Leiden University Student Repository

de Bruijn, Mia (2025)

A Sense of Man and Nature: an exploration of art exhibitions in relation to planetary cohabitation

Master thesis | Arts and Culture (MA)

This thesis explores how art exhibitions contribute to an understanding of planetary cohabitation. It investigates different curatorial approaches both in the traditional museum space, as well as in other art spaces. The research is based on an analysis of two different art exhibitions, namely the Digesting Tubes exhibition in the Artis Groote Museum and Sensing Otherness in MU Hybrid Art Space, and relates them to theories about planetary cohabitation, as understood by Bruno Latour, Timothy Morton, and Fiona Cameron. Though the setting, content, and the directness of connections with the non-human in these exhibitions differed in many ways, both connected the human to the non-human and tried to actively engage the viewer in rethinking their own relationships toward nature. They created awareness in visitors about the ecological problems that influence our planet and looked for ways to rethink the structures we know to be ‘human’ and ‘nature’, aiming to motivate visitors to change...Show moreThis thesis explores how art exhibitions contribute to an understanding of planetary cohabitation. It investigates different curatorial approaches both in the traditional museum space, as well as in other art spaces. The research is based on an analysis of two different art exhibitions, namely the Digesting Tubes exhibition in the Artis Groote Museum and Sensing Otherness in MU Hybrid Art Space, and relates them to theories about planetary cohabitation, as understood by Bruno Latour, Timothy Morton, and Fiona Cameron. Though the setting, content, and the directness of connections with the non-human in these exhibitions differed in many ways, both connected the human to the non-human and tried to actively engage the viewer in rethinking their own relationships toward nature. They created awareness in visitors about the ecological problems that influence our planet and looked for ways to rethink the structures we know to be ‘human’ and ‘nature’, aiming to motivate visitors to change behaviors and thinking patterns.Show less

planetary cohabitation, museums, exhibitions

Author

de Bruijn, Mia

Faculty

Faculty of Humanities

Specialisation

Museum Studies

Supervisors

Karin de Wild

ECTS Credits

20

Language

en