Untitled [Herbarium]

Untitled [Herbarium] is an exhibition and Masterthesis project in the framework of the M.F.A. Public Art and New Artistic Strategies at Bauhaus-Universität Weimar. It is a site-specific multimedia installation in the former Herbarium building of Herbarium Haussknecht in Weimar (Germany) in 07.-09.07.2023. 

The Herbarium is a scientific institution to collect dried and pressed plants for research. Plants are back in the former Herbarium building in Weimar: Gestures to collect, preserve and examine plants are part of an installation. Instead of an inventorisation: fixation of the living in vague images.

There is a workstation with a herbarium cabinet in the centre of the room. Within the cabinet and on the walls, there are Pflanzenabbilder (plant reproductions), some of them inaccessible in sealed fascicles and all of them unnamed. In the cabinet and on the window shelf there are transformed books that document plant collection walks (Blättern) and so-called Schaukastenbücher (showcase books), transparent books that contain fresh plants that are wilking. A video is projected behind the herbarium cabinet that shows the installation in a "natural context" outside and an encounter with a bird. Another video is installed in a window showing the gestures of mounting plants on herbarium paper in Herbarium Haussknecht while at the same time one can see trees and plants outside growing and rustling. Two of the three Pflanzen-Belege (plant specimens), leporellos with text leaves, are placed on a table. They represent a collection of theoretical perspectives in the form of text artifacts.

Special Thanks to Carl Hartmann who supported me a lot. Thank you to Kristin Victor and the staff of Herbarium Haussknecht. 

Realised under the supervision of Alexandra Toland, Lea Maria Wittich and Andreas Kempe.