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METAPHYSICS OF MIXTURE: NOTES ON POSTNATURAL GARDENING

Institute for Postnatural Studies, project: METAPHYSICS OF MIXTURE: NOTES ON POSTNATURAL GARDENING (hero landscape)

GENERAL INFO

LOCATION

Bordering Plants Exhibition, Akademie der Bildenden Künste, Wien

DATE

ONGOING

Curated by

Carmen Lael Hines, Adam Hudec, Roberto Majano

Typology

Video Full HD, Ongoing Research

The history of the vegetal world is the history of humanity. Botany is its ally, capturing its stories and flattening its narratives through an anthropocentric perspective. But plants do not belong to any garden. Neither do their forms nor their journeys belong to the history of science. Nor do they belong to the world: they are the world and world makers. From their roots to the tips of their stems, they show indifference towards humans, the cultures of their peoples, the alternation of their kingdoms, their wars, and their eras. Their flowers and leaves are mirrors. They seem to grow with the desire to merge with the earth. Their petals mimic the shapes around them, like the sharpness of a bird's beak, or the fold-like currents of wind, playing with the soil's tones while absorbing the solar dust that excites their veins.

Institute for Postnatural Studies, project: METAPHYSICS OF MIXTURE: NOTES ON POSTNATURAL GARDENING (fig. 1)

There are no invasive species. There are no bad weeds or toxic nectars. If there are plants that become drugs for humans, the more-than-human world vibrates in hallucinogenic reveries. Poison is not the substance but the dose. Plants are ancient migrants, strange beings, with cellular bodies. Their forms display the infinite ecologies of the living and the sentient. They are dark and opaque, and their branches form the neurological network of the universe. They connect the fertile soil with the sunlight and are home to insects, magical potions, and countless stories of resistance.

Institute for Postnatural Studies, project: METAPHYSICS OF MIXTURE: NOTES ON POSTNATURAL GARDENING (fig. 2)

Metaphysics of Mixture: Notes on postnatural gardening narrates, through six different species, hidden stories and tales that blur the relationships between culture and nature. From the mantles of green leaves that cover an entire country to the hallucinations and the possessions of the devil, from more-than-human alliances to witchcraft and migrations, from ballrooms and dance rituals to colonial violence and power structures, it invokes plants as allies, as living archives of the earth.

STILLS FROM VIDEO

Institute for Postnatural Studies, project: METAPHYSICS OF MIXTURE: NOTES ON POSTNATURAL GARDENING (fig. 3)
Institute for Postnatural Studies, project: METAPHYSICS OF MIXTURE: NOTES ON POSTNATURAL GARDENING (fig. 4)
Institute for Postnatural Studies, project: METAPHYSICS OF MIXTURE: NOTES ON POSTNATURAL GARDENING (fig. 5)
Institute for Postnatural Studies, project: METAPHYSICS OF MIXTURE: NOTES ON POSTNATURAL GARDENING (fig. 6)
Institute for Postnatural Studies, project: METAPHYSICS OF MIXTURE: NOTES ON POSTNATURAL GARDENING (fig. 7)

CREDITS

SCRIPT AND RESEARCH

Gabriel Alonso, Yuri Tuma, Lorenzo Zerbini

VIDEO EDITING AND SOUND DESIGN

Lorenzo Zerbini

Exhibition Design

Bilal Alame, Joanna Zabielska

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