This group exhibition, based poetically on a botanical phenomenon, brought together artistic practices that promoted or gave visibility to new possible scenarios for living together in the world. It was the result of the prize for young curators organised jointly by MARCO Vigo, FRAC Lorraine and SFKM Førde, the 7th edition of which was awarded to the project of curator Beatriz Alonso. AC/E supported the participation of the Spanish artists invited to take part in Beatriz Alonso’s exhibition: Lara Almarcegui, Marta Fernández Calvo, Dora García and Alex Reynolds.
The point of departure for this show was crown shyness, a natural phenomenon whereby each tree defines the growth limit of its crown, ensuring a harmony in the forest canopy which enables species to coexist without competition. One of the possible reasons for trees’ awareness of their growth limits is related to their ability to exchange chemical signals, providing them with a system of communication between them which allows light in but hinders the access of elements harmful to their overall survival. As well as questioning some hegemonic interpretations of nature, the poetic observation of this phenomenon establishes a dialogue with our contemporaneity and underlines the urgent need to imagine a system based on synergies instead of on the survival of the fittest.
Tapping into the potential of this metaphor, this exhibition brought together artistic practices that fostered or gave visibility to new scenarios for living together in the world and learning from each other, embracing otherness and difference. The aim was to use art to reconsider the concept of community, contributing to a greater understanding of the common without neglecting conflict, instability or utopia. For this purpose, it proposed a more flexible and distorted approach to nature by promoting more intuitive and poetic methods of research and learning. (AC/E press-release)