ORCHIDEA at Bedrohung / Zagrożenie / Menace
ZAK – Centre for Contemporary Art, Berlin | 30 May – 23 August 2026
ORCHIDEA, an interactive immersive installation by Joanna Hoffmann, presented at the international exhibition Bedrohung / Zagrożenie / Menace at the ZAK – Center for Contemporary Art, located within the historic Spandau Citadel. The exhibition brings together artists from Poland and Germany to reflect on the multiple existential threats shaping contemporary society, from environmental crises and political instability to the anxieties and uncertainties of everyday life.
ORCHIDEA is an interactive, immersive audiovisual installation created by Joanna Hoffmann in collaboration with Andre Bartetzki (sound, light, programming) and Norberto Hernandez (programming). The work transforms the delicate life cycle of an orchid into a collective, participatory experience. Through play, interaction, sound, and light, visitors become active participants in the plant’s journey—from seed to flowering and back to seed again.
The installation invites audiences to reflect on the interconnected ecological challenges threatening life on Earth, including soil degradation, climate change, biodiversity loss, and the decline of pollinators. By directly engaging participants in the orchid’s cycle of growth, vulnerability, and regeneration, ORCHIDEA reveals that environmental crises are not distant abstractions but shared conditions that shape our collective future. Learn more about ORCHIDEA
Rather than presenting catastrophe as an inevitable outcome, the work explores the possibility of resilience through cooperation. The orchid’s survival depends on a network of relationships between soil organisms, plants, insects, and humans. In this way, ORCHIDEA becomes both a warning and an invitation: a call to imagine solidarity, care, and interdependence as pathways toward ecological renewal.
The work was realised within the framework of the SPIN-FERT EU project, funded by the European Union’s Horizon Europe Programme under the Mission Soil initiative. Through artistic research and participatory experience, ORCHIDEA contributes to broader conversations about soil health, ecosystem restoration, and the urgent need for new forms of environmental awareness.
Bedrohung / Zagrożenie / Menace is curated by Marta Smolińska and Ralf F. Hartmann and presents works by leading artists and academics from the Magdalena Abakanowicz University of Arts in Poznań alongside invited artists from Berlin. The exhibition examines how contemporary art responds to the persistent sense of threat that characterises our time, while exploring strategies of resilience, reflection, and transformation.
