PLANT STORIES #4: BEYOND PALMS IN GALLERIES – THE PRESENCE OF PLANTS IN CONTEMPORARY ART
Discussion with Giovanni Aloi, Leslie García (Interspecifics) and Ivana Miloš (Dunjiva Kollektiv), moderated by Lina Brion
23 AUGUST 2025 / 19:00
ZK/U BerlinSiemensstr. 27, 10551, Berlin, Germany
In English
From potted plants in exhibition spaces, the integration of organic material into sound artworks, or critical engagement with the practices of botany in artistic research—plants and plant knowledge have been increasingly present in contemporary art in recent years. PLANT STORIES is part of this development and brings together many different artistic practices involving plants. Therefore, we want to take the opportunity to critically reflect on some of the questions that emanate from this: What influence do plants have on artistic work, and how do plants transform from decorative objects into agents? What do plants represent in art, when does the artwork go beyond their representative function, and how are they politicized by artists? How can art change the relationship between humans and non-human species?
Art historian and plant specialist Giovanni Aloi examines the significant influence plants have always had on developments in art history and how contemporary art practice promotes new botanical knowledge in times of ecological catastrophe. Sound artist Leslie García, together with the Interspecifics collective, explores dimensions of intelligence and agency in non-human actors. With her visual, poetic, and collaborative practice, Ivana Miloš aims at perceiving the plant and animal world differently and more attentively.
Following a performance by Interspecifics the evening before, a walk and workshop by Dunjiva Kollektiv in the afternoon, and a short lecture by Giovanni Aloi (online), the three will discuss the role of plants in their practices with Lina Brion, one of the curators of the PLANT STORIES series.
Dr. GIOVANNI ALOI is an author, educator, and curator specializing in plants, nature, and the environment in art. Editor in Chief of Antennae: The Journal of Nature in Visual Culture, he has written and edited numerous books on vegetal representation, including Why Look at Plants? (2018) and Vegetal Entwinements (co-edited with Michael Marder, 2023), and Botanical Revolutions (2025, Getty). Aloi has contributed to BBC and PBS programs and has curated exhibitions in the US and Europe.
LESLIE GARCÍA is a Mexican artist, experimental electronic musician, and creative technologist. As the co-founder and artistic director of the collective Interspecifics, her work merges art, science, and technology to explore the boundaries of sonic perception and the interactions between the human and the non-human. Her interdisciplinary approach blends innovative technological tools with scientific experimentation, guided by a strong inclination toward minimalism, introspection, and the search for new narratives through sound. With Interspecifics she has been awarded the DAAD Fellowship for sound & music 2025 in Berlin.
IVANA MILOŠ is a writer, graphic artist, translator and plant lover. Building on the complex of relationships between language and image, she connects the spaces of poetic language and visual arts that are organically intertwined in her practice. Her work emphasizes dimensions that are not exclusively human, be they plant, animal, or related to the weather, as a way of establishing contact – something akin to vibrations traveling between different life forms. She has been publishing poetry in Croatian, German, and English in literary magazines and radio programs since 2012. She is based in Vienna, Austria, where she navigates the multiple existences of language and being, culture and nature.
LINA BRION is a curator of contemporary art based in Berlin. She has worked in the program office of the Akademie der Künste and in the Music and Performing Arts department of the Haus der Kulturen der Welt. Her interdisciplinary and research-based projects include the exhibition “Orangerie der Fürsorge” (nGbK, 2024), the event series “Plant Stories” (ZK/U, 2025), and the exhibition and festival project “Every Artist Must Take Sides - Resonances of Eslanda and Paul Robeson” (Akademie der Künste, 2025/26). Since 2019, she has been part of the interdisciplinary artist collective PARA.