Eröffnung: Assembling Grounds & Phyto-Travellers

In the organizer's words:

How can we face the numerous crises of our time as a society? And what active role can art play in this? How must our society change on a systemic level so that the earth remains habitable in the long term? How can we break with traditional notions of art in order to strengthen its social impact and forge new alliances between art, science and society?

The exhibition "Fellow Travelers. Art as a tool to change the world" acts as a catalyst for these questions: as a place of possibility, it offers a platform for artistic projects that demonstrate the benefits of art for society in an exemplary manner. Divided into different chapters, "Fellow Travellers" brings together projects of this kind in order to bring them into dialog and facilitate an exchange.

In July 2025, the new exhibition chapter "Assembling Grounds. Practices of Coexistence". This was developed in India and Sri Lanka on the basis of the ZKM traveling exhibition "Critical Zones. In Search of a Common Ground" (2022-24). On its journey, this exhibition brought together diverse places, local communities and ideas from different contexts. Artists who contributed to the exhibition project through local networks have now been invited to respond to the questions posed by Fellow Travelers as part of Assembling Grounds.

"Phyto-Travelers" also marks the opening of an installation by artist Eva-Maria Lopez, which was newly conceived for the ZKM | Kubus Subraum. The work is dedicated to the migration history of so-called neophytes: plants that were introduced and culturally appropriated from other regions of the world in the course of colonial expansion and botanical exploration. The result is an expansive garden that also serves as a living archive, revealing the close interweaving of natural and cultural history.

The opening of the India Summer Days will also take place on the same day as "Assembling Grounds": indiasummerdays.de