'A garden for a fish', Margit Busch, 2026. Installation at Rustenschacheralle 2-4, 1020 Vienna. Photo © Gerda Fischbach

A Garden for a fish

Defense and Dissertation

A garden for a fish

Disseration by Margit Busch
PhD Programme Artistic Research (PhD in Art)

A cryptic phrase from the future – “a garden for a fish“ – has set off a personal and artistic quest. Through exploring the history and significance of gardens in different cultures, her own experiences with a fish species that serves as a model organism in scientific research, and reflections on science and possible, probable, and preferred future scenarios, Margit gradually came to understand this phrase as both the seed and the model for a future research institute: a model for research, learning, and life in which humans cultivate a gardening relationship with nature, no longer perceiving it as an object but as a living, polyphonic system.

The installation represented this model and invited visitors to discover and discuss, explore and experiment. Spontaneous activities included exploring the microscopic world of the fish garden and the nearby Konstantinteich under a microscope, as well as taking a journey through time to the former Biologische Versuchsanstalt, a biological research institute once located on the Prater Hauptallee, whose history offers lessons about the entanglement of science and ideology.

Examination committee members
Virgil Widrich/Art&Science/Supervisor
Miya Yoshida
Matilde Igual Capdevila
Juliane Laitzsch
Hone Jones-Hughes

Fact Box

A Garden for a fish