Two new exhibitions will open at the Badischer Kunstverein on July 10:
Stefan Bertalan
I have lived with a sunflower for 130 days
11.7.–23.11.2025
Stefan Bertalan’s artistic work is both research and process-oriented. His central area of interest was nature, in particular the growth of plants, but also the anatomy of animals (insects), the structure of stones, shells and minerals, the topology of landscapes, the movements of clouds and wind, and the description of anatomical bodies and cosmological interconnectedness. To record his investigations, Bertalan worked with various media, especially with drawings, whereby the exhibition turns its attention in particular toward his experimental photographs, actions and happenings in public spaces, as well as performances.
Bertalan was preoccupied with plants that visualize extraordinary geometrical structures, or a certain vegetal resistance, such as the tall sunflower, with its striving toward the light, or the apricot tree, whose branching crown forms a network, or the common jimson weed, with its funnel-shaped blossom in the form of a pentagon. All of these works illustrate an analytical interest that was oriented toward mathematical and biological processes, but above all, a subjective sensibility for nature as an ally on equal terms in a universal (art) system, with plants as its agents.
With kind support by the Baden-Württemberg Stiftung. This exhibition was made possible with great support by Esther Schipper, Berlin, Paris, Seoul und The Estate of Stefan Bertalan as well as Georg Lecca / Collection Lecca, Munich.
Plants_Intelligence
Sabian Baumann, Ursula Damm, Kyriaki Goni, Ingela Ihrman, Jochen Lempert (eingeladen von Christiane Meyer-Stoll), Julia Mensch, Mathilde Rosier, Una Szeemann, Zheng Bo
11.7.–23.11.2025
Plants_Intelligence, on view in the atrium at the Kunstverein, extends Ștefan Bertalan’s radical appreciation of plants and his scientific and artistic search for cross-species interrelationships. How do contemporary artists address our dependence upon, relatedness to and affection for plant life? Where are the interfaces situated? How do they comprehend vegetal agency and intelligence, and how are they shaping it artistically?
Using a variety of artistic methods, all of the invited artists conceive of plants as having agency, perceiving them as companions that are biologically related to human beings. Having evolved in tandem for millennia (if not millions of years), the relationship between humans and plants is both ancient and intimate (even certain genes and neurotransmitters are similar). In the eyes of the dominant culture, all of this is of little consequence: overlooked for the most part, plant life is expected to supply us with foodstuffs, fabrics, fuel, or decorative objects – otherwise remaining inconspicuous. Yet plants are intelligent beings: they have desires and intentions, they communicate and act, are adaptable, capable of solving problems.
The artists assembled in the exhibition share a passion for plants and their strategies, and situate them in an overarching context.
The exhibition and program events resulted from a collaboration between the Badischer Kunstverein Karlsruhe and the research project Plants_Intelligence: Learning Like a Plant (2021-25), initiated and led by Yvonne Volkart; based at the Institute Art Gender Nature, Basel Academy of Art and Design FHNW and financed by the Swiss National Science Foundation.
Further information and program: https://www.badischer-kunstverein.de.
