SEED CARRIERS
2024
2024
Why are we losing seed diversity around the world? And how can we secure the fundamental rights to seeds in Europe?
SEED CARRIERS is an initiative by the artist-run association Institut Plapamco and the network Let’s Liberate Seed Diversity!. Bridging the worlds of art, activism, and science, this audio-documentary series explores the possibilities of storytelling about seeds from a European perspective. In doing so, SEED CARRIERS addresses the accelerating decline of seed and agricultural diversity, which constitutes the foundation of all life.
Tackling the lack of societal dialogue around seed politics, SEED CARRIERS aims to create a vibrant body of knowledge reflecting endeavors to protect, provision, and develop seed and crop diversity.
Episode 1 "Seeds As Time Capsules" begins with a basic description of seeds. What are these fascinating living entities we call “seeds” capable of, and how are they kept? This episode features perspectives from genbank scientist Boulos Chalhoub at the Swiss center for agricultural research Agroscope, small-scale farmer and seed keeper József Hegyesi (Magház), and seed policy expert Katherine Dolan (Arche Noah).
Critically examining conservation strategies for seeds, their intertwined domestication histories, ancestral and newly established practices of commoning, and the human-plant relationships seed keepers engage with, SEED CARRIERS provides rich insights into the world of seeds, spanning both the so-called formal and informal sectors.
Join us on our three-part venture into the world of seeds. Listen to SEED CARRIERS Episode 1 “Seeds As Time Capsules” on Spotify,Apple Podcast and Soundcloud.
SEED CARRIERS has been developed by Alexandra Baumgartner, Anna Froelicher, Kim Schelbert and Matthias Lorimer of the European Coordination Let’s Liberate Diversity.
To receive updates on future releases and events, sign up for our newsletter below.
SEED CARRIERS is an initiative by the artist-run association Institut Plapamco and the network Let’s Liberate Seed Diversity!. Bridging the worlds of art, activism, and science, this audio-documentary series explores the possibilities of storytelling about seeds from a European perspective. In doing so, SEED CARRIERS addresses the accelerating decline of seed and agricultural diversity, which constitutes the foundation of all life.
Tackling the lack of societal dialogue around seed politics, SEED CARRIERS aims to create a vibrant body of knowledge reflecting endeavors to protect, provision, and develop seed and crop diversity.
Episode 1 "Seeds As Time Capsules" begins with a basic description of seeds. What are these fascinating living entities we call “seeds” capable of, and how are they kept? This episode features perspectives from genbank scientist Boulos Chalhoub at the Swiss center for agricultural research Agroscope, small-scale farmer and seed keeper József Hegyesi (Magház), and seed policy expert Katherine Dolan (Arche Noah).
Critically examining conservation strategies for seeds, their intertwined domestication histories, ancestral and newly established practices of commoning, and the human-plant relationships seed keepers engage with, SEED CARRIERS provides rich insights into the world of seeds, spanning both the so-called formal and informal sectors.
Join us on our three-part venture into the world of seeds. Listen to SEED CARRIERS Episode 1 “Seeds As Time Capsules” on Spotify,Apple Podcast and Soundcloud.
SEED CARRIERS has been developed by Alexandra Baumgartner, Anna Froelicher, Kim Schelbert and Matthias Lorimer of the European Coordination Let’s Liberate Diversity.
To receive updates on future releases and events, sign up for our newsletter below.
Filed under:
collabo,
audio
audio
︎︎︎ SEED CARRIERS is supported by Pro Helvetia, Migros Kulturprozent, Mobiliar Jubiläumsstiftung and Corymbo Foundation.
︎︎︎ SEED CARRIERS: Episode 1 “Seeds as Time Capsules” (released 29.08.2024) Publisher Verein Institut Plapamco, Production Alexandra Baumgartner, Anna Froelicher, Kim Schelbert, Matthias Lorimer, Music Andrew Morrison, Voice Acting Deborah Macauley, Mixing & Mastering Julia Häller, Music Mastering Daniel Good, Copy Editing Monique Todd, Graphic Design Emmanuel Crivelli / Dual Room, Illustration Lena Scheiwiller, Advisory Board Kenza Benabderrazik, Gilles Aubry,Simon Grab Contributors Tubi Malcharzik, Borbála Lipka, Weronika Koralewska, Radio 3FACH
Plant People Unite!
