erez nevi pana installs flora fauna, a plant-based choreographed circus

israeli creative erez nevi pana defines himself as an explorer that uses design to investigate phenomena through materials’ experimentation. a vegan himself, nevi pana has adapted his deep respect towards life to his design methodology, where he refuses to use any kind of product containing animal traces. ‘in relation to my Ph.D. research that is dealing with veganism in design, I am trying to explore and offer alternatives to the use of animal components in materials and processes within the design world,’ he told designboom. 

for his latest project flora fauna, erez nevi pana has created a commentary on the exploitation of animals in circuses with a plant-based installation.

images by dor kedmi

flora fauna was initiated when tal erez and anat safran — curators of the jerusalem design week — approached erez nevi pana to create something related to this year’s theme: the circus and escapism. ‘as we had to slow-down the last year and half, we became more aware of the basic and essential needs for life,’ he continued. ‘after a while dealing with restrictions on the miles we are walking, isolation during the epidemic, compensation mechanisms began to grow and the urge to escape to comforting physical places intensified. escapism these days, has soared to a new high. nature and gardens did not disappoint and functioned as a place of refuge, a fertile and comforting bubble in a surreal time for the metamodern society.’

flora fauna highlights this escapism by creating a space filled with plans where visitors to the design week can escape into a peaceful place that trains awareness and invites meditating. the garden itself is the plant-based circus where plants with animal names dance in a choreographed manner. equipped with sensors and motors, the formation of the garden corresponds with the circus. for example, a plant called elephant ears sits next to a moose horn and a stork’s beak, creating a visual effect that stands between the figurative and the abstract, the visible and the hidden, the conscious and the subconscious.

the plant show lasts as long as a certain distance from the performing animals is maintained. the sensors act as protection for the plant-based circus, pausing it as the safe-space is violated. the plants then ask the visitors to step back and keep the gap nature insists on.

‘the choice of a plant-based performance as an allegory of the potential for earthly paradise enriches our perspective – towards ourselves and fills us with empathy for these species that live amongst us,’ erez nevi pana concludes. ‘the garden, openly offering a seductive harmony and a mindful progression, invites the visitor to relate to the moral, the basic, and the authentic and leads us to dimension devoid of superiority, exploitation, imprisonment or de-humanization. rather, it conditions escape through a performance of a harmonious space between the disparate.’

project info:

name: flora fauna

artist: erez nevi pana

curated by: tal erez & anat safran.
commissioned by: jerusalem design week

engineers: eli uberbaum, yoram & maor, barak yosef
assistants: matteo pie, ofer kantor, amir ben aharon, ohad david

photographer: dor kedmi
film editor: alice wong
film editor assistant: anne kristin muller
videographer: ido cohen
video colorist: ofer kantor
sound designer: yuval reuven