Performative installation with mixed materials

Dimensions variable

With contributions by Anna Pezzoli, Tracy Naa Koshie Thompson, Elene Gelovani, Lizi Kashakashvili

Realised thanks to the support of Sonja Prochorow, Samuel Götschin, Leonie Englert, Romildo Olympio

Courtesy: the artists

La Caoba is an off-the-grid global movement initiated by Larry Bonćhaka (b. 1994, Accra, Ghana) and Sopo Kashakashvili (b. 1994, Tbilisi, Georgia) dedicated to environmental restoration, sustainable community development, and economic empowerment. By integrating large-scale afforestation projects with community-led initiatives, La Caoba aims to create self-sustaining ecosystems where people and nature thrive together.

A space full of life is unfolding at the Frankfurter Kunstverein. A shared dining table anchors the room, a place for breaking bread and building bridges. Workshops, research-based artistic contributions, and materials focusing on agriculture, as well as the trade and transport of food, bring the space to life over the course of the exhibition And This is Us 2025. We collaborate with local farmers, environmental foundations, and fellow creators who, like us, are deeply rooted in the rhythms of nature, reimagining the environment and food as sites of healing and hope.

Our presentation features external contributions from Anna Pezzoli, Tracy Naa Koshie Thompson, Elene Gelovani, and designer and architect Lizi Kashakashvili and was realised with the support of Sonja Prochorow, Samuel Götschin, Leonie Englert, and Romildo Olympio. Together, we transform this space into a living ecosystem—a shared ground for dialogue, action, and collective dreaming.

A shared hunger for change brought us together. Through the universal languages of music and cooking, we found not just common ground, but a shared heartbeat. Trust in each other’s ideas and projects grew organically, weaving a tapestry of collaboration that became a collective. By uniting people with diverse passions, we learned to research together, create performances, stage interventions, give talks, and build something greater than ourselves—a family.

Yet, the questions that drive us remain urgent and unyielding: how can art become a living, breathing force for transformation? What kinds of communities are we shaping when we gather people across divides?

Our work always begins with the personal—our own stories, our autobiographies. We exchange ideas, dig into archives, and engage with objects, architecture, and space as sites of activation. In a world fractured by division and fear, our resistance is rooted in the practice and sharing of our heritages. For us, resistance is not a grand gesture but an intimate act—a shared meal, a conversation, a seed passed from hand to hand.

With La Caoba, our project and movement, we turn our focus to Ghana, where deforestation is a crisis demanding immediate action. This is not just an environmental issue; it is a fight for survival, for heritage, for the future. Your presence and support are not just valuable—they are vital. Join us as we share the flavours of Georgia and Ghana, weaving ancestral healing into a global tapestry.

Food is our weapon of resistance and renewal. By sharing preservation techniques, recipes, and spices, we dismantle borders—both

physical and metaphorical. We reject categorisation and separation, inviting you instead to “root-sharing” ceremonies and collaborative art practices that celebrate connection over division.

Trade, exchange, and commerce have always been the lifeblood of human survival and community. We reclaim these acts, infusing them with purpose. This exhibition is not just a display—it is a call to action, a platform for change.

La Caoba (mahogany in English) is more than a tree. It is resilience embodied. Native to the tropics, mahogany has been shaped into furniture, boats, and musical instruments, its strength a testament to its value. Yet, this very strength has led to its decline. La Caoba is also our son’s middle name, a symbol of growth and legacy. By supporting our project, you contribute to a reforestation and sculpture park project in Prampram, Ghana, Greater Accra Region—a living monument to regeneration.

Text by Sopo Kashakashvili and Larry Bonćhaka

WHY LA CAOBA NEEDS YOUR SUPPORT

Nestled in the coastal town of Prampram, Ghana, this precious stretch of land is rich in biodiversity, cultural heritage, and natural beauty. Named after the majestic mahogany trees (caoba in Spanish) that once flourished here, this land has been a sanctuary for wildlife, a source of medicinal plants, and a vital green space for the community.

Over the years, unchecked development and land encroachment have threatened the existence of plant and soil life. Forests have been cleared, wetlands drained, and wildlife displaced—leaving this ecological treasure at risk of being lost forever.

But there’s still hope. We are dedicated to fighting to fully acquire and protect this land, ensuring it remains a haven for nature, a carbon sink, and a legacy for future generations. By securing this land, we can restore its ecosystems, promote sustainable farming, and create a model for community-led conservation.

This is more than just land—it’s our heritage, our environment, and our future. With your support, we can replenish the land with plants, water and animal life. Our target is to fully acquire the 1 acre land, restore the soil, plant windbreak trees such as acacia, train caregivers and dig a well for water which is non existing in this area. To move the reforestation project forward we need the amount of 25,000 euros.

