Botanic Fictions —On the Political Narratives of Plants
With artistic and botanic contributions by: Chanelle Adams, Maria Thereza Alves, Pedro Barateiro, Natasa Biza, Joscelyn Gardner, Saskia Groneberg, Armin Linke, Jumana Manna, Pedro Neves Marques, Nikos Thymakis, Sung Tieu, Yiorgos Veltsos
Botanic Fictions—On the Political Narratives of Plants takes the pest-related symptoms suffered by the Athenian palm trees as a starting point for a temporary stocktaking. Through the formats of a research walk, a symposium and film screenings it examines the current state of the world through the motif of the plant. The relationships between landscape, territory, and nation are rendered visible through the botanical metaphors in everyday language, the political symbolism of plants, and the geological implications of ongoing colonialism, globalisation and extractive capitalism, among others.
An accopanying booklet opens up a more associative space, allowing for idiosyncracy, secondary lines of research and further artistic contributions.
Botanic Fictions—On the Political Narratives of Plants is a project of Goethe-Institut Athens. Curated by Anja Lückenkemper.
11 - 14 September, 2019, Athens, Greece