The honeybee — we are aware of its important role as a useful insect and pollinator, although it is equally important as a biological indicator of environmental change. The disproportionally significant part it plays in ecosystems is becoming better known, not least because we have discovered the extent to which it is under threat. Through studying these insects, neurobiologists try to grasp how communication functions between nerve cells. And numerous contemporary artists engage with honeybees in their work, dealing with both the creature itself, with its highly complex social behaviour, and its products of honey and beeswax.

Beehave poses questions of how we behave as a society and what responsibility we must bear in order to finally do justice to our environment. It shows the seismographic role accorded to artists in relation to important current and societally relevant topics. This book appears on the occasion of the exhibition at the Kunsthaus Baselland, which is created in cooperation with the Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona. With texts by Simon Baur, Martin Dettli, Manuel Herz, Dieter Koepplin, Martina Millà and Hansmartin Siegrist, as well as a discussion between Ines Goldbach and artist Sandra Knecht.

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