Awards & Mentions

Travelling Plants is a multidisciplinary project curated by Lina Vincent (@objectspeak) and led by the Goethe-Institut Chennai, in collaboration with the Alliance Française of Madras and the French Institute of Pondicherry (IFP). The initiative began with a residency at IFP in March 2024, where five visual and research-driven artists—from Germany, Reunion Island, Sri Lanka, and India—immersed themselves in botanical archives and scientific environments. During the four-week residency, artists engaged in hands-on experiences: dissecting flowers, observing pollen under the microscope, studying palm-leaf manuscripts, and visiting ecological sites including Auroville Botanical Garden and Pichavaram mangrovest. These explorations informed their creative processes, which integrated environmental, cultural, and scientific insights. The project's exhibition phase premiered in Chennai on 14 June 2024 at the Alliance Française of Madras and extended across multiple venues in India and Sri Lanka. As plants travel through ecosystems, so too did this exhibition travel, evolving with each location. The visual identity—rooted in a wordmark that blends typography with botanical shapes drawn from IFP's herbarium—creates a compelling graphic language that supports both information design and branding consistency across venues. Travelling Plants also incorporated immersive public programming, including botanical illustration workshops, panel discussions, screenings, and performances, all reflecting the synergy between ecology, art, and cultural narrative. The project invites audiences to rethink archives as living, traveling entities—spaces that not only preserve history but also shape new, shared futures through art, science, and participation.