
So, we had to come up with a theme, a narrative that would link Romanticism with the Triennial’s theme that combines science, art, and the unknown. While searching for these links, we became interested in the Romantic perception of nature, in Poland and beyond, closely related to the changing reality of that era. Romantics appreciated the force of nature, respected its significance and value, and understood it in a spiritual, mystical way. They also saw man as an integral part of nature – not a separate being that manages and dominates nature, but one that coexists with this great ecosystem. It is worth remembering that Romanticism developed in the era of the industrial revolution, and its attempts to empower nature were also a reaction to the devastation of the natural environment. Now, in the era of climate catastrophe caused by the industrialization, these ideas are clearly quite relevant.
Małgorzata Devosges-Cuber: We are used to treating plants either as raw material or decoration, we think about what we can get from the world of plants, and look at them through the prism of our needs. As curators, we would like to change this perspective and think about how our reality would change if we’d look at it from the point of view of plants, i.e., see their perspective and needs. Following in the footsteps of the Romantics, we give back their subjectivity. What would the world look like if we started treating plants as partners? We use the term ‘plant beings’, because we believe that language and the way in which we describe facts and events strongly influences how they are perceived and understood.
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‘Greenhouse Silent Disco’, Polish exhibition at the Milan Triennial, photograph by IAM
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Anna Cymer: What did the process of translating these ideas into a comprehensible, material form look like? How did you choose the artists taking part in the exhibition?
Małgorzata Devosges-Cuber: We asked Barbara Nawrocka and Dominika Wilczyńska, the founders of Miastopracownia, to develop the spatial concept for the exhibition. Their designs take into account the feminist point of view, i.e., the needs of the weaker, often overlooked, users of space, minorities. This way of thinking was important in the process of including another group, i.e., plant beings, in the debate about the space. The starting point for the project was the idea of a greenhouse. Its modular shape references to the fractal world of plants. Within this space there are plants originating from a forest near Wrocław. Professor Urszula Zajączkowska from the Warsaw University of Life Sciences – a botanist, but also a poet and artist – helped us select plant species for the exhibition and ensured we provided them with the best possible conditions. Her great knowledge, but also sensitivity and the way in which she talks about plants, were all a great inspiration.
Michał Duda: The big challenge was to translate the reactions of plants into sound. We decided this would be the best way for showing the viewers how different stimuli affect plants. So, it was necessary to create a special synthesizer. Justyna Stasiowska designed the sounds, and thus the language of plants. Teo Dumski, a theatre artist fascinated by technology understood as a being, a stage of evolutionary development, designed the machine that is the basis of the show. He designed the light and sound system that responds to the presence of the viewer, which – in turn – the plants react to. The plant pots were created at the Faculty of Ceramics of the Academy of Fine Arts in Wrocław.
In our work on this exhibition, we managed to move away from the traditional, hierarchical model in which the curators are directing everything and everyone – the invited artists or architects and others responsible for technical issues, etc. Instead, we created an ecosystem in which tasks intertwined and seeped into one another, and ideas were born from interactions between us at different stages of our work on the exhibition. This kind of feedback was incredibly creative and inspiring.
Anna Cymer: So, you are giving a voice and space to the part of our ecosystem that we have so far treated as a passive, functional background.
Michał Duda: It wasn’t our aim to show the beauty of plants, but their nature. We selected particular plant species based on their character, not their appearance. These include, both evergreen and deciduous plants that cease to look spectacular during winter. This, after all, is the reality of the world of plants.
Małgorzata Devosges-Cuber: The exhibition space was designed for plants, rather than humans. Visitors can access and view it, but the real users for whom it was created are the plants.
This exhibition will be a kind of lab experiment. We tried to provide plants with the best possible conditions, we put a lot of work into making them feel good. But, because the exhibition will last almost six months, we cannot really tell what will happen during this time – how their reactions will change, how will they accept these existing conditions and the presence of people, or whether we will be able to fully understand their reactions and ensure their well-being.
Michał Duda: In order to avoid humans cornering the plants, we decided to give the exhibition an intimate and contemplative form. Only one or two people at a time will be able to enter the centre of the display. We want to avoid noise, crowds, and other distractions. The idea is for every visitor to have a chance to look into the eyes of the forest fern.
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‘Greenhouse Silent Disco’, Polish exhibition at the Milan Triennial, photograph by IAM
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