Garden as exhibition site

25.07.2025

Publiek Park in the Botanic Garden Meisein, Belgium

In the summer of 2025 (27.06-28.09.2025), Publiek Park returns with the third edition of the nomadic contemporary art project, exploring urban parks and gardens as exhibition sites. This iteration invites visitors to travel through both time and space, as it evolves in two chapters – moving from Plantentuin Meise to Jardin Botanique de Bruxelles, from the current to the original site of the botanic garden, bringing together works by eleven international and local artists.

The trail of eleven artistic interventions in Plantentuin Meise guides visitors through a spectrum of narratives: from gardens as architectural-administrative complexes that classify and contain nature, to reflections on plants as commodities within global trade networks. Along the way, it invites encounters with species’ co-evolution, imagined hybrid beings, and flora whose histories intertwine with personal stories of migration and colonialism. These works extend into imaginative narratives – drawing from medicinal, technological, and scientific knowledge, indigenous traditions, linguistic lapses, intimate memories and science fictions.

With site-sensitivity as a guiding ethos, Publiek Park invites artists to engage with the specific textures of the public green spaces – their shifting ecologies, architectural traces, and layered histories. The project unfolds as a walking route through the residues of history into futures not yet mapped, from botanical research to reflections on contemporary life.While following the story of green spaces marked by a scientific institution, the artistic approaches lean into speculative modes of thinking, challenging the scientific imaginary that dominates the exhibition site. What the artists offer are off-routes and detours: departures from the ontological pathways laid out by the botanical garden.

The exhibition is curated by Jef Declercq, Anna Laganovska, Koi Persyn and Adriënne van der Werf, assisted by Lana Jones, Alise Pētersone and Jean Watt.

Participating artists: Bianca Baldi, Gabi Dao, Elise El Yousfi, Judith Kakon, Roy Köhnke, Myrthe van der Mark, Office for Joint Administrative Intelligence, Josse Pyl, Isa Schieche & Helen Weber, Jura Shust, Līga Spunde

Curators: Jef Declercq, Anna Laganovska, Koi Persyn, Adriënne van der Werf

Publiek Park 2025, Office for Joint Administrative Intelligence, O.J.A.I. Echo, 2025, sound installation, modular sounds, spoken words. Photos: Michiel De Cleene

Publiek Park 2025, Office for Joint Administrative Intelligence, O.J.A.I. Echo, 2025, sound installation, modular sounds, spoken words

Publiek Park 2025, Roy Köhnke, Escap' in(g)to You, Trap series, 2024, Stainless Steel

Publiek Park 2025, Roy Köhnke, Extreme softness, Magnetic Tendencies series, animation 3D, video

Publiek Park 2025, Roy Kö hnke, Evolv' in(g)to You, Trap series, 2024, Stainless Steel

Publiek Park 2025, Līga Spunde, Eden is exhausted too, 2025, Digital drawing, banner

Publiek Park 2025, Līga Spunde, Eden is exhausted too, 2025, installation

Publiek Park 2025, Judith Kakon, Iris series, 2024/2025, Glazed 3D printed ceramic

Publiek Park 2025, Bianca Baldi, Hear her calendar system a year of thirteen months, 2025, Sound installation

Publiek Park 2025, Gabi Dao, Sweet Blood in Stagnant Waters, 2025, Video

Publiek Park 2025, Josse Pyl, Ohhh…SPIT SMACK CHEW REPEAT!, 2025, Glazed porcelain

Publiek Park 2025, Elise El Yousfi, Wind Regards, Blind Regards, 2024/2025, Steel, glazed ceramic, ash, baby powder, steel beads sourced in Morocco

Publiek Park 2025, Myrthe van der Mark, Sein Vater ist die Sonne, und seine Mutter ist der Mond. Der Wind trug es in seinem Bauche, und seine Amme ist die Erde, 2025, Sculpture, Series of 4 St. John’s Wort preparations (salve, soap, infusion, and watercolour), Vase in glass by Serax found at Rotor Deconstruction, H 70 cm / Ø 20 cm

Publiek Park 2025, Jura Shust, Leaving an Annual Growth at the Top: Succession, 2024, Spruce trunk, resin, stainless steel

Publiek Park 2025, Jura Shust, Neophyte III: On the Eve of the Shortest Night, 2023, Ultra HD Video

Publiek Park 2025, Jura Shust, Two or Three Girths Wide, 2024, Spruce wood, resin, stainless steel

Publiek Park 2025, Isa Schieche & Helen Weber, Gay by Nature, 2025, Film installation, objects made out of spruce, nutwood, ash, hazelnut, poplar and linen

Publiek Park 2025, Office for Joint Administrative Intelligence, O.J.A.I. Echo, 2025, sound installation, architectural plan

Title image: Publiek Park 2025, Līga Spunde, Eden is exhausted too, 2025. Photo: Michiel De Cleene