Exhibition opening by Piloya Irene & Performance by Rencontres Plurielles

Exhibition »Architecture of Traces«

In Architecture of Traces, Piloya Irene explores memory as a living, evolving process. Grounded in the concept of neuroplasticity – the brain’s ability to reorganize itself through experience – she approaches memory not as a static archive, but as a dynamic system that is continuously reshaped through repetition, interaction, and environmental influence.

Developed in dialogue with the history of Schloss Solitude and its gardens, Piloya investigates how landscapes, architecture, and trees bear traces of labour, resilience, power, and regeneration. Drawing on Jane Bennett’s concept of thing-power in Vibrant Matter, she considers plants, trees, and found materials as active material agents rather than passive carriers of history. The Schloss garden emerges as a living archive where historical, ecological, and social processes intersect, revealing how beauty and nature are inseparable from memory, ideology, and transformation.

The exhibition presents five new works, including sculptural installations of plant materials from the Schloss garden preserved in resin, drawings of tree bark textures on handmade paper, cyanotype prints combining archival and contemporary imagery, and textile works featuring photographs of the historic trees surrounding Schloss Solitude. Through these material processes, the works explore growth, preservation, decay, and transformation, asking what architecture and landscapes remember – and how these memories continue to evolve through time, material, and human intervention.

 

Performance »Greening: around Hildegard von Bingen, Emma Kunz and Kimpa Vita«

During their residency at Akademie Schloss Solitude, Rencontres Plurielles – the collective formed by Orakle Ngoy (DRC) and Magali Dougoud (CH) – are developing the performance Greening: around Hildegard von Bingen, Emma Kunz and Kimpa Vita in collaboration with guest musician Laure Boer.

Inspired by Hildegard von Bingen’s concept of viriditas – a vital force of growth, renewal, and transformation – the performance brings into dialogue the visions and healing practices of medieval visionary Hildegard von Bingen, Swiss artist, healer, and researcher Emma Kunz, and Kongolese prophet and political leader Kimpa Vita. It explores healing as a feminist practice and reflects on the relationships between bodies, territories, and more-than-human forms of life.

Combining video projection, live spoken word, and experimental sound recordings of plants, stones, water, and soil, Greening creates an immersive environment where artistic and scientific approaches intersect. Using contact microphones, hydrophones, and geophones, the artists amplify subtle vibrations and movements, inviting audiences to listen to the voices and rhythms of the living world in new ways.