[exhibition design]
Giselle Beiguelman:
Botannica Tirannica
2022
Jewish Museum of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
architecture: Helena Cavalheiro
curatorship: Ilana Feldman
Garden of Resilience, Giselle Beiguelman, 2022
Photo: Julia Thompson
The Botannica Tirannica exhibition originated from Beiguelman's artistic research investigating the relationship between hegemonic science, classical botany, and the historically present colonialist imagination in forms of nature domination.
With the aim of creating a genealogy of prejudice in the fields of art and science, Beiguelman employed an Artificial Intelligence program to cross and combine different species with discriminatory names. The process resulted in various works, including: a series of 18 images composing the work Flora mutandis, five videos structuring the work Flora rebellis, an image called Errante, a film essay (A Genealogy of Prejudice), and a real Garden of Resilience, where plants with derogatory names are cultivated—the artist subverts the common and ambivalent uses of technology, unleashing new poetic fields and new political encounters.
Regarding the exhibition design, the project encompassed both the overall spatial conception of the exhibition and the development of specific furniture for the contents. Concerning the installation Garden of Resilience, which occupied the center of the room, the proposal was to create a spatiality in which the tradition of the natural history museum and the contemporaneity of a technological laboratory could engage in dialogue. To achieve this, an industrial shelving system was used as a base, to which accessories specifically developed for the installation were added. In a circular format, the piece had a striking shape, while simultaneously engaging with the existing heptagonal form of the venue.
technical information
client: Jewish Museum of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
exhibition area: 175 m²
opening: May 2022
curatorship: Ilana Feldman
research: Giselle Beiguelman and Sylvia Beiguelman
architecture: Helena Cavalheiro
graphic design: Maria Cau Levy and Karime A. Zaher [assistant]
production: Mariana Lorenzi [coordination], Carla Ogawa, Patrícia Prado Betti Queiroz and Fernando Gallo
lightning design: Fernanda Carvalho
architecture construction: METRO
artworks installation: Manuseio
framing: Jacarandá Montagens
lighting installation: Santa Luz
audiovisual equipment: MAXI Áudio Luz Imagem
educational programme: Sapoti
photos: Julia Thompson