The 2019 Goethe@LUX artist in residence was Sonya Schönberger. Her special interest in historical research and ecology led her to develop a project centering around the cut flower industry in Kenya.

The key theme for the 2019 residency was determined by the Goethe-Institut’s focus on ecology and sustainability as well as the location of LUX in the green environment of Waterlow Park. The site used to be the home of English metaphysical poet Andrew Marvell (1621 – 1678). An early proponent of ecological thinking, Marvell’s poem The Garden (1681) and the lines “annihilating all that’s made / To a green thought in a green shade” provides the reference for this year’s Goethe@LUX residency. Schönberger’s research during the residency took Marvell’s idea of the garden as refuge as point of departure. Her questioning of the image of plants as the provider of solace to humans led her to consider the history of plants both as victims and tools of colonisation, as violated beings and instruments of replacing existing ecologies. During the course of the three months she spent in London she directed her focus more and more on the Kenyan flower industry and its problematic ecological and social workings and how we support it through our local pruchases.

Goethe-Institut London

Goethe@LUX Artist in Residence 2019