Ars Biologica 2025: Art, Science, and the Future of the Landscape

12. August 2025

Suddenly, we found ourselves in fields

What is landscape? What is agriculture? And what is land, actually?

lectures • performances • mobile laboratory • interactive zone • discussions

24 August 2025

Pavilion R2, České Budějovice Exhibition Grounds, Agrosalon Země živitelka

A place where scientists, artists, and the public can meet to discuss soil and landscape conservation and the relationship between humans and the earth, our provider. Come and break the boundaries of the field, plow a furrow, and learn about the life of the soil.

There will be lectures, artistic performances, and discussions. There will be a mobile laboratory with soil samples and a tasting of organic produce.

ABOUT THE ARS BIOLOGICA PAVILION

The landscape is our heritage and our future. What is our relationship to it? Where is

the boundary between nature and culture, between city and field, or city and forest?  Why are gardens becoming parking lots and fields becoming monocultures of rapeseed and corn? What does agriculture mean, and is soil merely a resource?

Join lectures and discussions led by humanities scholars. Discover new Ars Biologica programs: a summer school and an Art x Science residency. See how cooperation between science, art, and ecological thinking works in practice—and how you cantake part.

In the garden’s mobile laboratory of the Biology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences, explore soil with all your senses—feel it, smell it, look under the microscope at its fascinating life, and taste freshly grown crops. Can you tell which ones grew in living, well-tended soil?

DAY PROGRAM

🌱 Garden (outdoor area)

🕥 10:30–10:45 – The Return of Přemysl the Ploughman
Interactive performance by Ondřej Mácl on all the meanings a furrow can hold.

🕙 10:00–18:00 –  Soil: A Living Laboratory (microscopes, soil profiles, sensory testing in a mobile lab)

🏛️ Pavilion R2 – Lecture Hall: The Landscape as a Place of Memory and a Forum for the Future

🕚 12:00–13:00 – Tomáš Uhnák: Agroforestry – More Than Trees in a Field

Forest and field are two environments separated by a boundary. In the past, this was not the case—and it doesn’t have to be in the future. Agroforestry is one possible path out of crisis.

🕐 13:00–14:00 – Jan Randák: The Landscape as a Mirror of Society

The landscape is not only “external” nature—it is also a reflection of the world a society creates about itself. It can therefore be read and interpreted.

🕞 15:30–17:00 – Panel Discussion: Where Does Nature End and Culture Begin?
Guests: Michal Hořejší, Martin Netočný, Tomáš Uhnák. Moderator: Veronika Faktorová.

Where do we draw the boundary between nature and culture, between city and field, or city and forest? What do we mean by “landscape” and “agriculture”? And how do the boundaries of these concepts limit our response to the environmental crisis? This panel will open these questions—come to listen and join the discussion.

🧪 Pavilion R2 – Lounge

 (Presentations partly in English, Czech translation provided)

🕛 11:00–12:00 – Ars Biologica Summer School: Presentation of the Pilot Year

  • Ars Biologica Summer School: When Science, Art, and Permaculture Meet
  • Presentation of the pilot edition and its four thematic sections by students and lecturers.

🕑 14:00–15:30 – Ars Biologica × Ars Electronica: Artistic Residencies in Practice                                        Introduction of the new residency programme and opportunities for international collaboration between artists and researchers.

Collaborating experts:

  • Robertina Šebjanič (Artist and expert for artxscience collaborations)
  • Lenka Marcínová (architect and local stakeholder)
  • Anne Daebeler (Scientist at CAS Biology Center)
  • Magdalena Wutkovska (Scientist at CAS Biology Center)
  • Jakub Pešek (farmer and local stakeholder).

Moderated by Laura Welzenbach (Ars Electronica)

What is Ars Biologica?

Ars Biologica is a living laboratory of the future – a creative project where art and science come together to find ways to care for the world we live in. We connect natural scientists, biologists, environmental experts, humanities scholars,curators, farmers, educators, architects, artists, and other professionals, as well as local residents, to find new understandings of the landscape and solutions to the challenges posed by climate change through dialogue and joint experiments.

The project is carried out in collaboration with partners: Biology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Environmental Humanities Prague, Uroboros, and Ars Electronica (AT).

ADMISSION

Entry to the pavilion is included with a valid ticket to the Agrosalon Země živitelka (tickets available on-site or online).

TICKET PRICES

  • Full: CZK 160 / 200

  • Reduced (students, seniors): CZK 100 / 150

  • Disabled visitors (ZTP/P): CZK 100 / 150

  • Family: CZK 350 / 450