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What is beyond plants is at one with them, documenta X, Kassel

What is beyond plants is at one with them, documenta X, Kassel
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    • What is beyond plants is at one with them, documenta X, Kassel
    • Das über Pflanzen ist eins mit ihnen, documenta X, Kassel
  • 1997
  • color photograph
  • 58,5 × 58,5 cm
Lois Weinberger’s documenta X biotope looked like a neglected area of the Kulturbahnhof. The artist mixed native vegetation with neophytes in the gravel bed of the decommissioned Track 1. The rapidly growing plants from southern and southeastern Europe spread quickly and displaced the original flora. Weinberger views this botanical process, which continues even today, as a metaphor for social processes. Here, global migration has become the theme of an ecological work of art. In a natural development initiated by artificial means, the artist uses the plant world to call attention to the conflict between foreign and native. An understanding of nature should help people gain an understanding of society. In Weinberger’s view, a society’s character is reflected in the manner in which it deals with plants. (Quoted from: https://www.documenta.de/en/works_in_kassel)