2024
2024
Plant People Unite! has emerged as an experiment, and a wish to create a collection of thoughts and suggestions on how to make bonds with plants, reflecting on our own practice. As a group of artists moved and inspired by the plant world, we aim to engage in a broader dialogue about what tuning into "plantiness" means to others and how we can all become a bit more planty in our daily lives.
Through an open call participants are invited to share a contribution to the fanzine project which will be presented during the exhibition How like a leaf I am at Photoforum Pasquart in Biel (Switzerland) from 14th of September 2024. The visitors of the exhibition will turn into participants when assembling their own fanzine on site.
With the fanzine Plant People Unite! We aim to infuse the exhibition space with the beautiful communal energy surrounding seed-keeping activities and other aspects we associate with human-plant encounters, such as gardening, foraging, observing, cooking, eating, and so on... We wish that the content of the fanzine will be nourished by multiple voices, languages and approaches to the theme Plant People Unite!
You are very much invited to participate .
The fanzine project Plant People Unite! Has been developed by Alexandra Baumgartner and Kim Lang under the umbrella of Institut Plapamco.
Through an open call participants are invited to share a contribution to the fanzine project which will be presented during the exhibition How like a leaf I am at Photoforum Pasquart in Biel (Switzerland) from 14th of September 2024. The visitors of the exhibition will turn into participants when assembling their own fanzine on site.
With the fanzine Plant People Unite! We aim to infuse the exhibition space with the beautiful communal energy surrounding seed-keeping activities and other aspects we associate with human-plant encounters, such as gardening, foraging, observing, cooking, eating, and so on... We wish that the content of the fanzine will be nourished by multiple voices, languages and approaches to the theme Plant People Unite!
You are very much invited to participate .
The fanzine project Plant People Unite! Has been developed by Alexandra Baumgartner and Kim Lang under the umbrella of Institut Plapamco.
Filed under:
fanzine
fanzine
bread eaters
2020 –
2020 –
Transcending geographical, cultural, and temporal boundaries, bread connects us to a multitude of past and future generations. The different tastes, shapes, food habits and values associated with the many types of bread being eaten around the world, are defined by its main ingredient: wheat.
We, the bread eaters, have coevolved with this crop. We have shaped its trajectory, as much as it has influenced our lives. From largely inedible grass, wheat evolved to sustain the rise whole civilisations. Its messy domestication history is still being debated by taxonomists. Today, wheat is a global commodity and one of the most important subsistence foods. Challenging the perception of crop plants as inanimate resource1, the work cycle bread eaters explores wheat in ‘its constant process of becoming’ (Head et al. 2012). Choosing from distinct moments of encounter between the crop plant and humans, the fluid research project suggests a subjective telling of the history of bread/wheat, shifting between observations on different scales and traveling through time and space.
The work cycle is divided into 4 chapters. While each chapter provides a different viewpoint on the subject, some elements loop back to previous chapters, or pop up in following episodes of the journey that bread eaters presents.
We, the bread eaters, have coevolved with this crop. We have shaped its trajectory, as much as it has influenced our lives. From largely inedible grass, wheat evolved to sustain the rise whole civilisations. Its messy domestication history is still being debated by taxonomists. Today, wheat is a global commodity and one of the most important subsistence foods. Challenging the perception of crop plants as inanimate resource1, the work cycle bread eaters explores wheat in ‘its constant process of becoming’ (Head et al. 2012). Choosing from distinct moments of encounter between the crop plant and humans, the fluid research project suggests a subjective telling of the history of bread/wheat, shifting between observations on different scales and traveling through time and space.
The work cycle is divided into 4 chapters. While each chapter provides a different viewpoint on the subject, some elements loop back to previous chapters, or pop up in following episodes of the journey that bread eaters presents.
Filed under:
artistic research
artistic research
More images coming soon!
︎︎︎ 1 The artistic research project evolves around what Jessica Barnes defines as the social worlds of wheat, the ‘the multiple ways in which the plant becomes entangled with human lives, in ways that are both derivative and constitutive’.
Le champ de blé planétaire
The planetary wheat field
2023 – 2024
The planetary wheat field
2023 – 2024
Getting physically and metaphorically “in touch” with wheat Le champ de blé planétaire1 establishes a space to grow, learn and exchange with and about the most widely consumed grain.
