.jpg)
The PhotoVogue Festival, the first conscious fashion photography festival that focuses on the common ground between ethics and aesthetics, returns for its eighth edition. From March 6th to 9th, 2025, BASE Milano will host a series of exhibitions and talks analysing the interrelation between humans and Nature, and the relations of kinship we can create with animals, complemented by satellite events at the city s finest galleries.
“Institute for Postnatural Studies – Metaphysics of Mixture” is part of The Tree of Change, a series of slideshows, videos, and contributions from organisations dedicated to environmental advocacy. The series includes also: “Earthrise Studio – The Ghost Rainforest”, “Vital Impacts – The Nature of Hope”, “The Essence of Prix Pictet”, “Charlie Hamilton James – End Time Project”, “PHmuseum – Human Visions”, “CondéFuture”, “VII Foundation – Square Mile”, “Wild Summon”, “Latin American Fashion Awards”, “Nautilus Presents: Biodiversity: Though the Lens”.
The history of the vegetal world is the history of humanity. Botany is its ally, capturing its stories and flattening its narratives through an anthropocentric perspective. But plants do not belong to any garden. Neither do their forms nor their journeys belong to the history of science. Nor do they belong to the world: they are the world and world makers. From their roots to the tips of their stems, they show indifference towards humans, the cultures of their peoples, the alternation of their kingdoms, their wars, and their eras. Their flowers and leaves are mirrors. They seem to grow with the desire to merge with the earth. Their petals mimic the shapes around them, like the sharpness of a bird s beak, or the fold-like currents of wind, playing with the soil s tones while absorbing the solar dust that excites their veins.
There are no invasive species. There are no bad weeds or toxic nectars. If there are plants that become drugs for humans, the more-than-human world vibrates in hallucinogenic reveries. Poison is not the substance but the dose. Plants are ancient migrants, strange beings, with cellular bodies. Their forms display the infinite ecologies of the living and the sentient. They are dark and opaque, and their branches form the neurological network of the universe. They connect the fertile soil with the sunlight and are home to insects, magical potions, and countless stories of resistance.
Metaphysics of Mixture: Notes on postnatural gardening (Video, 2024) narrates, through six different species, hidden stories and tales that blur the relationships between culture and nature. From the mantles of green leaves that cover an entire country to the hallucinations and the possessions of the devil, from more-than-human alliances to witchcraft and migrations, from ballrooms and dance rituals to colonial violence and power structures, it invokes plants as allies, as living archives of the earth.
The Institute for Postnatural Studies is a center for artistic experimentation from which to explore and problematize postnature as a framework for contemporary creation. Founded in 2020, it is conceived as a platform for critical thinking, a network that brings together artists and researchers concerned about the issues of the global ecological crisis through experimental formats of exchange and the production of open knowledge. From a multidisciplinary approach, the Institute develops long-term research focused on issues such as ecology, coexistence, politics, and territories. These lines of investigation take different shapes and formats, including seminars, exhibitions, and residencies as spaces for academic and artistic experimentation.
The Institute for Postnatural Studies works at the intersection between Spain and international practices and debates. From its headquarters in Madrid, a 300m² warehouse with a workshop, residency spaces, and shared workspaces, invites artists, researchers, and cultural agents to create dialogues with alumni and the broader public.
In parallel, the Institute has created the publishing platform Cthulhu Books
For more about the PhotoVogue Festival 2025, check out: All you need to know about the PhotoVogue Festival 2025
PhotoVogue Festival is a project directed by Alessia Glaviano (Head of Global PhotoVogue) and co-curated by Caterina De Biasio (Visual Editor, PhotoVogue) and Daniel Rodríguez Gordillo (Senior Manager, Education Community Initiatives Condé Nast).
