From 13 to 18 January, the exhibition “Meta Garden – Vanished Plants of Serbia” was presented at the Palace of Science in Belgrade. The exhibition was created by Jelena Novaković, a researcher at the Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory (IFDT) and a member of the Digital Society Lab (DigiLab) and the Environmental Studies Research Group.
The exhibition responded to contemporary scientific findings on biodiversity loss and the gradual disappearance of plant species – processes that often unfolded quietly and outside public attention, despite their long-term environmental consequences. Rather than focusing solely on data, “Meta Garden” approached these issues through an interdisciplinary format that combined research, visual representation, and digital tools.
Vanished plant species were presented as visual traces of former habitats, while augmented reality, accessed through the Artivive application, allowed visitors to view these plants in digitally reconstructed form. In this way, the exhibition connected environmental themes with digital practices, enabling scientific knowledge to be explored through visual and experiential formats.
Developed in dialogue with the permanent exhibition of the Palace of Science, “Meta Garden” linked individual plant species to broader Anthropocene processes such as climate change, biodiversity loss, and land degradation, highlighting their interconnected impact on living systems.
