PLANT FEVER. 

With the exhibition Plant Fever, Ordrupgaard reveals how, in the nineteenth century, the then highly exotic foreign plants found their way into Danish homes. A veritable plant fever struck, and in a short period of time, plants became a natural part of everyday life. Potted plants are a common motif in nineteenth-century paintings, but the underlying stories about their global origins were ignored kan der finds en anden vending for overset? in Danish art history. As part of the massive plant trade that gathered momentum in the seventeenth century, many of these plants travelled great distances and transformed the fauna and flora of several continents. While several of them are endangered species in their original biotopes, they are flourishing in the living rooms around Europe. Nowhere more so than in Denmark, perhaps – the country with the most pot plants per inhabitant. The plants bring Europe’s colonial history into the living room whilst, at the same time, the plants form a bond with us, their caretakers, which may unlock a relationship with nature that is tenderer, more diverse, and historically aware.
The exhibition is the result of collaboration with the Hirschsprung Collection, and for the first time ever, two parallel exhibitions are staged simultaneously at the two museums.