EDEN

EDEN began in 2012 and has continued to the present day. It explores the ethical ramifications of a stable agricultural system, in addition to ecological and natural questions (Ethics – Durability – Ecology – Nature). The project touches on a range of issues, including the protection of endangered plant species and interspecific communication between living subjects that are placed in the “inhuman”category.

EDEN is a new kind of organic network based on vegetal medium. It transforms this encrypted communication into a comprehensive and open network. The trees included into the project can talk together across continents. Humans can follow their communication through the interactive light installations created by artist.

Olga Kisseleva has been working on the EDEN project in collaboration with the Art & Science Laboratory that is founded by her, and with the support of CNRS, of the Institute of Plant Genetics of Tsinghua University (Beijing) and the Orange Telecom company (France). EDEN is rooted in the idea of carrying on the tradition of recreating the legendary gardens of Eden and Arcadia, and its goal is reviving extinct species of plants and preventing the extinction of species that have been placed on the IUCN Red and Green lists.

The EDEN project is aimed at creating a “new” Garden of Eden as the ultimate goal of introducing innovative technologies to art and using unorthodox thinking to solve ecological problems. In collaboration with scholars from various countries, the Olga Kisseleva's laboratory is currently “resurrecting” the several plant species: the West European elm (the “Biopresence” project, France), the afarsimon (the Negev Desert – Israel and Jordan), Bodhi jiulian (China and India), and the Aport apple cultivar (Kazakhstan)...