Cemile Sahin, «BB – BORN TO BLOOM», at Kunst Halle Sankt Gallen, St.Gallen

What strategies does nature offer when war encroaches on every horizon? Can a flower become a monument, a camouflage, a myth? Entering Cemile Sahin’s first solo exhibition in Switzerland, we are confronted with a kaleidoscope of contrasts: mountain passes and military bunkers, luxury branding and Kurdish archives, alpine folklore and drone simulations. But nothing here is neutral. Every image, every flicker of sound, is a political act, carefully composed, defiantly poetic.

«BB – BORN TO BLOOM» unfolds across immersive LED walls and sculptural environments, drawing together two mountainous regions: Switzerland and Kurdistan. Two terrains, vastly different in symbolic currency, yet deeply entangled by a shared geopolitical history. Sahin places them in visual dialogue, exposing the hidden violence of romanticised landscapes and reclaiming nature as a site of resistance.

The Matterhorn, ski lifts, Rolex ads, TAZ 83 camouflage, on one side, Swiss identity is dissected through its own iconography. On the other, Kurdish mountain ranges appear not only as strongholds of resistance but as cradles of language, culture, and longing. The images flash, repeat, fracture. And just as they begin to settle into familiarity, they flip. Sahin reminds us, repetition is never innocent. Media are accomplices in violence.

A four-channel video installation forms the beating heart of the exhibition, built from a vast archive of sources, Instagram clips, family footage, army promotional videos, luxury commercials, comics, games. Sahin’s editing is urgent and algorithmic, echoing the digital feedback loops that shape perception today. But within this onslaught lies lyricism, the video cycle follows the arc of a day, from dawn to dusk, and the rhythm of seasons. Two flowers, Gula Xemgîn and the geranium, anchor the narrative. One blooms only in the Kurdish mountains, untamable and in exile’s refusal. The other, domestic and decorative, hides in plain sight, its red hue borrowed for Swiss military camouflage.

Sahin’s tactic is disarmingly effective, she confronts us with the seductive aesthetics of power, glossy surfaces, saturated colours, seductive slogans, only to unravel them from within. In the second room, resin-coated acrylic flowers resemble oversized nail art. They sparkle, they tempt. But like the title Born to Bloom, they also assert autonomy, reclaiming symbols of femininity as sites of force rather than decoration.

The final room deepens the confrontation. Gewehr im Schrank (Rifle in the Closet) presents an AI-generated newscaster reciting Schiller’s Wilhelm Tell, eyes locked into the lens. The Swiss myth of liberty and nature is mirrored with AI imagery of rifles hidden among wildflowers, alongside training footage from war simulations developed in Swiss universities. “Farewell, you meadows, You sunny pastures” becomes an uncanny refrain in a militarised landscape. We are left wondering, what happens when technology simulates nostalgia? When freedom is rehearsed in code?

Sahin’s brilliance lies in her ability to draw us in, only to implicate us. Her LED slogans, “YOU INVENT TRUST”, “YOU INVENT LEGENDS”, seem to speak directly to us. But gradually, the message shifts. We are not the intended audience. The address belongs to the mountains, to the histories buried within them.

«BB – BORN TO BLOOM» is not just an exhibition. It is a counter-image machine. It asks us not only to look, but to examine how and why we look. It insists that even in camouflage, the flower remains political.