Pollinator Pathmaker: Growing empathy for insects

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. But who says it has to be human observers? Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg’s art project “Pollinator Pathmaker” is intended for the senses of bees, butterflies and other plant-pollinating insects.

Ginsberg and her team have transformed the forecourt of Berlin’s Museum für Naturkunde into a blossoming garden. Where once sparse lawns criss-crossed by footpaths lined the noisy Invalidenstrasse, bumblebees now stagger leisurely from flower to flower. Around 7,000 plants of 80 different species grow here on 722 square meters. Ornamental sage is among them, as is the brook carnation with its delicate, drooping rust-red and dusky pink flowers or the bright blue common chicory, which attracts a whole range of other insects in addition to short- and long-headed bumblebees.

The project is the first in this series on German soil. The cooperation partner is the LAS Art Foundation Berlin, a non-profit art institution and platform for art, science and new technologies. The British artist has previously created gardens in Cornwall (Eden Project) and for the Serpentine Galleries in London.

Even if the Pollinator Pathmaker art project is not aimed at people, they will also get their money’s worth aesthetically. The garden will exist for three years, constantly changing its appearance over the course of the seasons.

The project is not limited to the Natural History Museum. All Berliners are invited to create their own gardens for pollinator insects. The pollinator.art website supports interested parties with free planting plans. Together with LAS and a team of experts led by the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin, Ginsberg has compiled a list of 150 continental European plants that can withstand hot summers and frosty winters.

An algorithm-based tool designs floral landscapes measuring a maximum of fifteen by fifteen meters and tailors them to the needs of insects. In line with the key question: “If pollinator insects designed gardens, what would humans see?”. Beauty from an insect’s point of view – an inspiringly different perspective.

With their compound eyes, insects do not register the same areas of the color spectrum as humans. Some insect species recognize markings on petals that are invisible to the human eye and attract them to the inside of the flower. Many plant species address this invitation to nectar and pollination to very specific insect species. The result of a long co-evolution, which Ginsberg, who is an architect and designer by trade, is enthusiastic about. “Pollinator Pathmaker is about empathy for other species,” says Ginsberg, explaining her post-anthropocentric approach. With her project, the artist wants to change our awareness of how we see gardens and for whom we create them.

Incidentally, this is also urgently needed: In Germany, the population of flying insects has shrunk by 75 percent in the last 30 years. This makes it all the more important to protect the at least 3,000 remaining species, 565 of which are native bee species and 433 different species of hoverflies. In addition, there are an unknown number of flies, mosquitoes, butterflies, wasps and beetles that play a key role in ensuring that the plants in our gardens and landscapes grow and thrive.

All users have to do on pollinator.art is enter information about the location, size, consistency and pH value of the soil, light conditions, etc. The planting plans that are then generated are optimized to promote the greatest possible diversity of pollinator species. By playing with the algorithm, both budding and experienced gardeners can try out different ways of designing the respective plot. And it can decide: Does its empathy apply equally to all insects or does it have a particular soft spot for beetles or lemon butterflies, for example?

Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg firmly believes that “by planting art instead of just looking at it, we build a caring relationship with it. (…) So we don’t just put nature there, we perceive it as art itself.” The British artist is thinking big: “By joining forces, Pollinator Pathmaker can grow into the largest climate-positive work of art in the world.”

Bettina Kames, Director of LAS, sees the participatory Pollinator Pathmaker project as a social sculpture. It is a radical innovation, as it changes the understanding of what an artwork is and who it is aimed at: “Pollinator Pathmaker contributes in a special way to the much-needed debates on climate change, the environmental crisis, the underlying anthropocentrism and the health of our planet – and gives us a simple tool on how we can contribute.”

Just in time for the exhibition opening, Ginsberg received the news that she had been awarded the S+T+ARTS Prize 2023 – “Grand Prize of the European Commission, honoring Innovation in Technology, Industry and Society stimulated by the Arts 2023”. S+T+ARTS (Science, Technology and the Arts) is an initiative funded by the European Commission since 2016 that focuses on projects that seek to address the social, environmental and economic challenges that Europe is facing or will face in the near future.

On the subject of plants: The “Parliament of Plants II” exhibition opens at Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein from 05.05. to 22.10. Read here why it is worth a visit.