What would this room be without plants?​

An artist book exploring networks of indoor plants in National Socialist architecture in Munich, 2020.

Platform, Munich, 2020; Pedvale Art Park, Latvia, 2020; Private Collections

Could it be that these Monstera Deliciosa, the Ficuselastica, or the Sansevieria are actually the same plants seen in the old photographs? I was struck by the abundance of tropical indoor plants in historical documentary photographs of Nazi architecture in Germany. In Munich many of these surviving buildings have now been repurposed for culture as libraries, music schools or museums. Walking into the Art Historical Institute, formerly Hitler's main administration building, located in the, recently renamed, Katharina von Bora Strasse, was like walking into one of those old photographs, except that it was in colour instead of being moody black and white. But the sombre and dominant quality of the architecture still persists. Deep red ochre and beige Adnet and Untersberg marble interiors, the giant staircases, the dark, oversized, heavy wooden doors with brass handles. It's all still there along with the tropical indoor plants. It is as if they almost petrified in place. They are so still and silent that perhaps nobody ever thought to change them. I suddenly began to see these plants as the tentative female element in the architecture. What did they witness?

Three colour risograph printed double sided on 12o gsm art paper in an edition of 15 in two colour ways.

"What would with room be without plants?" with paintings, as part of a series called German Tropical for Mycelia exhibition Platform, Munich 2020 and "Netting", Pedvale Art Park, Latvia, 2023.

Photos (top): Andrew Richardson, Crossfire Photography. Other images and film © Penelope Richardson