Being Nature

Artists: BiglerWeibel, Adela Picón, Caroline Schenk.

Curator: Andrea Domesle, Videocity.

Thanks: Kunsthaus Interlaken. The videos are a selection from the ‘Cantonale Bern Jura’ exhibition at the Kunsthaus Interlaken (7 December 2025 to 25 January 2026).

How can humans be brought back into harmony with nature? Given the destruction of nature by human hands and the increasingly apparent climate crisis, this is no easy question. Contemporary philosophers such as Donna Haraway advocate for a new relationship between humans and their environment. David Adam and James Bridle recognise intelligence in all life forms, including animals, plants, fungi and even machines, and call for their appreciation.

The artists gathered here contribute to these considerations. The duo BiglerWeibel refers to Johanna Spyri's ‘Heidi's Years of Learning and Wandering’ from 1880 and the physical experience of the Swiss Alps. Others attempt to bridge the gap by imitating the behaviour of animals and plants. Or vice versa: plants and animals are combined with architecture. In Adela Picón and Caroline Schenk's work, a snail and fish are the protagonists.

The impression is created of wanting to learn from the nature of the other by slipping into their role. This is an ancient idea: it already appears in Francis of Assisi's sermon to the animals and in Ovid's Metamorphoses, in which the poet describes the transformation of humans into flowers and trees.