The 23rd edition of the Milan Triennale of Decorative Arts and Contemporary Architecture, curated by Ersilia Vaudo Scarpetta with the mysterious slogan "Unknown Unknowns. An Introduction to Mysteries." What unknowns does the Polish pavilion reveal?
The curator of this year's edition is also the diversity director of the European Space Agency. The event's slogan, proposed by Scarpetta, creates a space to seek answers to various questions, including those about the future of our planet.
The curators and creators of the Polish pavilion with a no less intriguing title - "Greenhouse Silent Disco" - gave voice to the debate. - gave the floor to... plants.
"Greenhouse Silent Disco" is the name of the Polish pavilion
photo: Paolo Riolzi
Plants know how to communicate with the outside world. They interact within their communities and between species, but their soundless language we have yet to learn," explain the authors of the exhibition's architecture, Dominika Wilczynska and Barbara Nawrocka of miastopracownia. - The Polish pavilion at the 23rd Milan Triennale is a synthesizer of plant speech. Curators from the Museum of Architecture in Wroclaw based their concept on scientific research on reading information from plants emitted during the process of photosynthesis, the architects add.
To create a space for this unusual communication, the architects designed a reinterpretation of the greenhouse - a visually light, modular, openwork form made of wood, to which they attached two hundred clay pots filled with plants.
openwork pavilion
© Miastopracownia
The installation acts as an interface that allows us to listen to the needs of plants and recognize them as living beings with the right to develop in optimal conditions, just like humans, explains the concept Michal Duda, co-curator of the pavilion and director of the Museum of Architecture in Wroclaw.
The structure is built of wood
photo: Paolo Riolzi
What can we learn by listening to the plants? As the designers explain, the pavilion's protagonists inform us about their optimal conditions - their reactions to external factors are translated into the colors of LED lights and, through computer systems, into sounds. The design of the pavilion, in turn, allows viewers to closely observe the various phases of plant development and the changes that occur in them due to seasons or human presence.
After the exhibition, the plants will return to their natural environment
photo: Paolo Riolzi
We are accustomed to treating plants as either raw material or decoration. The exhibition aims to empower plant beings, to look at reality and their perspective," explains the idea behind the pavilion, curator Margaret Devosges-Cuber.
This project is not about subjugating nature, hooking plants up to complicated apparatus and breaking into their mysterious world. The installation has been designed with concern for their well-being and safety, and the plants will return to their natural habitat after the exhibition. It is, as the architects emphasize, a mirage of nature, science and technology.
You can read an interview with the designers of the pavilion here.
