Ethics – Durability – Ecology – Nature (EDEN)
EDEN - Listening to the Rift Valley, collaboration with EAMAN, 2021
EDEN (Ethics – Durability – Ecology – Nature) is a long-term art, science, and environmental research program initiated by Olga Kisseleva in 2011. Developed through collaborations with scientists, environmental researchers, local communities, and cultural institutions around the world, the project investigates the complex relationships between human societies and living ecosystems in the context of climate change, biodiversity loss, and technological transformation.
At the heart of EDEN lies the conviction that art can serve as a space for dialogue between scientific knowledge, ecological awareness, and public participation. The project explores how living organisms, natural environments, and ecological processes can become active participants in artistic creation, generating new forms of interaction between humans and the non-human world.
Conducted across diverse geographical and cultural contexts, EDEN brings together artistic research, field studies, environmental monitoring, and community engagement. Each chapter of the project focuses on a specific ecosystem, species, or environmental challenge, transforming scientific data and ecological observations into artworks, installations, performances, and participatory experiences. Through these approaches, EDEN makes visible the invisible connections that unite humans, plants, animals, and their environments.
A central aspect of the project is the investigation of communication systems within nature. By translating biological signals, environmental data, and ecosystem dynamics into artistic languages, EDEN reveals forms of intelligence, cooperation, adaptation, and resilience existing throughout the living world. The project invites audiences to reconsider humanity's place within broader ecological networks and to imagine more sustainable models of coexistence.
Combining ethics, scientific inquiry, artistic experimentation, and environmental responsibility, EDEN proposes a new understanding of the relationship between culture and nature. The project encourages critical reflection on the future of the planet while fostering hope, creativity, and collective engagement in addressing the environmental challenges of our time. An exhibition at Le Fresnoy exploring the future of humanity as technology increasingly shapes and transforms bodies, minds and everyday life. Sixteen artists examine questions of technological enhancement, transformation and the relationship between humans and emerging technologies. An ongoing bio-art project by Olga Kisseleva exploring plant conservation, ecology and communication between species. Developed from the artist’s Biopresence project, EDEN examines relationships between humans and other living beings through art and technology. An exhibition presenting the winners of the European Commission’s STARTS Prize, which supports innovative collaborations between science, technology and the arts. The featured projects explore ecological issues, new forms of cooperation and changing relationships between humans, technology and the natural world. An art and science project exploring plant extinction, interspecies communication and ecological challenges through biotechnology. Developed in collaboration with research institutions in France, China and Israel, the project investigates new approaches to plant conservation and the relationship between humans and the natural world. An exhibition exploring the intelligence and communication of trees in the context of climate change. Developed in collaboration with UPPA, CNRS and ONF, the project examines endangered Landes pines, the memory of trees at the Gurs camp, and remarkable trees in Pau’s parks. An international art and research project exploring trees, Indigenous knowledge and environmental relationships. Through an exhibition, publication, podcast and educational programme, it brings together artistic practices and ecological perspectives to examine cooperation, sustainability and long-term thinking.Events
L’humain qui vient
Le Fresnoy, Studio national des arts contemporains
Ars Electronica
POSTCITY
Speculating on the Future through Art and Science
BOZAR
Rencontre Art et Science
FRAC Ile-de-France Rentilly
Oaks That Think They Are Baobabs
Billère, Le Bel Ordinaire
Tree Story
Monash University Museum of Art (MUMA)
