THE SENSES OF PLANTS
Villa Merkel, Galerie der Stadt Esslingen am Neckar

New Aesthetic Perspectives on Human–Plant Coexistence

Most people think of plants and trees as mute, soulless, unmoving. But scientific research in recent years has shown that flora has by far more senses than we humans do. Plants communicate with each other, remember things, and make decisions. What does that imply for our thinking and actions? In art works of the explorative project The Senses of Plants, artists challenge our understanding of ourselves and the world: Zheng Bo for example explores the politics of trees in a forest. Saša Spačal’s speculations on human-plant hybrids deconstruct dualist edifices of ideas that distinguish between human and plant, or nature and culture. In addition to the mentioned artists, the book presents works by María Castellanos and Alberto Valverde, Patricia Domínguez, Nicole L’Huillier, Anton Vidokle, and others.

The catalogue is a documentation and extension of the exhibition The Senses of Plants at Villa Merkel, Galerie der Stadt Esslingen. The artistic research is complemented by text contributions from interdisciplinary authors such as Paco Calvo and Natalie Lawrence, Andreas Gutmann, Pierre L. Ibisch, Stefano Mancuso, Alessandra Viola and Robin Wall Kimmerer as well as Julia Katharina Thiemann.