Moss : [division Bryophyta], any of at least 12,000 species of small nonvascular spore-bearing land plants{Encyclopaedia Britannica}
Moss is 450 million years young, the very first land plant and survivor of temperatures between -272ºC and100ºC in dormancy. Omnipresent, often overlooked, spore-spreading root-lessly rhizoiding and hairymicrohabitat-maker. A cooling influence, a stabiliser and regenerator of soils after deforestation and fire.
The ruins of the Schloss Solitude Pleasure Gardens are still present in the landscape today. An excavatedhole marks the theatre, the small lake a watery hangover from the large pond which once hosted thirtygondoliers and their boats shipped from Venice. The Pleasure Gardens were never finished, and for the most part – trees, soils and plants have ‘overgrown’ and stated their claim.
In lands of ruin, so-called ‘nature’ prevails. When all life has seemingly been destroyed, roots are crackling.In dense urban areas, green shoots emerge from fractures in impermeable concrete. This too, is the nature of Mosses. Moss grows in the cracks,
the edges,
the boundaries,
the shade.
This sculpture/monument/artifact/ruin/living community(?) has taken form from the Terrarium. TheTerrarium was weaponised as an instrument of European imperialism, enabling the colonisation of land,people and nature through the extraction and forced migration of key plants.
Advocating the civic role of Moss, the Terrarium holds an impression of the Baden-Wurttemberg ‘state’architecture. The facade is primarily a map, featuring 1000:1 carvings from the pleasure garden plan,100:1 microscopic self portraiture and a 1:1 living community of Moss.
The accompanying sound piece oscillates between frequencies determined by the microclimate of theTerrarium interior, responding sonically to the water flowing through the plants in a livestream.
The installation plays with the measured and rational lens of Western science. Moss is pluralised, a species of intelligence, elegance and so-called ‘dominance’, elevated beyond the crude simplification of measurement and rationality.
– Sound piece produced in collaboration with Eva Dörr and Neil Luck
– Sculpture produced in collaboration with Helmut Dietz
– Voiceover extracts from Gathering Moss by Robin Wall Kimmerer
– Special thanks to Jan Nicola Angermann
Towards Species Citizenship is an artistic collaboration, expanding the scientific definition of species to seeing life in all forms, whilst grounding their work in relation to current political frameworks. Their work is formed through collaboration with the total environment; local experts, fellow artists, scientists, folklore, environmental elements and the non-human community.
