How Like A Leaf I Am by Alexandra Baumgartner at Photoforum Pasquart

The exhibition How Like A Leaf I Am by Alexandra Baumgartner invites visitors to reflect on the deep connections between humans and plants.

Overview

The exhibition focuses on the crucial issue of preserving seeds as a common good amidst the growing loss of agrobiodiversity. By combining photography and interactive elements, the exhibition fosters an emotional connection to the plant world, highlighting the key role of seeds.

Baumgartner explores seeds as cultural heritage—a resource shaped and handed down through generations by both human and non-human influences. Observing, selecting, nurturing, protecting, tasting, sorting, storing, exchanging and reseeding are the driving forces behind the diversity of cultivated plants. Oscillating between intensive research and introspective observation, How Like A Leaf I Am portrays gestures of resistance against the ongoing loss of seed diversity. Baumgartner wanders through the gardens of private seed keepers and visits state and community-run seed banks.

In close collaboration with the collective Seed Carriers, which brings attention to civil society efforts to preserve cultivated diversity and shares the stories of seeds, the exhibition encourages reflection and dialogue on the challenges arising from the interconnected climate and biodiversity crises. Baumgartner’s work offers new perspectives on the relationship between humans and nature, urging us to reconsider our responsibility for the potential within these connections.