How like a leaf I am
2018 – 2024
2018 – 2024
In
How like a leaf I am Alexandra Baumgartner explores seeds as cultural
heritage and common good – a resource shaped and handed down through
generations by both human and non-human influences. As the work progresses, seeds become trusted guides.
Observing, selecting, nurturing, protecting, tasting, sorting, storing, exchanging and reseeding are the driving forces behind the diversity of cultivated plants. Wandering through the gardens of private seed keepers and visiting state and community-run seed banks, Baumgartner collects encounters and stories shared around seeds that are meticulously preserved for the future.
From infinitely small grains, crops grow to be processed into food, textile fibres, fuel, medicines and cosmetics. Seeds constitute the basis of our existence. The standardisation of farming systems and a growing concentration in the seed market has led to a situation where today only 30 crops provide 95% of our food energy. As a result many locally adapted agricultural crops and varieties have disappeared in the last hundred years.
To think seeds is to think in cycles. A seed is simultaneously all the plants that have grown before and all those that will follow. In the cultivated plant lies the embodied relationship between humans and nature. How do we start making sense of these cycles?
Convinced that only an emotional bond with the plant world can spark transformative change, Baumgartner's work reflects a quest to conspire with plants. Oscillating between intensive research and introspective observation, How like a leaf I am portrays gestures of silent resistance against the ongoing loss of cultivated biodiversity.
Observing, selecting, nurturing, protecting, tasting, sorting, storing, exchanging and reseeding are the driving forces behind the diversity of cultivated plants. Wandering through the gardens of private seed keepers and visiting state and community-run seed banks, Baumgartner collects encounters and stories shared around seeds that are meticulously preserved for the future.
From infinitely small grains, crops grow to be processed into food, textile fibres, fuel, medicines and cosmetics. Seeds constitute the basis of our existence. The standardisation of farming systems and a growing concentration in the seed market has led to a situation where today only 30 crops provide 95% of our food energy. As a result many locally adapted agricultural crops and varieties have disappeared in the last hundred years.
To think seeds is to think in cycles. A seed is simultaneously all the plants that have grown before and all those that will follow. In the cultivated plant lies the embodied relationship between humans and nature. How do we start making sense of these cycles?
Convinced that only an emotional bond with the plant world can spark transformative change, Baumgartner's work reflects a quest to conspire with plants. Oscillating between intensive research and introspective observation, How like a leaf I am portrays gestures of silent resistance against the ongoing loss of cultivated biodiversity.
Filed under: series
How like a leaf I am, Aterraterra LAB Palermo, 2023. Images: Alexandra Baumgartner.
“Examine the space around you”, unglazed ceramic.
How like a leaf I am, Photoforum Pasquart, 2024. Image: Rudolf Steiner.
Interventions and events from the program «Experiencing the Planthroposcene», Photoforum Pasquart, 2024. Images: Daria Somoylova, Joanne Dänzer, Alexandra Baumgartner.
Satelite intervention at the Botanical Garden of Bern (BOGA) during the exhibition "Verkannte Verwandte", dedicated to wild relatives of cultivated plants. Bern, Fall 2024. Images: Alexandra Baumgartner.