Art as Ecosystem: Pierre Huyghe and the Living Exhibition

Pierre Huyghe
Artwork: Untilled, 2011–2012
Medium: Site-specific living installation
Exhibition: Documenta 13, Karlsaue Park, Kassel

In Untilled, Huyghe planted an untamed, semi-autonomous ecosystem into an abandoned compost site—bees, weeds, a dog with a beehive on its head, and toxic plants all coexisting in a carefully unmanaged system. The work is alive, changing, and never fully knowable. It challenges the notion of art as an object, turning it into atmosphere, condition, or ecology.

This radically expanded my understanding of installation. I’ve been working with materials that are ephemeral, unstable, or emotionally charged—transparent acrylics, shimmering filaments, disappearing chocolate forms. Like Untilled, my work resists closure. It’s not about presenting a fixed meaning, but about making space for evolving responses—emotional, sensory, and psychological.

Huyghe’s refusal to separate the human from the non-human resonates with my interest in dopamine and brain chemistry as interconnected with societal and environmental factors. His work helped me see that material instability isn’t just an aesthetic—it’s a philosophical and emotional gesture.

#installation #newmaterialism #sensorysystems #affect #emotionalinstability