SEEING THE INVISIBLE
Seeing the Invisible was an Augmented Reality (AR) art exhibition initiated by the Jerusalem Botanical Gardens and Outset. It’s the first exhibition of its kind, developed in 2021 in collaboration with 12 botanical gardens in 6 different countries around the world.
Seeing the Invisible featured augmented reality works by more than a dozen international artists including Ai Weiwei, Refik Anadol, El Anatsui, Mohammed Kazem, Sigalit Landau, Sarah Meyohas, Pamela Rosenkranz, and Timur Si-Qin—including several artists’ first works in AR.
It was the first exhibition of its kind to be developed in collaboration with botanical gardens around the world, and season 1 simultaneously opened at twelve different gardens in September 2021. Season 2 of Seeing the Invisible opened October 2022 with new partner gardens across 8 countries.
Setting these digital experiences inside gardens, without disturbing the preservations, and keeping the carbon footprint to a minimum, the exhibition addressed themes pertaining to nature, environment, and sustainability and explored the boundaries and connections between art, technology, and nature.
Visitors were engaged with Seeing the Invisible via an app designed for the exhibition downloadable to smartphones and tablets. Visitors followed the suggested route around the garden, guided by a GPS map. An app notified the users when they were within range of an AR artwork and prompted them to place the artwork within a pre-selected zone that complemented the artwork. Once placed, the visitor could then view, interact with, and take photos of the artwork.
Seeing the Invisible was initiated by the Jerusalem Botanical Gardens and Outset Contemporary Art Fund with support of The Jerusalem Foundation, and was co-curated by Hadas Maor and Tal Michael Haring.