OUR GOALS AND COMMITMENTS

• 1 acre land acquisition – 15,000 euros
• Soil restoration with compost and nitrogen fixing plants – 2,500 euros
• Planting windbreak trees (acacia, oak and mahogany) – 3,000 euros
• Horticulture training course for caregivers (3 months) – 2,500 euros
• Create access to water for community, plant life and wildlife – 2,000 euros

With your support, by purchasing La Caoba natural products and donating to the Go Fund Me, we can be rest assured of giving new life and inspiring the people of Prampram to join in the movement.

Donate today and be part of this vital mission!

GoFundMe-Link: https://gofund.me/fb6c6e79

Thank you!

Anna Pezzoli

Aliveness, 2025

Soybean sprouts perform the choreography titled Aliveness inside an aquarium.
Directed by the pump – the pulsing heart that keeps the rhythm by puffing air – they spin in quiet loops.

The gaze is drawn in, seduced by transparency, safe in its dry place.
These generative seeds are stuck in circulation. Is spinning a strategy of survival? What if we stop? Would rooting be more generative? Would stillness allow new forms of growth?

Tracy Naa Koshie Thompson

Kanzo Caves, 2025

Kanzo Caves form part of my topographical exploration of the micro-worlds of foods. “Kanzo” in Ghanaian culinary tradition refers to “charred rice”- which is formed at the base of saucepans. The digital terrains for this Virtual Reality exploration are developed from a combination of Digital Elevation Modelling and Microscopy of modified foods. I modify foods made of rice, wheat, and millet into different crystallisation structures, which are reverse-engineered into digital forms. This body of work merges and critiques genres of still-life and landscape to deal with shared morphogenesis and ecology of things at varied scales, inclusive of microbial life and uncanny forms. The terrains also feature the bodies of booklice, which form part of the ecosystem in breaking down the foods I experiment with.

Larry Bonćhaka and Sopo Kashakashvili collaborate as an artistic duo, blending culinary practices, theoretical research, and improvisation at the heart of their work to create immersive, participatory experiences. Both are founding members of the artist and architects collective “commune6x3” and graduated at Städelschule in Frankfurt, Bonćhaka in 2023 and Kashakashvili in 2024.

Their performances and interventions have been presented at Nassauischer Kunstverein Wiesbaden e.V., Wiesbaden (DE), Opelvillen Rüsselsheim (DE), Theater der Welt, Frankfurt am Main (DE), Kressmann Halle, Offenbach am Main (DE), Diamant Museum of Urban Culture, Offenbach am Main (DE), Documenta 15 with commune6x3, Kassel (DE), Künstler*innenhaus Mousonturm, Frankfurt am Main (DE), and Royal Parade Grounds, Kumasi (GH). They have also created interventions in public spaces, hosted dinner performances, worked on fashion shows, and in 2024, initiated a mobile sculpture park project in Kumasi (GH).

WHY CO-CREATIONS?

Bending the Curve is the latest in a series of exhibitions (Trees of Life – Stories for a Damaged Planet 2019/2020, The Intelligence of Plants 2021/2022) in which the Frankfurt Kunstverein collaborates with international natural science research institutes and contemporary artists to systematically examine various aspects around the issue of socio-ecological transformation and the changing relationship between humans and nature.

This exhibition arises from the realization that global biodiversity has been declining at an alarming rate for decades. To halt or reverse this downward trend, it is essential to know what can be done, but even more crucial to engage in effective action. Katrin Böhning-Gaese offers a succinct summary of the complexity of the crises: “Climate change determines how we live, species extinction determines whether we survive in the future.” Bending the Curve is born out of hope and conviction to advocate publicly for a still possible transformation.

Katrin Böhning-Gaese and I have remained in continuous dialogue since the exhibition Trees of Life, our first collaboration with the Senckenberg Society for Nature Research. We share a deeply felt urgency to not let up, to inspire people to commit to the preservation of the beauty and diversity of life on this planet; each through their competence and their networks. Therefore, we decided to tackle this exhibition together and embark on this path with numerous artists, scientists and developers of transformative approaches.

Katrin Böhning-Gaese’s perspective is that of a profound connoisseur of biodiversity connections. In addition to her work as a scientist and as director of the Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Center and as the recipient of the German Environmental Award in 2021, also her involvement as an expert in political advisory bodies and international forums make her an expert in the fight for the preservation of biodiversity.

The Frankfurt Kunstverein sees itself as a cultural forum at the heart of society where artists and experts from various fields can exchange ideas with different civil society actors, leading to a public discourse and challenging political action using the means of art and visual thinking.

THE RESPONSIBILITY OF ART AND SCIENCE

For years, the curatorial work of the Frankfurt Kunstverein has stood for exhibitions that recognize the visions of science and art equally. From the perspective of both, major social themes are consistently examined and questioned in depth.

