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[Aquamediale] 11 Spree Forest - Metamorphosen (Metamorphosis)
Curator Petra Schröck 2014 De Herbis Leichhardtii The [Aquamediale] 11 - Metamorphosis is an international Visual Arts Festival in the Spree Forest region south east of Berlin. De Herbis Leichhardtii, an installation of public works specifically developed for Aquamediale consists of large outdoor photographs depicting Australian plant seedlings, which were catalogued and described by Ludwig Leichhardt on his explorations in Australia during the mid 19th Century. Leichhardt was born and grew up in the Spree Forest. The works were installed in six towns and hamlets in and around the Spree Forest and featured: Acacia oshanesii (Silver Wattle) in Zaue, Acacia melanoxylon (Blackwood) in Goyatz, Brachychiton bidwillii (Red Karrajong) in Trebatsch, Allocasuarina torulosa (Forrest She-Oak) in Straupitz, Dichanthium sericeum (Queensland Blue Gras) in Lübben and Eucalyptus miniata (Darwin Woolybutt) in Lübbenau. The installations are part of a larger project that investigates human modes of categorisation and delimitation of nature. The connection through Ludwig Leichhardt becomes an arbitrary categorisation system that nevertheless links Australian and German botany as well as history. In the process the Australian native plants become exotic intruders growing within the traditional German landscape; they stand as a metaphor of the globalised world we live in and which is rooted in the industrial revolution that gathered speed in Leichhardt's life time. |
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