Botanical Garden, Basel, Switzerland
Exhibition: Mangrove Ecologies presents Radio Mikoko+
Mangrove Ecologies is an interdisciplinary exhibition that explores mangroves as both fascinating biotopes and living metaphors. Bringing together artists, scientists, craftspeople, designers, and technologists, the project investigates how the complex intelligence of ecological systems can guide more reciprocal, rhizomatic and interconnected ways of living — shaping a planetary diplomacy. At the core of the exhibition is Radio Mikoko+ ("mikoko" meaning mangroves in Kiswahili), a multisensory installation developed over nine months (August 2024 – June 2025) by artists David Muiruri (KE), Joseph Kamaru (KE), Ann Mbuti (CH/GER), and Yassine Rachidi (CH/MAR). Drawing on storytelling, field recordings, material experimentation, and cartographic research, the work leads visitors on a sonic and sensory journey from Lamu Island to Basel, tracing tides of memory, relation, and cultural exchange. The project draws conceptual inspiration from Édouard Glissant’s poetics of relation, envisioning mangroves as a metaphor for entangled, non-hierarchical systems of knowledge and belonging. Just as mangrove roots intertwine across borders of land and sea, Mangrove Ecologies explores how distant geographies, such as an ancient Swahili island town, Lamu, and a historic Swiss city, Basel, can be connected through shared experiences, stories, ecologies, and practices of care. Initiated by kuchanua, Planisphere, and the Lamu Youth Alliance, the project embodies a unique collaboration between Switzerland and Kenya. It asks what it means for a landlocked country to listen to marine environments, and how knowledge rooted in local ecosystems can resonate across continents. The exhibition is the culmination of extensive research conducted on Lamu Island, a place shaped by centuries of cultural movement and encounter. Here, the idea of “elsewhereness” emerges, not as disclocation or signifer for exoticism, but as a layered sense of belonging that transcends fixed boundaries. Visitors are invited to step into the humid embrace of the Viktoriahaus at the Botanical Garden, where the installation activates the senses through the moisture of the air, glimpses of mangrove creatures, and layered soundscapes from Lamu that echo the ebb and flow of the tides. Mangrove Ecologies is supported by Pro Helvetia and Swisslos, in collaboration with the University of Basel, EPFL+ECAL Lab, School of Commons, African Arts Trust, and T:or. The project is part of the Pro Helvetia Synergies Call, fostering transdisciplinary partnerships between Switzerland and other regions at the intersection of art, science, and technology.
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