Botany, the conceptualization of plants, may be approached in myriad ways, and in scientific terms anchors nature in rationalism. Its sensual, perceptive and eloquent side is thus left to art and contemporary florists, who illuminate areas of mystery, revealing the possibility of new regions open to investigation by an adventurous scientific program.
The Brendel Botanical Model Collection of papier maché plants designed for 19th century German botanical studies is recontextualized next to works by Makoto Azuma (Japan) and Rita Fischer (Uruguay). They articulate a new approach to naturalism, science, teaching, contemporary art, floral arrangements and the theater of memory. This also undermines the disciplinary edifice constraining nature, creating bridges of unsuspected meaning between different languages, spaces and periods of time. Multiple visions of the Earth’s botanical possibilities build an inclusive world prompting dialogue between different logics of thought, fertile ground for the rise of mutually beneficial biosocial co-evolution.
