Ecomorphism, Towards a Culture of the Living. View from the Trees at the Museum, Symbolic "Perches"

Abstract

Abstract

     From the point of view of trees—a symbolic observation post—artists open breaches between plant, animal and human worlds, engaging with processes of acculturation. Ecomorphism—from oikos as habitat and morphé as form—is the result of a species’ adaptation to its environment. At the edge of worlds, the museum is not a closed place; it is a “perch”, an essential observatory for viewing social evolution. As a contemporary avatar of the human urban world, the museum cultivates symbolic forests to disorient the visitor and create links between worlds. Beyond a nature in crisis, a double ecopoetic of artistic and literary works emerges in the museum. Perched on a tree, levitating in the middle of a forest, or like a giant spruce laying horizontally, artists forge singular points of view and symbiotic bonds with living organisms that exemplify movement through and across worlds. Applied to the recurrence of artistic works, scenographies and exhibition narratives, ecomorphism is this process of adaptation that pushes our perceptions and ecological consciousness towards a culture of the living. Let us follow the path of ecomorphism that leads through a silent (r)evolution or artistic invasion of wild nature forms, like so many possibly transformative encounters with the living world.