Verborgen chemie

For two years, Mandy den Elzen investigated the active ingredients of 80 plant species and their historical applications from the garden of the Beguinage in Breda. As an artist, she connects botanical knowledge, historical sources, and research into the chemical properties of plants. Her curiosity lies in what takes place inside plants and how people have used them throughout the centuries.

Plants are sessile organisms and cannot escape threats. To protect themselves, they produce chemical substances that play a role in defense, communication, and interaction with other organisms. Bitter substances, tannins, flavonoids, essential oils, and alkaloids are examples of these. Over the centuries, these properties have led to applications in food, personal care, and medicine.

The Beguinage was founded in 1535. Beguines maintained gardens with culinary herbs and medicinal plants and possessed extensive knowledge of their uses, which was also passed on to women from the surrounding area. In the exhibition, Den Elzen brings together various plant species, each housed in a wooden cassette, with information about their constituents and historical applications. In this way, the connection between plant, constituents, human, and botanical knowledge becomes visible.

Mandy den Elzen (1981) works at the intersection of art, nature, and science. She is fascinated by nature and the ingenious processes that take place within it. In her artistic practice, she combines fieldwork and biological research with the collection and conservation of plant material.

'Hidden Chemistry – Plant Substances and Their Applications by Mandy den Elzen' is on view from January 16 to May 2, 2027.