Hello Nature – How Best to Live with You?
October 3, 2024 – March 2, 2025
Germanisches National Museum
The exhibition “Hello Nature – How Best to Live with You?”, featuring gallery artist Brandon Ballengée, illustrates the complex relationship between humans and nature. It asks what happens when humans see themselves as the center of all life and try to rule over the natural world. The presentation traces the history of this skewed relationship: a tale of exploitation, threatened existence – even extinction – but also the desire for preservation. At the same time, the exhibition raises the question of future possibilities for a better, more balanced coexistence.
This presentation is divided into three large sections that span the period from early records of human sedentism to the present. It shows how interactions between people and their environment have, over time, led to profound changes. The first section highlights the long history of the human appropriation and exploitation of other beings as ‘natural resources.’ The second chapter addresses nature’s capacity to adapt and bounce back and demonstrates how it is impossible for humans to ever fully master nature. The third chapter is dedicated to new approaches and narratives that seek to overcome the opposition between nature and civilization. The show concludes by exploring potential avenues for overcoming the current ecological crisis. It also investigates to what extent learning about the past can help us face the significant challenges of our present age.
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