In the summer of 2017, arrangements of tropical plants and sculptural works grow in the city center. Under the title “no such things grow here”, Munich artist Susi Gelb invites visitors to Odeonsplatz, Max-Joseph-Platz and Lenbachplatz on a visual expedition through unknown and forgotten secrets of the natural and animal world. The artist creates a living environment that has a life of its own: The focus is on smart materials that can independently change their properties and adapt to different environmental conditions.
An oversized LED-screen shines above Max-Joseph-Platz, a tropical palm tree grows directly out of the cobblestones on Odeonsplatz and set pieces of a banana plantation are found on Lenbachplatz. A film especially developed for the project is at the heart of the intervention in public space. The video is like a window, opening up a hyper-view. Time becomes space. Flowing and mysterious, a yellow snake shows almost unreal scenes – no such things – of a stimulating research trip.
The artist deals with research, science and art as well as nature as a medium and questions the existing classifications of natural and artificial.
A supporting program during the period deepens individual artistic and scientific content.
Susi Gelb, born in 1985 in Bad Tölz, lives and works in Berlin and Munich.
