plants as a site of knowledge
The film programme plants as a site of knowledge collects stories about the relationship between plants and memory, accounts that inform about the socio-political and economic entanglements present in ecosystems’ histories. What kind of memory do plants carry with them? To what extent are they part of cultural memory? Can time be turned back in ecosystems and if so, what are the (political) implications?
The films that will be presented during this screening reflect on how plants have been separated from their environment in the service of colonial representation or economic interests in order to circulate or be grown in another place. Plants are commodified. They are classified, categorised, picked, cut and photographed. Some of them are banned from entering a country as they are considered an invasive species. Behind these activities lie work processes that are often arduous, unhealthy and precarious. Since plants are always part of an entire ecosystem, the way in which they are treated influences their entire environment and hence these films deal with the entanglements between socio-political conditions and the ecosystems into which they are inscribed.
With works by Patricia Esquivias, Hanna Rullmann & Faiza Ahmad Khan, Shireen Seno, Tin Wilke & Miguel Goya
Curated by Enar de Dios Rodríguez & Marlies Pöschl
This screening took place first on-site at flucc (Vienna) on May 24 at 20:00, and it's part of a larger event which includes a “botanical walk” around the flucc area lead by Birgit Lahner, and artworks by GPC member Pille-Riin Jaik presented on the flucc billboards.