Science is a system for observing and categorizing causal relationships and regularities. It is methodical and process-based and subject to rules to make these insights comprehensible. Science can analyse the past but also develop outlooks. It creates models based on existing evidence, data and information. Bending the Curve is the result of extensive information that spans future scenarios. Here, scientists introduce existing knowledge into public discourse so that social and political action can be discussed in a different way, topically, time and again, and aligned accordingly.

Art also generates knowledge. A knowledge that expands the realm of information and factuality to include the experience of feeling. In this way, art develops transformative power: for individuals, as contemplation and, therefore, as a private act; and, beyond that, for communities, as a symbol. Art can examine reality with entirely independent methods and represent reality in an unfamiliar and different way. It creates images and narratives that can subversively alter the world of human imagination.

Thinkers and scientists such as Donna Haraway, Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing, Frédéric Lenoir, Stefano Mancuso, Andreas Weber and many others convey to us that this transformation does not happen through intellect, through knowledge of macroecological aspects or modelling alone. They tell stories of individuals, of individual beings they observe and get to know. They speak of connections between species and forms of communication. It is possible to read in them a kind of ode to love for all living things and the realization that life is so terribly fragile, so terribly ephemeral and so terribly unique. Not everyone is able to view fellow beings with empathy. I am convinced that the ability to empathize with and respect all living things is part of the transformation, and a so-called Deep Leverage Point. When we exert control over other beings and disregard their right to life, this leads to questions of ethics and responsibility. And this also leads to questions of power structures. The arts already make a significant contribution to this awareness.

A work becomes art when the artistic investigation is more than an objective statement, and at the same time, refers to more than subjective experience.

The exhibition Bending the Curve does not intend to perpetuate the swan song of the planet through dystopian narratives but instead follows the voices of art and science that show concrete ways in which each individual, as well as companies, political actors and society as a whole, can pursue the restoration of ecosystems and biodiversity.

KNOWING, ACTING, CARING FOR BIODIVERSITY

First, some thoughts on the subtitle of the Bending the Curve exhibition, which we chose over the course of two years of research as a programmatic statement: Knowing, Acting, Caring for Biodiversity. It became an essential prism for the curatorial work that determined the underlying stance and selection of exhibits. The works of the invited artists represent more than mere symbolic references. We made the selection to present exemplary projects and initiatives that have actively committed to socio-ecological transformation.

After all, people around the planet have set forth to become part of the change. Most exhibits in Bending the Curve were created with the attitude and idea of co-creation: with other people, but also with non-human beings. The invited artists seek ways to overcome the exploitation of planetary materials and beings. They cooperate with them, know their characteristics and behaviours, and engage in dialogue with them. They pursue changed, paradigmatic perspectives by attributing “agency”, or the power to act, to non-human life forms and acknowledging them. In doing so, they chart a new path to place humans as part of a whole, where fellow beings are no longer seen hierarchically (or less so). The artists and scientists are part of the rooting of this new, and at the same time old, thought substrate. Their works and methods indicate what changed action and prioritization of values can look and feel like. They bear witness to knowledge, action and a deep care for, and taking care of the departure from human anthropocentrism towards the idea of transformative naturecultures (Donna Haraway, 2008).

Short-term thinking, thinking in terms of government and electoral cycles, maximizing growth and annual financial statements and the exploitation of communities and landscapes, have come under great pressure. There is a battle of worldviews underway, where global communities are demanding thinking and action that is socially and ecologically just and intergenerational. The consequences of the climate crisis and species extinction will affect everyone equally; humans, animals, plants and entire ecosystems, regardless of political or cultural affiliation. And here we are all called upon, as civil society and as the human species, to engage in our immediate environment in transformed, more conscious and responsible action.

Will we achieve this goal together? What does it mean to break with the familiar and reinvent it? How does change work, what does it look like?

What we have experienced in the many months of research, countless conversations and encounters with artists, researchers, scientists, new material designers and social scientists is that a fundamental transformation towards changed action is indeed already underway. New knowledge is developing in countless places, giving rise to initiatives, laboratories, studios and cooperatives, as well as international research projects and startups.

BENDING THE CURVE – FURTHER POSITIVE APPROACHES TO FEASIBILITY

The title of the exhibition pays tribute to the concept of Bending the Curve of Biodiversity Loss. The conservation biologist Georgina Mace coined this phrase in her eponymous text in Nature Sustainability in 2018. Building on this work, David Leclère and an international network of roughly 60 scientists and 46 institutions have developed the first comprehensive models of different future scenarios. We were able to enlist Leclère for collaboration and thus open up another resonance space in the cultural world for this crucial endeavour. In his text contribution, he presents the work and goals of the Bending the Curve initiative.

