Human/machine, nature/cultural space, naturalness/performance – these apparent dichotomies define our everyday experiences in a postmodern, domesticated, and technologized world. What challenges do these contradictions present us with? Can they be resolved? Are there winners and losers, rulers and the ruled? Or can respectful coexistence only be achieved once such binaries are overcome? These are the questions negotiated – sometimes more obviously, sometimes more subtly – by the works of Andy Best, Friedemann Grieshaber, Jana Jedermann, Noemi Pfister, and Charlie Stein in the group exhibition Artificial Natures.

Andy Best’s work Owl on the Ground appears at first glance to be a naturalistic depiction of an owl. However, the origin of this piece lies in a bot programmed by the artist himself, which generated the foundation of the image. The contrast between algorithmic artificiality and traditional, naturalistic aesthetics not only challenges our definition of authenticity but also explores the interplay between technology and creativity. Positioned between the Romantic naturalism of Caspar David Friedrich and the technological present, Best opens new perspectives on the coexistence of nature and machines.

Jana Jedermann also interrogates the complex relationship between humanity and nature in her work Fellvase. Fur, an originally wild and natural material, is culturally redefined through human domestication and transformed into a functional and aesthetic object. Her work evokes the surrealist experiments of artists like Meret Oppenheim, whose iconic “Fur Cup” (1936) blurred the boundaries between natural materials, absurdity, and utility. Jedermann’s Fellvase becomes a powerful symbol of the tension between wilderness and civilization, naturalness, and performance.

In Application (Tess), Charlie Stein critically examines the impact of digitalization on deeply human needs. The work revolves around a virtual bot designed to promote psychological well-being, becoming a striking representation of alienation in an increasingly technologized world. By giving the artificial intelligence a face and body, Stein highlights the gap between digital functionality and the human yearning for closeness and tactility. This exploration recalls the media art of the 1990s, such as the works of Lynn Hershman Leeson, and vividly portrays the paradox of seeking progress through technology while longing for genuine human connection.

Noemi Pfister and Friedemann Grieshaber round out the exhibition with their focus on materiality and form. Pfister’s works explore the interplay of abstraction and biomorphism, drawing comparisons to the organic forms of Hans Arp or Max Ernst, while Grieshaber’s textured and tactile sculptures resonate with the Arte Povera movement’s embrace of natural materials. Both artists delve into the fragility of the human-nature relationship, using materiality as a lens through which to reimagine our interactions with the natural world.

Artificial Natures underscores that the boundaries between nature and culture, human and machine, have long been blurred. The works invite us to challenge conventional binaries and explore new perspectives on coexistence and respect. Drawing from Romantic idealizations of nature, surrealist material experiments, and contemporary digital art practices, the exhibition offers a thought-provoking reflection on our evolving relationship with naturalness, artificiality, and technology.