Interspecies

Interspecies delves into the historic and current desire for humans to understand, connect with, and coexist with other species. The exhibition unfolds in three stages: approaching, cohabiting, and conspiring. The journey outlines a critical perspective of the modern project and its logics of mass production and universalist progress. At the same time, it unveils alternatives silenced by this narrative, rescuing worldviews that predate the encyclopaedic division of knowledge and prioritising relationships over typologies.

Here, architecture is celebrated beyond its utilitarian function, embracing its relational and critical capacities. As materials, techniques, and modes of spatial intervention always shape connections between places, people, and beings, architecture’s “users” are understood to include humans, birds, plants, minerals and others. Therefore, attention is given to the tectonic, economic, social, and ecosystemic variables of architecture.

Interdisciplinary and interscalar approaches to spatial practice are celebrated. From building materials to video games, cartographies, technological gadgets, poems, models, and sculptures, a diverse range of knowledge and techniques is brought into dialogue. The limitations of the discipline are acknowledged, as architecture cannot operate in isolation in the face of today’s complex climate and political challenges.

Interspecies evokes the Romantic spirit insofar as it celebrates subjectivity and imagination, and values poetic, artistic, and philosophical knowledge alongside scientific and technical knowledge. However, it situates this spirit in the present—a time marked by post-humanist philosophy, capitalist realism, and an undeniable climate crisis. Rather than an appreciation of nature from a distance, it proposes a sense of complicity and camaraderie from within, embracing a position of interdependence and reciprocity.

Interspecies Research Studio: Anna Bertmark, Fernanda Costa, Valentina Demarchi, Bernardo Gaeiras, Mathilde Gouin, Katerina Iglezaki, Carlos Pastor, Mariana Simões.

Interspecies features two interventions in the Museum gardens, which will remain on view after the exhibition closes, until 2 November 2025: one installation for people and birds, by Studio Ossidiana; and another for people and fish, created by the Superflex collective in collaboration with KWY.studio.