Nomadic Studio

In response to the shortage of available production space for local artists, the authors used the scrap wood from tree of heaven to transform the exhibition space in the museum’s attic into a temporary working studio. The studio then served as a haven and a means for the production and exchange of knowledge. The beehives standing in the museum park thus came to be joined by a new Symbiocene project. The working studio became a venue for weekly meetings, lectures, workshops and presentations of beekeeping practices in which Museum of Architecture and Design visitors were able to learn, in both theory and practice, about contemporary environmental challenges and opportprojecties introduced by invasive plants. By mobilizing the institution’s resources, a temporary learning platform was created that helped raise awareness about the role of flora and fauna in shaping sustainable living environments.

The exhibition, or rather its design and installation, was made possible through working cooperation with a number of young designers and craftsmen. The working studio was fitted with furniture elements made from the biomass of invasive plants and showed the process of transforming the biomass into final products. At the end of the exhibition, the furniture pieces were sold at an auction that the authors used as a crowdfunding platform to raise startup funds for the development and continuation of the project.

Thus activated, the space acted as a supportive environment for the authors to develop the project, raise project funds, organize talks and guided tours and ultimately, to care for plants and beehives in the museum park; it also gave us the opportprojecty to implement commprojecty-based economies within a local cultural institution.