Writing Contact
Technobotanika → Curatorial collaboration with Agnieszka Wach on a solo exhibition at the Museum of the Earth in Warsaw.
2026
The project focused on developing the curatorial framework of the exhibition and producing an accompanying text contextualising the artist’s practice for the solo show Technobotanika.
What connects heavy metals, the subtle bodies of plants, and post-industrial landscapes? How does the circulation of matter become an element of artistic research practice? What can we learn from other species, and how might this knowledge be applied to technological development?
Technobotanika tells the story of the more-than-human capacities of metallophytes - plants capable of neutralizing and accumulating metals that have evolved in environments degraded by human industrial activity. The transformation of plant anatomical structures into autonomous, futuristic forms becomes a starting point for artistic interpretation and speculation on the potential of interspecies knowledge exchange, as well as new configurations of relationships between organisms, environment, and technology.
What connects heavy metals, the subtle bodies of plants, and post-industrial landscapes? How does the circulation of matter become an element of artistic research practice? What can we learn from other species, and how might this knowledge be applied to technological development?
Technobotanika tells the story of the more-than-human capacities of metallophytes - plants capable of neutralizing and accumulating metals that have evolved in environments degraded by human industrial activity. The transformation of plant anatomical structures into autonomous, futuristic forms becomes a starting point for artistic interpretation and speculation on the potential of interspecies knowledge exchange, as well as new configurations of relationships between organisms, environment, and technology.
Technobotanika | Agnieszka Wach
March 6 – April 1, 2026
Brown billows of smoke. The overwhelming masses of smelters. Swift streams colored nothing like clear mountain springwater. Soils saturated with heavy metals. Plants covered with a tar-like quilt of soot, blocking access to oxygen in air already far too dense. The golden age of the consequences of the Industrial Revolution.
The multiplying ruderal landscapes provoke the question of the moment when the utopian vision of progress transformed into a dystopian reality. In such scenery it is easier to imagine the plot of an apocalyptic film than a story about ecosystem regeneration.
Yet these are places where life unfolds. It is here that metallophytes have made their home - plants capable of growing in soils contaminated with heavy metals. They are the protagonists of Technobotany. Not only can they survive in hostile conditions, but they also gradually neutralize and accumulate toxic elements, initiating processes that regenerate the substrate. Their presence changes the way we might think about ruderal terrains: not as spaces irretrievably lost, but as areas of ecological transformation.
Technobotanika emerges as one of several research threads Agnieszka has been developing in parallel, focusing on the circulation of matter and the environmental potential of ruderal landscapes. An important backdrop is the experience of Silesia as a region shaped by heavy industry, as well as the exhibition’s proximity to the Paleobotanical Studio of the Polish Academy of Sciences, associated with Professor Hanna Czeczott, a pioneer of Polish paleobotany whose work paved the way for the next generation of women researchers.
The artist’s interdisciplinary approach allows the anatomy and physiology of metallophytes to be viewed in multiple dimensions - not only as objects of biological research, but also as sources of form and narrative. The anatomical structures and vascular systems of plants are transformed into autonomous, futuristic drawing and sculptural forms. They become distinct characters within the artist’s own narrative. They come alive in contrast to the eclectic interior of the Pniewski Villa, where the presentation takes place.
The narrative develops further in animations created in collaboration with artificial intelligence, serving as a point of departure for speculation about the possible future applications of metallophytes—not only in post-industrial landscapes, but also in geopolitically sensitive areas connected with advanced technologies and the military industry.
In Technobotanika, it is the story itself that becomes the primary medium of artistic practice. The narrative, intricately woven from contrasts, opens a space for reflection on interspecies exchanges of knowledge and on new configurations of relationships between organisms, environments, and technology.
March 6 – April 1, 2026
Brown billows of smoke. The overwhelming masses of smelters. Swift streams colored nothing like clear mountain springwater. Soils saturated with heavy metals. Plants covered with a tar-like quilt of soot, blocking access to oxygen in air already far too dense. The golden age of the consequences of the Industrial Revolution.
The multiplying ruderal landscapes provoke the question of the moment when the utopian vision of progress transformed into a dystopian reality. In such scenery it is easier to imagine the plot of an apocalyptic film than a story about ecosystem regeneration.
Yet these are places where life unfolds. It is here that metallophytes have made their home - plants capable of growing in soils contaminated with heavy metals. They are the protagonists of Technobotany. Not only can they survive in hostile conditions, but they also gradually neutralize and accumulate toxic elements, initiating processes that regenerate the substrate. Their presence changes the way we might think about ruderal terrains: not as spaces irretrievably lost, but as areas of ecological transformation.
Technobotanika emerges as one of several research threads Agnieszka has been developing in parallel, focusing on the circulation of matter and the environmental potential of ruderal landscapes. An important backdrop is the experience of Silesia as a region shaped by heavy industry, as well as the exhibition’s proximity to the Paleobotanical Studio of the Polish Academy of Sciences, associated with Professor Hanna Czeczott, a pioneer of Polish paleobotany whose work paved the way for the next generation of women researchers.
The artist’s interdisciplinary approach allows the anatomy and physiology of metallophytes to be viewed in multiple dimensions - not only as objects of biological research, but also as sources of form and narrative. The anatomical structures and vascular systems of plants are transformed into autonomous, futuristic drawing and sculptural forms. They become distinct characters within the artist’s own narrative. They come alive in contrast to the eclectic interior of the Pniewski Villa, where the presentation takes place.
The narrative develops further in animations created in collaboration with artificial intelligence, serving as a point of departure for speculation about the possible future applications of metallophytes—not only in post-industrial landscapes, but also in geopolitically sensitive areas connected with advanced technologies and the military industry.
In Technobotanika, it is the story itself that becomes the primary medium of artistic practice. The narrative, intricately woven from contrasts, opens a space for reflection on interspecies exchanges of knowledge and on new configurations of relationships between organisms, environments, and technology.