17 May, 2023

Location: ISEA2023, Forum des Images, Auditorium 100
Time: 11 AM CET
By: Quo Artis & Epicuro Lab Collective

Presentation of the artistic research project Working Plants From Afar

Quo Artis presents Epicuro Lab's Working Plants from Afar , a project developed as a series of participatory workshops and an ephemeral installation at the garden of the Museum of the History of Inmigration in Catalonia (MhiC). This initiative takes the sowing of the plant commonly known as rapeseed, and the observation of its growth, to reflect on the meaning and use of plant species and their parallels with human immigration.

The cultivation of oilseed rape (another name of the same plant) invites us to reflect. No organism exists in isolation from other organisms, or as an absolutely independent entity. Each living thing constitutes interactions with the others to form a biocenosis, a community of living things. Despite its solitary lack of recognition, the rapeseed is the best exponent of what can be called a proletarian and planetary biocenosis, a community of plants that work for their masters without rights or recognition, which we modify to serve our interests.

The installation will allow the museum to extend the narrative of immigration, which begins within the walls of the main building, out into the garden and the urban ecosystem.