REMOTELY NATIVE
2018
Site-specific installation for Manifesta 12
Palermo, Italy 2018
Botanical signs, QR codes, satellite maps
Dimensions variable

When strolling through the Cantieri Culturali quarter in Palermo this summer, the botanical signs in fluorescent magenta are sure to catch your eye. Yet, instead of the expected information on the Latin name and origin of the corresponding plant, only a QR code is to be found on the plaques. When scanned with a smartphone, a satellite map unfolds, depicting the plant's region of origin in equally vibrant and intriguingly mismatched colours: the mountains in Myanmar, the rainforest in Guatemala, or parts of northern Africa, all in shades of pink, blue, and magenta.

The signs are part of a site-specific installation titled Remotely Native, realised as part of Manifesta 12 by the German artist Sebastian Acker. He strategically placed the plaques next to plants in the public space which have come to be emblematic of Mediterranean Italy: citrus trees, dwarf palms, yuccas. To create the interactive cartographies, which can be zoomed into and explored like Google Maps, the artist employed a remote sensing technology, blending infrared and UV images to render chlorophyll in plant leaves visible to the human eye. In doing so, he repurposes a technique typically utilised by farmers and scientists to monitor fields and forests, shedding light on the impacts of human infrastructure on vegetation and the manifold connections between human and non-human migration.


Remotely Native was part of ‘EXILE X Summer Camp: May the Bridges I Burn Light the Way’, a Manifesta 12 Collateral Event curated by María Inés Plaza Lazo, in colla-boration with Alina Kolar, Dalia Maini, and Exile Gallery. The exhibition was organised with the support of the Austrian Cultural Forum, Laboratory ABC Moscow, and the Goethe-Institute. The cartographies were rendered using Sentinel-II satellite data, courtesy of the European Union Space Program ‘Copernicus’. The online interface was programmed by Vincent van Uffelen.


May the Bridges I Burn Light the Way on Artviewer.org