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Alter Nature: We Can

From carrots and bonsai trees to acoustic plants and orange pheasants, Z33 Museum focuses on the different ways in which people have displaced, manipulated or designed nature

In "Alter Nature: We Can", the Z33 Centre looks at the sub-aspect of fauna and flora in nature. Through the works of some twenty international artists we explore how humankind manipulates nature and how the concept of "nature" constantly changes as a result of this.

The works are not about using nature to meet basic needs (such as health, food, protection, etc.). Interesting projects in this context are legion, but grouped together they almost inevitably lead to simplified contradictions. On the one hand, one has projects that look "positively" upon transforming nature: they find out what technology can do or they show solutions. These projects are often criticised because they seem to subscribe seamlessly to the scientific belief in progress. On the other hand, some projects show the negative side; they look at interventions in nature that have gone wrong. These projects are criticised to bathe autonomous art corner's wagging finger. They criticise but do not offer any solutions.

Driessens & Verstappen, Morphotheque #9 & TreeBalance (1997-2001). Opening photo Hans Op de Beeck, SecretGarden(2003-8), a silent and poetic, but also rather absurd representation of a city garden.

"Alter Nature: We Can" wants to go beyond this simplified pro-contra positioning. The works on display are therefore devoid of strict utilitarianism and the emphasis is on the historic context of intervention, the multiplicity of manipulations and our fluctuating understanding of the concept of nature.

Center for Postnatural History, Specimen collection 29. Courtesy The Center for PostNatural History

"Alter Nature: We Can" is part of "Alter Nature", an overarching project by Z33, the Hasselt Fashion Museum and CIAP in collaboration with the MAD faculty, the University of Hasselt, the Flemish Institute for Biotechnology (VIB), KULeuven University and bioSCENTer.

Alter Nature: We Can
to 13.03.2011
Z33, Hasselt

BCL (Georg Tremmel & Shiho Fukuhara), Common Flowers - Flower Commons 2009-13. The Common Flowers project is based on and uses the first commercially available genetically altered flower, the carnation. Courtesy BCL, with the support of the Austrian Cultural Forum, Brussels

Allison Kudla, Growth Pattern(2009). Growth Pattern consists of a 2,5 x 2,5m grid in which 64 Petri dishes contain tobacco plant leaves cut in specific shapes. The work takes on the form of a pattern and shows a direct link with design and the history of nature as a motif and interior design element.

David Benqué, Acoustic Botany, 2010. Acoustic Botany presents a garden for listening. Benqué suggests a combination of plant manipulations: from grafting and selective breeding methods to genetic manipulation and synthetic biology, to make flowers and plants produce sounds.

Makoto Azuma, Frozen Pine & Shik, 2010. In Frozen Pine, a Z33 commission, a bonsai pine tree is ‘freeze-sprayed’ and presented in an especially designed refrigerator. The icicles slowly extract the colour from the bonsai tree – the bonsai dies, but its beauty is preserved in optimum conditions.

Tue Greenfort, Wardian Case (Alustar-Sonatural), 2007-2011. This installation consists of a blown up “Wardian Case”, in which orchids are presented. Courtesy Johann König, Berlin

James King, Cellularity, 2010. With this project, James King asks the question of life and death, which he approaches, rather than black and white categories, as a scale; an artificial chemical cell could be for instance 20% or 70% alive according to the functions it can fulfil.

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Alter Nature: We Can

From carrots and bonsai trees to acoustic plants and orange pheasants, Z33 Museum focuses on the different ways in which people have displaced, manipulated or designed nature

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