XR-Installation, Botanical Garden (UZH) until 11th October 26
Val Mucilaginosa brings together the knowledge of herbal practitioners and scientists, ethnobotanical and biochemical research, sensory media, and artistic speculation to create an immersive experience. Rather than presenting knowledge as a series of conclusions or explanations, the installation frames healing with plants as a relational, situated, and embodied process that is continuously negotiated between different forms of knowledge. At the heart of Val Mucilaginosa is the question of how healing knowledge can emerge when scientific research, traditional plant-based practices, and artistic research are allowed to intersect without one system of knowledge being subordinated to another.
Val Mucilaginosa is a a Mixed Reality installation in which biochemical and relational ways of knowing how plants heal meet in the mucilaginous in-between. A speculative valley where two knowledge systems slip into one another.
EXHIBITION & TOUR
The experience is part of the exhibition “PLANTS AS PLANTS AS MEDICINE – DIVERSITY MEDICINE – DIVERSITY IN SWITZERLAND” on display until 11th October 2026.
Botanical Garden University of Zurich, Zollikerstrasse 107, 8008 Zürich
Guided tour for ZHdK members (students and employees) on 1st October, 18-19:30
Please register, as space is limited: Eventfrog
CREDITS
The art work was created by the artist Isabell Bullerschen together with Chris Elvis Leisi (Experience Design), Florian Baumann (3D Design), Magda Drozd (Composition/Sound Design) and Hannah Mehler (Voice Over/Singing Voice).
Realised with Andreas Wilhelm (Scent), Benjamin Creek (3D Printing), Glas Keller Basel and Neonatelier Bern (Glass works) and Jordis Fellfrau (Art Assistant).
The project was developed in close exchange with herbal practitioners and scientists: Dr. Manuela Dahinden (Plant Science Center), Dr. Maja Dal Cero (University of Zurich), Elsbeth Frei (gardener and herbal practitioner), Prof. Jürg Gertsch (University of Bern), Dr. Andreas Lardos (ZHAW), Dr. med. Maja Oberholzer von Tolnai (herbal practitioner), Eidg. dipl. Apothekerin Nelly Richina (Berg-Apotheke), Dr. med. Dorin Ritzmann (herbal practitioner and researcher) and PD Dr. Caroline Weckerle (University of Zurich).
We were also honoured to work with 3D data provided by the CellarchLab at the Biozentrum, University of Basel. Special thanks go to Prof. Ben Engel, Dr. Ricardo Diogo Righetto, Dr. Annemarie Perez Boerema and Dr. Wojciech Wietrzysnki.
Curators: Martina Huber, We Are AIA; Dr. Manuela Dahinden and PD Dr. Caroline Weckerle, Botanical Garden of the University of Zurich.
Commissioned by We Are AIA for their project “Botanical Memories – On Healing and Care” & the Botanical Garden of the University of Zurich for “Plants as Medicine – Diversity in Switzerland”.
Co-creation: Immersive Art Space, Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK).
Funded by Vontobel Stiftung, Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia, Kanton Zürich Fachstelle Kultur, Stiftung Erna und Curt Burgauer.