Laurent Mignonneau & Christa Sommerer - Flower Power, A Cultural History of Plants, Krems, Austria

05/24/2025

24.05.2025-15.02.2026

Why is the Virgin Mary often depicted with a lily? Why does Eve pick an apple? And why was a tulip the cause of the first stock market crash in the seventeenth century? Works from the Gothic period to the present shed light on the symbolic meanings of plants and reveal how deeply nature is embedded in our cultural concepts and practices.

Plants as Cultural Symbols
Plants provide us with food and the air we breathe. Not only do they make our material existence possible, they have also always carried meanings and messages. In many cultures they are symbols of love, life, death, or transience.

Drawing on works by prominent Austrian and international artists in addition to cultural-historical objects and natural-science findings, the exhibition portrays the cultural history of around eighteen selected edible, useful, and ornamental plants. It outlines how the origin, dissemination, and use of plants have altered the world, why wars were fought or people were enslaved because of plants. Apples, lilies, sunflowers, and cotton are represented in the exhibition, along with wine, tobacco, and the crown imperial, a plant that became a symbol of power and wealth in the Baroque period. It was planted in the gardens of European nobles as a sign of their position and influence. Its majestic appearance and the demanding care it required underline the high status of those who could afford this plant.

In this cross-genre show, a late Gothic Madonna from the circle of Michael Pacher (15th century) meets contemporary photographs by Elfriede Mejchar (1924-2013) and Andreas Gursky (*1955). Artfully decorated porcelain cups and figurines can be seen alongside baroque floral still lifes and the “TRIFFID” bioreactor by Thomas Feuerstein (*1968). The presentation is complemented by scientific objects from the 16th century to the present day: delicate plant models, historical wet specimens, precious books and microscopic images. Many of the exhibits are on public display for the first time on this scale.