IN SITU: PARADISO. PLANT PARADE

Plant motifs found throughout the interiors of Warsaw’s Royal Baths architecture—woven into arrases, sprouting from the hands and heads of depicted figures, painted on vases and wallpaper, or embroidered on historic tapestries—form the point of departure for Paradiso, a parade of plants. Static, decorative traces of past botanical voyages come alive in the park, weaving a sensuous, richly coloured tale of plant migration, exoticism, and the world of citrus. The performance unfolds by daylight, becoming part of the royal residence’s natural and architectural landscape. At the centre are the plants themselves—travellers in their own right. Behind them emerge the figures of pioneers and botanical explorers, and with them human resolve, driven by a host of different motives. Most moving of all is the agency of living beings as they pass through successive centuries and civilisations.

Plants have been in ceaseless motion for ages: carried by the wind, borne by animals, or migrating through human agency. Before taking root in new soil, they crossed continents and the borders of empires over generations. Citrus fruits offer a telling example: they reached Europe not as everyday foodstuffs, but as emblems of prestige and luxury. Before citrus trees became a familiar part of the Mediterranean landscape, they spent centuries as migrants. Initially the elite preserve of rulers’ gardens and wealthy collectors, citron trees appeared in a Persian royal garden near Jerusalem in the fifth and fourth centuries BCE, and later in the residences of Rome’s elite. Their long journey led from Assam and the Himalayan foothills through Persia, the Levant, and Mediterranean ports, and onwards to the orangeries of early modern Europe. Seen in this light, the orangery ceases merely to be a building: it becomes a technology for migration, a temporary refuge, and an architecture of hospitality for species unable to survive an alien climate without human care. In these spaces, plants from distant continents met, forming novel proximities and relationships with no counterpart in nature—much as people meet in ports, cities, and empires.

The Plant Parade is a ULYSSES Platform In Situ project that brings rhythm into the Royal Baths as a manifestation of freedom and collective energy. The artist explores how new traditions are grafted and how botanical collections have been displayed, turning gardens into exhibition spaces for centuries. The display of plants and their journeys becomes a composition in space. The performance unfolds in the water, around the Palace on the Isle and its ponds, its choreography springing directly from the architecture’s classical symmetry. The performance and music proceed simultaneously on the north and south sides of the building, producing two coexisting tableaux. The audience cannot experience the event in its entirety from any single vantage point; they absorb it while moving and from afar, poised between what they see and what they hear from the opposite bank. Both the audience and sound itself remain in constant motion.

Paradiso is also a self-contained musical experience. The work was composed for a countertenor, a rapper, a four-voice vocal ensemble, and the plant parade itself—performers wearing living, intricate floral arrangements integral to both the costumes and the sculptural articulation of space. The work unfolds over a fifty-minute structure comprising fourteen short scenes performed live. At its core is a recurring melody that travels among the voices, water, architecture, and participants. Looping is the means by which this acoustic fabric is built: small and large loops grow out of the rhythms of wandering, the passage of time, and recurring rituals. The loop becomes a figure for migration. It signifies not mechanical repetition, but the continuous flow and wandering of forms, melodies, and memories.

The movement seems to return to its point of departure, yet each time it is carried by different bodies, landscapes, and histories. The palace is no ordinary stage: water becomes the true instrument. The surface of the ponds acts like a giant membrane, carrying and reflecting sounds. Through water, we listen and transmit the voice. Hydrophones submerged beneath the surface reveal the site’s hidden acoustic layers, while the music travels between the banks. The parade gradually unfolds, each successive performer appearing like a new species introduced into a shared landscape. Sound, movement, and vegetation merge into a vast archive of movement. Paradiso tells of a landscape built from arrivals, acclimatisation, encounters, and care—a world in which plants have crossed borders for centuries, forming new communities and modes of coexistence.

Katarzyna Krakowiak-Bałka is an artist who creates sculptures, performances, objects, compositions, and sound installations that explore the languages of architecture description. Her aim is to create acoustic environments in which viewers-listeners can become part of the artwork and encounter architecture through sound. Exploring architecture’s boundaries, Krakowiak-Bałka builds large-scale installations from architectural structures. Her current concerns include articulating architecture in linguistic terms—as an imperfective verb and a space of becoming, taking different forms according to the function it performs as well as the sonic manifestations of human–nonhuman relations. She lives and works in Otwock and Oliva, Spain. She also identifies as a gardener: day by day, she attunes herself to the soil and plants, and learns from them.

Dates: Friday 25 September / 16:00 & Saturday 26 September / 13:00

Venue: Royal Łazienki Museum / Palace on the Isle

asthma rapper 
Michał Sławecki countertenor

proMODERN:
Elina Viluma-Helling soprano
Cornelia Sonnleithner alto
Hugo Paulsson Stove tenor
Piotr Pieron bass, artistic direction
Katarzyna Krakowiak-Bałka concept, script, direction, performance
Rafał Zalech musical narrative, viola
Anna Zeman costumes
Paweł Nowicki sound projection

Read more here and here