Pauline Mikó

residency, NWNM

In collaboration with GUM & Voo?uit

Under the moniker Pluies, Belgo-Hungarian artist Pauline Mikó has been sonically exploring the fragile relationship between plants, ‘nature’ and human beings in recent years. Utilising a self-created system of electrodes, she has been translating the bio-electric correlation between the human and the natural world to a series of musical performances in various gardenesque and botanical settings.

Aiming to fulfil Miko’s ambition of deepening this exploratory path, Gouvernement (NWNM) now teams up with GUM (Ghent University Museum) and arts centre Voo?uit. For the next nine months the artist will be operating from a dedicated office at GUM/Botanical Gardens on a weekly basis. There she will regularly meet a range of scientists who will feed her artistic practice with specific knowledge. Her advancing insights and experiments will be systematically covered in a blog/vlog and various guerilla-performances might occur during established public events like Museum Night and Floraliën Gent. Enabling this exciting cross-over research-project between diverse disciplines and living worlds certainly is NWNM in full-length!

“It is said that plants are sentient. Yet, do they perceive sound? Do they perceive us as human beings, our presence, our intentions? And after all, how do we perceive plants, and Nature in a more global sense? With the support of Gouvernement and Vooruit, I’m starting an exciting research residency at the Ghent University Museum, where I will curiously and respectfully dive into the mysterious world of plants. During the residency, I’m hoping to exchange precious knowledge and observations with scientists and biologists, and to discuss with other researchers and artists as well as the visitors of GUM. I’m also hoping to be able to collaborate with the precious plants of the green house of the Botanical Garden, in order to imagine and elaborate a potential in situ sound installation”.

Pauline Mikó (February 2022)