During the fall of 2021 and spring of 2022, Magasin III Museum for Contemporary Art will host a series of lectures, discussions, and workshops focusing on the creation by Lundahl & Seitl and Untold Garden of Garden of Ghost Flowers – a changing, living artwork.

The background to the talks is Magasin III’s engagement in following, supporting, and emphasizing artistic processes – a focal point that the institution will explore further in different kinds of collaborations and projects, starting with the series of programs within Work in progress: Garden of Ghost Flowers.

With this particular collaboration, the artists expressed a need to come in contact with specialists within fields concerning sociology, philosophy, neurology, mathematics, and evolutionary biology, among others. During the series, experts are invited to give lectures on subjects related to the project, as well as have conversations with the artists. A reference group of specialists within the artists’ fields of interest are invited to take part in the seminars on-site. During this process, the public will also be invited to participate in certain programs and workshops.

About Garden of Ghost Flowers

that which is not me, but of which I am a part

Garden of Ghost Flowers is an artificial life form that grows from the resonance of its human visitors.

This changing and evolving artwork is inspired in part by the sociological concept of Resonance*, a mode of interacting with the world that is not based in control, and by the endangered non-photosynthesizing plant Monotropa Uniflora, also known as the Ghost Flower. 

The virtual ghost flower is dependent upon networks of human qualities, such as listening, caring, and adapting, as a source of energy. Like a desert, a mountain, or a forest, each group of visitors provides its own unique biotope from which the flower grows. Each life cycle of the flower lasts for 20 minutes and can accommodate up to 25 people.

When they immerse themselves in the ghost flower, the senses of the visitors are gradually exchanged. Their voices distort and mutate, crystalize and become visible cellular material, building blocks forming tangible extensions between them. At first, the growths are fragile and tender, but as soon as it gains strength from the collective resonance, it is growing and thriving, subsuming the group until it blurs the boundaries of its constituents. Where do the human end and the flower begin?

Inside the garden, your voice becomes an instrument that the flower lives off. As a preparation, we invite you to the challenge of not using your voice for one hour before entering.

*A concept frequently used by Hartmund Rosa

– Lundahl & Seitl and Untold Gardens

Introduction to the artwork under process: Lundahl & Seitl and Untold Garden studio
With a lecture by Peter Godfrey-Smith
Closing with a Q&A and discussion

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Introduction to the artwork under process: Lundahl & Seitl and Untold Garden studio
Workshop with technical equipment developed for Garden of Ghost Flowers
Closing discussion

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About Lundahl & Seitl and Untold Garden

Lundahl & Seitl, formed in 2003. The immersive art of Lundahl & Seitl is a continuous research into the question of how we perceive reality and negotiate its various forms. It is a worldbuilding, anti-disciplinary practice that through choreography, virtual reality, and architecture radically repurposes our understanding of technology.

Their works and projects have been exhibited in museums and institutions such as the Gropius-Bau / Berliner Festspiele (DE), Tate Britain (UK), Royal Academy of Art (UK), 66th Avignon Festival (FR), Centre Pompidou-Metz (FR), 8th Momentum Biennale (NO), and the Kochi Muziris Biennale (IN). The duo is recipient of a number of awards including the STRP ACT Award 2021, Birgit Cullberg Scholarship, Montblanc Young Directors Award, the Edstrand Foundation Scholarship, and Sven Harry’s Art Prize. They have been Iaspis studio grant holders (1 October 2016 – 31 March 2017). In 2020, they were shortlisted for the Lumen Prize.

Untold Garden is an experiential art studio that explores and builds tools for participatory design and art installations, virtual sculptures, interactive performances, artificial ecologies, and organic social networks. They are based in London and Stockholm and work across the globe.

Credits:

Untold Garden: Max Čelar, Jakob Skote, Dev Kamlaker

Rachel Alexander (dramaturge) Hara Alonso (composer & sound artist), Emma Ward (studio manager), Reuben Carter (technical consultant), Maria Lindqvist and Johanna Mårtensson (biosphere fabric-structure)

Garden of Ghostflowers is an STRP ACT AWARD 2022 commission

Co-production by STRP (NL) Manchester International Festival (UK) Magasin III (SE) Screen City Biennale (NO)

Lundahl & Seitl is supported by:

Kulturbryggan – Swedish Art Grants Committee l Swedish Arts Council l City of Stockholm