Imagine a world without hunger. A world where there is enough food for everyone. "With Cockaigne, an old term for land of milk and honey from France, the photographic artist Gregor Sailer places a long-cherished human dream at the centre of his exhibition: Food is abundant," says Director General and Scientific Director Dr Katrin Vohland, describing the idea behind the special exhibition.

What for many seems like a vision of the future is a reality that has long been lived in parts of the world. Amiens, France, is home to the world's largest fully automated vertical insect farm. And in Goja Haven, in Nunavut (Canada), surrounded by ice and snow, Inuit collectively produce plants such as lettuce and peas in converted shipping containers. As part of the EDEN (Evolution & Design of Environmentally-closed Nutrition-Sources) research initiative, scientists are working on how food could be produced on the Moon or Mars.

Gregor Sailer photographically captures these futuristic-looking production sites. His photos contrast two systems: on the one hand, highly diverse agro-systems that require a lot of human labour, and on the other hand, AI-driven, automated agriculture with standardised organisms and processes – and the promise to do without fossil energy, unlike current industrial agriculture.

Sailer's photographs open the eyes to these profound changes: for engineered fields, artificial habitats and visions of a production that puts efficiency above everything else. In his visual worlds, Sailer shows what agriculture of the future could look like and asks how we want to secure our food in the future – and at what price. Agriculture has never been pure nature. It is always designed space, characterized by human needs and ideas.

Gregor Sailer
The Austrian photographer Gregor Sailer (born 1980) works at the intersection of art, science and architecture. He took up his photographic training at the Prague School of Photography. This was followed by a master's degree in communication design with a focus on photography and experimental film as well as a master's degree in photographic studies at the Dortmund University of Applied Sciences. Since 2005 he has been working as an independent photographer.

The often years of planning and conception precedes the search for motifs and leads Sailer again and again to places that are not or difficult to reach for many people. Sailer's works have received numerous awards and have been shown in national and international solo and group exhibitions. Gregor Sailer lives and works in Tyrol.


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