Terrestrial University: Every Plant has a Story (to tell) | Uriel Orlow, Lili Carr, and Peter Nick in conversation

Critical Zones | Terrestrische Universität


[25.02.2021]


If we want to understand the Critical Zone, we should listen to
its inhabitants – including those who often do not get a chance
to »speak«: plants. What can we learn from them?


The fact that plants, unlike humans, animals, insects or
bacteria, cannot move around does not mean that they just
vegetate. They live, strive, perceive, communicate, and: tell
stories. In this way, plants can also tell us something about our
history, as Uriel Orlow's work shows. His installation »Soil
Affinities« makes visible the links between agriculturally used
plants and colonial history. Here, plants become a compass that
points to historical and contemporary (post-)colonial
relationships. As an architect and member of the Feral Atlas
Collective, Lili Carr is concerned with the non-designed effects
of human-made infrastructures on the natural environment, among
other things, and how alternative models of architecture can
incorporate them. She has also presented the »Feral Atlas«
project at the Driving the Human Festival. As an expert in
molecular cell biology at the KIT Botanical Institute, Prof. Dr.
Peter Nick wants to understand how plants manage to adapt so
masterfully to their environment in order to survive, and what
insights this can give us for a sustainable way of life.