In Steingarten the artist exposes his process of approaching the Tiergarten of Berlin from where he extracts and introduces in the gallery stones with moss and lichens. Lichens are the oldest known symbiosis and act as memory receptors that are very sensitive to environmental pollution. In the exhibition space they were presented in a humid terrarium equipped with contact microphones capable of capturing the internal sounds of the whole system. The project aims to make perceptible the ecosystemic connection of things through sound.
Field Recordings that the site http://www.radioaporee.com presents from the Tiergarten (and the rest of the world) were presented through audio transducers on the gallery windows. Thus recreating the acoustic atmosphere of the Tiergarten for the stones and lichens.
The idea is to generate a laboratory for research. The artist took notes on historical, ecological and linguistic aspects throughout the period stipulated for the project and attached those to the exhibition room, changing the arrangement of the elements in the space from time to time.
At the end of the exhibition, the stones were returned to their place of origin.
Listen here:
On February 25, 1789, Alexander von Humboldt walked through the Tiergarten in search of lichens and mosses. He described this experience in a letter to his friend Wilhelm Gabriel Wegener. In reference to this and as part of the exhibition, Mario Asef and the biologist Dr. Volker Otte (Senckenberg Museum für Naturkunde Görlitz) realized an exploration tour through the zoo with a focus on lichens on February 25, 2022.
Mario Asef 