The proposed courses of action of the Bending the Curve initiative are voices from the natural sciences calling for change directed at civil society, politics and the economy. As accompaniment to socio-ecological transformation, an international, interdisciplinary debate with countless positions, focusing on the necessity of a great mindshift is taking place in the social sciences. At issue are beliefs and orientation patterns that locate societies and individuals in the world and lead to changed practices. Publications such as Uwe Schneidewind’s Die Große Transformation: Eine Einführung in die Kunst gesellschaftlichen Wandels (2018, The Great Transformation: An Introduction to the Art of Social Change), Maja Göpel’s The Great Mindshift: How a New Economic Paradigm and Sustainability Transformations go Hand in Hand (2016), Paul Hawken’s Regeneration: Ending the Climate Crisis in One Generation (2021) and Karen O’Brian’s You matter more than you think: Quantum Social Change for a Thriving World (2021) are just a few that show a positive habitus of feasibility already in their titles.

SOCIO-ECOLOGICAL TRANSFORMATIONS

Often overlooked in natural science and economic contexts is that socio-ecological transformations must also be accompanied by cultural transformations, not just material ones. What are always negotiated together with the demand for a more responsible use of natural resources and fellow beings are possible models of economic systems. Naomi Klein’s publication This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate from 2015 can be mentioned as one representative example here. Debates on sufficiency and post-materialism, however, exclude those who do not belong to the affluent classes and world regions and therefore cannot afford to continue to abstain. Calls for renouncing growth must be made with a view to solidarity and include different perspectives.

Under pressure is the hierarchical imbalance, the exercise of power, and thus the use, the objectification of disenfranchised beings. At issue is a new relationship, more of a collaboration and coexistence of humans with other humans and also non-human beings and between different systems. Power relations, class structures and shifts in outdated hegemonies between the global North and South demand new interpretations of history. There is a struggle for narratives that reflect the respective location of a society and its historical experience. A change in relationships is required. “Care”, “ “healing”, reciprocity” and “repair” are but a few terms for a changed attitude.

Change arises from historical examination and manifests itself as a collective demand for care, healing processes, equality and solidarity. It affects cultures and communities that in the past have suffered from colonial injustice, violent conflicts, cultural theft, displacement and oppression. And it affects the exploitation of landscapes that were once places of significance and cultural identity for the people living there.

CHANGED PERSPECTIVES AND FORMS OF KNOWLEDGE

How do we break with the duality of “culture vs. nature”, with enlightenment, and attempt new ways of being in the world? Can old and sometimes lost knowledge be revived? Can economics be practised beyond industrial utilisation and capitalist exploitation? The promise lies in connecting old and new knowledge and applying it in adapted form to the specificity of each place and context – a form of knowledge that arises from its situational anchoring: situated knowledge (Donna Haraway). This idea fundamentally questions the notion of knowledge as an objective, universally valid and neutral reality. Knowledge is thus understood as a dynamic quantity, not as an absolute reality. It emerges through individuals and groups at a particular historical moment, in a specific place, with a specific experience.

The economist and social scientist Enrique Leff defines the environmental crisis as a consequence of the crisis of Western thinking. To break the dominance of prevailing knowledge views and to promote a knowledge dialogue, an engagement with different cultures is necessary. This includes not only different languages and cultures but also different ideas and definitions of human communities, nature and the corresponding mutual dependence.

Increasingly, indigenous, non-Western conceptions of nature are being conveyed, actively remembered or newly discovered. They are being recognized and are expanding scientific designs in biodiversity research. There are not only two basic types of concepts of nature (scientific or mythological), but a heterogeneous variety. Many artists and scientists are participating in this fundamental shift. Robin Wall Kimmerer, Dr. Teresa Ryan, Dr. Max Liboiron and Elizabeth A. Povinelli with the Karrabing Film Collective – to name just a few –  represent changed principles that practise a reconnection of local knowledge with natural sciences in different cultural contexts. Data, information and quantifying factual knowledge are increasingly supplemented by the dimension of emotion to include an existential experience of connectedness.

Examples can also be found in agriculture. Faced with climate change, soil erosion and water scarcity, agriculture faces enormous challenges on a global scale. In addition to more sustainable bio-economies, numerous projects have emerged that use traditional methods such as agroforestry and permaculture as viable paths for future-oriented action.

If reality is a cultural construct based on an imagined relationship between a subject and its counterpart in the world, we are currently faced with the challenge of once again redefining ourselves.

What we are experiencing today is the struggle for new collective narratives. Transformation can also be seen as an opportunity. Along with knowledge and accountability, responsibility and a sense of justice are skills of the future. Solidarity and empathy, curiosity and encounter. Perhaps they come together in the idea of care. Care can arise from fear of the consequences of a major threat and motivate us to accept responsibility. It has the power to generate meaning and (re-)establish a bond with what is paramount.

Franziska Nori, Director Frankfurt Kunstverein