Anne Duk Hee Jordan

Soft Ground: A Children Museum

ChemicalMoonBaby

Mittelstrasse 12, 8008 Zurich 

From July 15, 2026

Soft Ground is a permanent children’s museum designed specifically for a child’s imaginative world. Anne Duk Hee Jordan conceived the project based on the forest ecosystem, giving children an immediate experience in which they can imagine themselves transformed into another living being. As a worm, beetle, or other inhabitant of this newly created habitat, visitors are invited to reflect on their place and role within a tightly interconnected ecological web.

At the center of the installation is an interactive floor, on which the continuous work and movement of various insects is animated. Whether intentional or accidental, visitors can directly intervene in this environment. Yet every disturbance is met with remarkable resilience: if a creature disappears, the insects multiply, setting in motion a cycle of renewal, adaptation, and persistence.

Oversized leaves, giant worms, and cocoons populate the space, opening up an alternative to familiar notions of play and perception. Size, distance, and scale become elements of playful exploration, embedded in the warm and inviting atmosphere of a late spring or autumn afternoon. Every surface — the floor, the walls, and the sculptural forms — is designed to be soft.

Within this multi-layered environment, Soft Ground develops an artistic intervention for children that encourages young museum visitors to experience the world from different perspectives and to rediscover the relationships between different life forms.