Rethinking the human-nature relationship: ‘Terraphilia’ at the Thyssen-Bornemisza

This summer, the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza in Madrid invites visitors to experience a profound journey into the evolving human-nature relationship through the ambitious exhibition Terraphilia: Beyond the Human in the Thyssen-Bornemisza Collections. Curated by Daniela Zyman and running from July 1st to September 28th, 2025, this expansive project bridges centuries of artistic engagement with ecology, spirituality, and interdependence.

Beyond the human: a multispecies cosmos

A collaboration between the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza and TBA21–Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary, Terraphilia presents nearly 100 works spanning five centuries. Rather than following a linear chronology, the exhibition unfolds through thematic zones—dream worlds, cosmograms, land relations, mythical time, and oceanic archives—offering pathways to reimagine the world as a pluriverse, a reality composed of many interconnected worlds.

The concept of terraphilia—a love and kinship with the earth—anchors this show. By foregrounding care, repair, and relationality, it challenges dominant narratives of conquest and resource extraction. Instead, the exhibition advocates for a worldview shaped by more-than-human understandings of coexistence.

More-than-human perspective in art

Architect Marina Otero Verzier, with Andrea Muniáin, has designed a translucent, serpent-like structure that guides visitors through the shifting scenes of the show—mirroring the exhibition’s conceptual fluidity.

Among the standout works, Inês Zenha’s biomorphic ceramics pulse with vitality and resistance, embodying a queerness that dissolves rigid classifications between human, natural, and mythical. Her pieces suggest an earth that is not passive or fixed, but expressive, excessive, and in constant transformation.

In Daniel Otero Torres’ sculptural tributes to land defenders, hybrid figures emerge from raw materials—totemic, protective, and political. These works emphasize endurance over monumentality and present land not as territory to be owned, but as a living, reciprocal presence.

Ecology and art: interconnected histories and futures

The exhibition embraces a wide range of ecological art practices—from Renaissance landscape painting to contemporary scent-based installations. Sissel Tolaas’ olfactory project, whereareWEarewhere, disperses smells collected from elemental zones—Ocean, Earth, Human, Stratosphere—into the gallery, turning molecular interaction into a sensory map of Terraphilia.

Elsewhere, Josèfa Ntjam’s multimedia work draws on marine biology and African cosmologies to envision the ocean as a site of memory, mourning, and multispecies being. Her Siphonophore series imagines life forms built on mutuality—many-in-one—articulating an aquatic, fugitive form of resilience.

Terraphilia is accompanied by a comprehensive publication edited by Daniela Zyman and Álex Martín Rod. The catalog brings together leading thinkers across disciplines—from decolonial ecologies and Amerindian cosmologies to feminist theory and speculative fiction. Contributors include Báyò Akómoláfé, Marisol de la Cadena, Lorraine Daston, Macarena Gómez-Barris, and others, offering critical insights into the complex terrain where ecology and art meet.

Whether through ancient allegories or contemporary speculative practices, Terraphilia reminds us that the human-nature relationship is not only historical but profoundly alive—fragile, fraught, and still full of promise.