HOW TO HOLD THINGS

Artistic research project, video installation, 2025

How do artistic practices relate to places, habitats and ecosystems? How do these practices contribute to the regeneration of damaged environments, how do they involve local actors, how do they (re-)create imaginaries and identities? Combining video documentations of field visits and interviews with the artists as a three-channel video installation, this artistic research project examines different site-specific artistic practices, which are set in damaged environments and which have plants, trees, forests as their main protagonists. While understanding these distinct environments as artistic co-authors, this video work reflects on different concepts of place and belonging.

Exhibited as part of the exhibition “Symbiotic Wood”, 28.06.-21.09.2025, in collaboration with Kunstgewerbemuseum Berlin and the Cluster of Excellence “Matters of Activity” at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin as part of the ＿matter Festival 2025.

Concept and creation: Rahel Kesselring, Başak Günak

Image: Rahel Kesselring