Degustation Menu for Carnivorous Plants. To eat or to be eaten?

In between tropical monsteras with fleshy leaves and resilient air plants, three artists take over the space of the contemporary, plant concept-store Rizom, aiming to construct a special botanical garden.

With reference to the 1960s horror film “The Little Shop of Horrors”, the artists Christos Delidimos, Konstantinos Ladianos and Xenia Vitos bring their own “Audrey Junior” in this chlorophyllic gallery. Seymour Krelborn, the star of the movie, manages to stop the shutdown of a small flower shop, by displaying a very peculiar carnivorous plant. The rare plant manages to attract the attention of the public and invigorates the small shop, yet it seems to languish in lack of its favorite food – human blood. As soon as Seymour cuts his hand, he discovers the plant’s hard palate and begins to feed the plant with his own blood. Audrey Junior grows up into the absolute local spectacle. On the other hand, Seymour gets challenged by the demanding diet. In order to please Audrey Junior’s appetite, the plant urges him to proceed with murdering one of his love rivals. Seymour examines the suffering he has causedwith his ideas, the needs of the plant, the balance between his life and Audrey Junior’s further growth. Don’t we all carry a petite Audrey Junior in our lives?

Sometimes we feed them, we develop them in a controlled way, and other times we neglect our self- care thus allowing each and every Audrey to take control of our lives.

All images shot by Andreas Vembos.