23 sanatoriums

"23 sanatoriums" 2014
Installation with plants

In 2014, this installation was created in an abandoned 19th-century sanatorium, originally used for patients with lung diseases, in the countryside near Moscow. The artist filled a once-healing room with 23 towering dried hogweed plants. While fresh hogweed is poisonous, causing burns and pain through its sap when dried it becomes safe.

This installation draws a symbolic parallel between the role of the sanatorium as a protective space for humans and the dried hogweed as a refuge for insects. With its strong defensive mechanisms, Hogweed becomes a sanctuary for 23 insect species from four different orders, offering them shelter from predators and moisture from collected rainwater. Just as the sanatorium once provided safety for its patients, the dried hogweed now serves as a safe space—for these insects, creating a sense of duality between protection and threat.

The installation emphasizes how both humans and insects seek out shelters, yet these spaces can transform, becoming both places of safety and symbols of vulnerability.