With Swarm Dust / Zwermstof, artist Anne Marie Maes creates an artificial environment as a stage for the unpredictable emergence of life. Semi-transparent skins, grown from colonies of bacteria and yeast, almost completely cover a reflective wall, hanging loosely over sandy gravel and pebbles. The eponymous “swarm dust” is scattered over this gravel: clusters of enlarged mint pollen visualise how complicated and detailed their structure is. The scene is complemented by screens rising from the gravel: Margarita Maximova’s video works pick up on the hypnotic and psychedelic properties of plants. A tea ceremony combines smoke, sound and flavour to create a live listening performance and activates the space on the opening weekend.
Swarmdust (Zwermstof), Installation & Performance in the exhibition Orangerie der Fürsorge and part of Berlin Art Week, from 11 September to 17 October 2024.

The multidisciplinary artist Anne Marie Maes is trained in botany and visual anthropology. She combines art and science with a special interest in ecosystems and alchemical processes. On the roof of her studio in Brussels, she has set up a field laboratory to work with insects and bacteria and studies the moulding processes of nature. Maes has shown her work in solo and group exhibitions worldwide. “Swarmdust” is a new work she has developed for the exhibition.

Margarita Maximova’s audio-visual practice refers to the diverse ways in which contemporary image technologies function. In 2021 she published her first book “You Have Within You Something Stronger and More Numinous”. She has shown her work at S.M.A.K, Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst (BE), Beursschouwburg, Brussels (BE), Galerie Thomas Schulte, Berlin (DE) and Grazer Kunstverein (AT), among others.