17.09. - 04.11.
screening Lindenstrasse 35 Berlin,
daily 6 pm – 12 am

Katarzyna Kozyra
A Dream of Linnaeus` Daughter, 2018, 7:04 min


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A Dream of Linnaeus` Daughter was shot in Uppsala, in the gardens of Carl Linnaeus, famous Swedish botanist living in the 18th century who invented the classification system of organisms and the theory of sexual reproduction of plants, whose nomenclature derived from human sexual anatomy sparked universal outrage at the time. In her work, Kozyra acts as Elisabeth Christina von Linné, one of Linnaeus` five daughters, an exceptionally talented figure forgotten by history, who could never take up studies, but still followed the steps of her father and became a botanist. In Kozyra`s interpretation, Elisabeth conducts a choir singing Ludwig van Beethoven`s famous Ode to Joy but... with the voices of such animals as a dog, donkey, cow, horse, goat or monkey. The creatures moo and squeal the anthem of the European Union while standing on typical pallets that symbolise Noah`s Ark. What an irony of fate: in Kozyra`s piece the daughter of the founder of an organism classification system based on difference builds a new world order that levels all differences, deeming all creatures equal.