SWITZERLAND

Dedication, 2021. Single-channel video installation, 1 minute 20 seconds.

Dedication is a paean dedicated to the symbiotic relationship between root systems of plants and fungi, evidently an underacknowledged basis of life for us too. They form social, cooperatively functioning systems that communicate with each other underground across kingdoms. Like superorganisms, they exchange nutrients and water, or wam each other of pests, communicating vitality and vulnerability in a communal exchange. This traditional knowledge of networks and interdependencies govering natural systems, now scientifically proven, was forgotten with humanism, the Enlightenment and subsequent industrialisation, when humans began to exploit nature as the "crown of creation". Communal exchange and mutual care inherent in the symbiotic mechanisms of the plant kingdom, could also illuminate alternative models for human societies. Our systems designed for egoism and isolation are metaphorically contrasted with natually existing mutualist modalities. As a part of nature, humanity gains a potential for resistance,adaptation and regeneration.