4A Lab Academy
Ecological Entanglements across Collections – Plant Lives and Beyond
From 4–8 November 2024 the 4A_Lab Academy “Ecological Entanglements across Collections – Plant Lives and Beyond” invited researchers, museum experts and an interested audience to discuss current ways of thinking about vegetable life in art in dialogue with the collections of the Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz (SPK). Many of the panels, lectures, workshops, collection visits, and performances have been filmed and photographed. This summary makes available a selection of the documentation materials that speakers, participants, and guests agreed to share publicly. We are grateful to all who joined us on this exploration on the role of plants in artistic and aesthetic practices. With great gratitude to all speakers, participants and supporters of the academy, the 4A_Lab looks forward to continue a critical conversation on the entanglement of art and ecology in the future.
Videos
Reports
Foivos Geralis, KHI Travel Grantee (Princeton University), reflects on his participation in the 4A_Lab Academy in Berlin last November. As an architectural historian studying ecologies of displacement, migration, and acclimatization across human, more-than-human, and art-object networks, he traces the interwoven visual, ecological, and political dimensions of plant-human relations that structured the Academy’s discussions around a constellation of thematic clusters. Read more.
Images
For 5 days, at 7 locations, and in 8 formats—experts and a general public collectively explored the role of plant life in art in dialogue with museum collections in Berlin. Read a short summary about the Academy together with a photo gallery here.
4A_Lab Academy „Ecological Entanglements across Collections – Plant Lives and Beyond”, Forschungscampus Dahlem. Foto: 4A_Lab Team
Introduction to the Academy by Barbara Göbel (SPK) and Hannah Baader (Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz, MPI), Forschungscampus Dahlem. Photo: 4A_Lab Team
Lecture by Thiago Lopes da Costa Oliveira (Research Fellow Ethnologisches Museum, SPK, Berlin), Forschungscampus Dahlem. Photo: Johanna Weilert
Example materials and objects, Paleobotany Collection, Museum für Naturkunde. Photo: 4A_Lab Team
Lecture by Giovanni Aloi (School of the Art Institute of Chicago), Forschungscampus Dahlem. Photo: 4A_Lab Team
Lecture by Monica Gagliano (Southern Cross University, Lismore), Forschungscampus Dahlem. Foto: Johanna Weilert
Manuscript Workshop, Department of Oriental manuscripts and prints, Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin. Photo: 4A_Lab Team
Lecture by Lea Viehweger (4A_Lab), Kunstgewerbemuseum. Photo: 4A_Lab Team
Audience in conversation over coffee. Foto: Johanna Weilert
Site visit with Ludwig Luthardt (Scientific Head of Paleobotany Collection), Museum für Naturkunde. Photo: 4A_Lab Team
Example materials and objects, Paleobotany Collection, Museum für Naturkunde. Photo: 4A_Lab Team
Performance by artists and researchers Kate Donovan (Berlin) and Ella Finer (London), Forschungscampus Dahlem. Photo: Johanna Weilert
Performance by artists and researchers Kate Donovan (Berlin) and Ella Finer (London), Forschungscampus Dahlem. Photo: Johanna Weilert
Lecture by Etienne Benson (Max PIanck Institute for the History of Science, Berlin), Forschungscampus Dahlem. Photo: Johanna Weilert
Response by Monica Juneja (Heidelberg University), Museum für Fotografie, Kunstbibliothek. Photo: 4A_Lab Team
Manuscript, Orientabteilung Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin. Photo: 4A_Lab Team
Mahroo Moosavi (4A_Lab) and Sussan Babaie (The Courtauld Institute of Art, London) at Manuscript Workshop, Department of Oriental manuscripts and prints, Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin. Photo: 4A_Lab Team
Lecture by Mahroo Moosavi (4A_Lab), Ibero-Amerikanisches Institut. Photo: 4A_Lab Team
Discussion between Sussan Babaie (The Courtauld Institute of Art, London) and Christoph Rauch (Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin), Ibero-Amerikanisches Institut. Photo: 4A_Lab Team
Lecture by Ulrike G. K. Wegst (Northeastern University, Boston), Kunstgewerbemuseum. Photo: 4A_Lab Team
Audience members in discussion, Forschungscampus Dahlem. Photo: Johanna Weilert
Materials for the collection workshop, Musikinstrumenten-Museum, Staatliches Institut für Musikforschung. Photo: Johanna Weilert
Collection workshop, Musikinstrumenten-Museum, Staatliches Institut für Musikforschung. photo: Johanna Weilert
Harpist Margret Koell, Gemäldegalerie. Photo: Johanna Weilert
Harpist Margret Koell, Gemäldegalerie. Photo: Johanna Weilert
Musikinstrumenten-Museum, Staatliches Institut für Musikforschung. Photo: Johanna Weilert
Coffee break, Musikinstrumenten-Museum, Staatliches Institut für Musikforschung. Photo: Johanna Weilert
Photo: 4A_Lab Team
Collection visit with Lea Viehweger (4A_Lab), Gemäldegalerie. Photo: Johanna Weilert
Collection visit, Gemäldegalerie. Photo: Johanna Weilert
Audience members in discussion, Forschungscampus Dahlem. Photo: Johanna Weilert
Discussion panel, Hamburger Bahnhof – Nationalgalerie der Gegenwart. Photo: 4A_Lab Team
Collection workshop, Museum für Fotografie, Kunstbibliothek. Photo: 4A_Lab Team
Collection workshop, Museum für Fotografie, Kunstbibliothek. Photo: 4A_Lab Team
Paleobotany Collection, Museum für Naturkunde. Photo: 4A_Lab Team
Panel discussion with Monica Juneja (Heidelberg University), Franziska Nori (Frankfurter Kunstverein), Alexis von Poser (Ethnologisches Museum und Museum für Asiatische Kunst, Berlin), and Kärin Nickelsen (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München/Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin), chaired by Hannah Baader (Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz, MPI), Museum für Fotografie, Kunstbibliothek. Photo: 4A_Lab Team
Audience members in discussion, Museum für Fotografie, Kunstbibliothek. Photo: 4A_Lab Team
Lecture by Peter J. Schneemann (Universität Bern), moderation by Linn Burchert (Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte, München), Forschungscampus Dahlem. Photo: 4A_Lab Team
Lecture by Feng Schöneweiß (4A_Lab), Ibero-Amerikanisches Institut. Photo: 4A_Lab Team
Notice
This event will be documented photographically and/or recorded on video. Please let us know if you do not agree with the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz using images in which you might be recognizable for event documentation and public relation purposes (e.g. social media).