11.19 - 02.2020
This garden is a murmur of a forest song. It comes from the house of bears, the kingdom of daffodils, the land of sunny slopes and wild rivers, the home to the wise, observant and sensible. Like the glacier waters bringing flower seeds to spring at the meadows, the echo carries Padoviantales through the garden, letting them to root and blossom.
KRZAK IN PADOVO
The local community of Padovo extremely rich in experience with their surrounding flora has been our guide and source of ethnobotanical knowledge. We have worked on different ways to engage deeper in the context of the place and relations between humans and plants. It meant drinking clear alcohol beverages and eating kilograms of nuts during evening sharing of the stories. Being fed, hugged and taken for many walks. It also involved choreography of Huge-hand Collector, Noisy Trupeter, Digesting Belly and Thoughtfull Designer- our performative emobidiment intorducing us to our hosts.
THREE OBJECTS
Collected stories have been interpreted into speculative storytelling and physical objects, that now exist within the space of the Botanical Garden in Ljubljana. This soft data archive represents the character of specific plants and relationships they have with other beings in their surroundings. The objects are there to enable new sensorial experiences and understand the plant through the complexity of its features and meanings, rather than through latin names and numbers.
POEMS
Texts that complement them convey messages from the plants themselves, helping in navigating between all of the different incentives and understanding the space as an assemblage of stories, experiences, materials, flows, anecdotes, relationships, smells, sounds, memories and futures.
NUTCRACKERS AND STORYTELLERS
Inspired by one of our nights in Padovo we organised dinner in Botanical Garden in Ljubljana for Padovians who came to see the results of the project. We drank, cracked nuts and shared bread with honey and butter, nothing more was needed.
(Gaba Szałańska, Olga Roszkowska, Kamila Kantek,
Pola Salicka)
at BIO26 Biennial of Design
Padovo / Ljubljana, Slovenia
art residence - artistic research - performative dinner - performance - poetry -design
𝒮𝑒𝑒𝒹𝓈 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝓌𝒽𝒾𝓈𝓅𝑒𝓇𝓈 👁️𝓃 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓈👁️𝓁𝑒 ❀𝒻 𝓎👁️𝓊𝓇 𝓈𝒽👁️𝑒.
𝓔𝓿𝓮𝓻𝔂𝓸𝓷𝓮 𝓫𝓾𝓽 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓫𝓲𝓻𝓭𝓼 𝓒👁️𝓷𝓯𝓾𝓼𝓮𝓭 𝓪𝓫👁️𝓾𝓽
𝓣𝓱𝓮 𝓪𝓵𝓫𝓲𝓷𝓸 𝓽𝓻𝓮𝓮
𝔗𝔥𝔢 𝔱𝔥𝔲𝔫𝔡𝔢𝔯 𝔞𝔯𝔪𝔬𝔲𝔯
𝔬𝔫 𝔱𝔥𝔢 𝔤𝔯𝔞𝔦𝔫 𝔬𝔣 𝔰𝔞𝔫𝔡.
⚛★𝐿𝑒𝒶𝓃𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝓉💞 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓈𝓊𝓃 ★⚛
𝐿𝑜𝓃𝑔𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝒻𝑜𝓇 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝒻𝒶𝓇 𝒸𝑜𝓊𝓈𝒾𝓃𝓈
𝐿𝒾𝓉𝓉𝓁𝑒 𝓉𝑒𝒶𝓇𝓈
𝒮𝒽👀𝓉𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝒻𝓇𝑜𝓂 𝓎𝑜𝓊𝓇 𝓉𝑒𝑒𝓉𝒽
𝓐𝓵𝓵 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓶𝓮𝓪𝓭𝓸𝔀𝓼 𝓬𝓸𝓶𝓮 𝓯𝓻𝓸𝓶 𝓲𝓬𝓮
👁️ 👁️
We might be your friend, we might be your foe. We might save your sight but we might also blind you forever. Or maybe we don’t have anything against you as long as you keep your distance. See, we aren’t just one thing. We, the berries, the flowers, the leaves, the branches and the roots of Atropa Belladonna. Sometimes we don’t want to be seen, touched or eaten, other times - we try to get you to hear us, see us, we want to help you and heal your wounds. Be careful and sensible in what we want to give you and when we want to hide from your hand.
Do you see yourself in our shiny surface? Come closer, peak inside; just remember - what you will see might say more about you than about me.
HEAR AND SEEK - Navadna bodika - Holly - Ilex aquifolium L.
Have you heard the song of the birds living in my branches? They like to nibble on my fruit and I’m happy to be the feeder, the shade and the promise of festivity.
I have so many meanings and all of them are true. You are used to me looking like this - but that might not be all I can be. I have brothers and sisters in in different forests, but sometimes we’re not quite the same. I can be a tree or a little shrug; my berries can shine with festive crimson or appear pale as if they’ve never seen the sun.
Sometimes the difference between us is so clear, but sometimes you have to search, touch and listen for the answer (for it) yourself - be guided by the bird voices, hear how they song stops when the rain is coming./ be guided by the bird song, drowning at times in the sound of the coming rain.
CARE TENTACLES - Natresk - Common Houseleek - Sempervivum tectorum L.
You’ve found us with your eyes but you’ll learn through your skin.
You’ve came to us not expecting much, but we’ll give you all you could ever need. We won’t take anything from you - we don’t need more than a grain of sand to let us spread our forceful roots. We are your armour and best friends of your skin; we’ll heal your wounds and protect you from the thunder. We are here at your feet so lean in and look at our spiky yet hearty leaves, multiplied, growing as tightly as canned sardines : we might be everywhere but we are worth noticing.
We might not surprise you too much, that’s just not what we do. Just try to give in to being cared for and sheltered by us; celebrate the space you feel cocooned by.