Situated in a public park named La Faraz, the collaborative project integrates an assemblage of peculiar interests; school children, dog walkers, curious neighbors, gardeners, wheat experts and artists alike will share the space with the wheat plants during nine months.
The surrounding community of La Faraz in the city of La Tour-de-Peilz is invited to partake in various activities on the 100 m2 wheat field such as plowing, sowing, harvesting, and bread-making. The project consists of a combination of manual and educational activities, alongside an artistic intervention and a panel discussion involving wheat farmers and social scientists.
Le champ de blé planétaire builds on the sensorial and aesthetic experience of growing wheat, fostering a spirit of cross-pollination and opening the possibility of a different way of doing things.
The project's pilot phase unfolded between Fall 2022 and Summer 2023. It involved early-stage manual work in the field and a sequence of workshops on the soil microbiome, specifically crafted for three primary school student classes.
Situated in a public park named La Faraz, the collaborative project integrates an assemblage of peculiar interests; school children, dog walkers, curious neighbors, gardeners, wheat experts and artists alike will share the space with the wheat plants during nine months.
The surrounding community of La Faraz in the city of La Tour-de-Peilz is invited to partake in various activities on the 100 m2 wheat field such as plowing, sowing, harvesting, and bread-making. The project consists of a combination of manual and educational activities, alongside an artistic intervention and a panel discussion involving wheat farmers and social scientists.
Le champ de blé planétaire builds on the sensorial and aesthetic experience of growing wheat, fostering a spirit of cross-pollination and opening the possibility of a different way of doing things.
The project's pilot phase unfolded between Fall 2022 and Summer 2023. It involved early-stage manual work in the field and a sequence of workshops on the soil microbiome, specifically crafted for three primary school student classes.
Filed under:
workshop
︎︎︎ 1 Le champ de blé planétaire (pilot) is a collaboration of Alexandra Baumgartner with the transdisciplinary platform foodculture days and the primary schools of La Tour-de-Peilz. The project is part of the platform’s perennial activities on the territory. Le champ de blé planétaire (pilot) is located at La Faraz, 1814 La Tour-de-Peilz, Switzerland.
Further information:
foodculturedays.com
Further information:
foodculturedays.com
Der Garten
2020–2022
2020–2022
We call it the garden of the Heidelberg Kunstverein. The only remnant, however, that suggests a horticultural intervention are the heads of the former sprinkler system protruding from the dense, partly withered undergrowth. Over the years, a chance community of plants has come together in the backyard of the Heidelberg Kunstverein - unnoticed and perhaps even unwanted?
In Der Garten Alexandra Baumgartner and her collaborators, biologist Andromeda v. Prondzinski, landscape architect Yanik Kloter and art historian Theresa Deichert, set out to expand the notion of tending to a garden. Every crack, groove, and joint, every overgrown border, and even the sealed paving stone terrace is proclaimed a garden.
In the site-specific work Der Garten at Heidelberger Kunstverein, Baumgartner looked at possible ways of interaction that challenge common practices of tending gardens. Understanding the garden as a method, a tool and a mirror the project seeks to advance new perspectives on ‘natural’ surroundings in urban spaces.
Going beyond the division into ‘native’ and ‘alien’, a way of looking at things is proposed that accepts a disruption of the planetary ecosystem and biogeographical shift of flora and fauna as a given. Displays of transitions, seams, imperfections, cracks, gaps or fissures quickly become the main object of study. Inspired by the flourishing mini-biotopes in pavement joints, Baumgartner and Kloter explored the different qualities of these interstitial spaces. Which surfaces favour the settlement of life? The duo‘s intervention aims at expanding the existing habitat joint in the garden of the HDKV, and in general the biodiversity of non-human organisms in urban space.
For this purpose, individual interlocking stones are replaced with precisely fitting objects of different materiality. The result is a multitude of self-contained micro-landscapes that nevertheless relate to each other through the existing network of joints.
The process-based project Der Garten was commissioned by the Heidelberger Kunstverein in collaboration with Die Biennale für Aktuelle Fotografie, public talks and workshops were held in Heidelberg during the summer 2021. Results of the artistic research are the site-specific intervention, the audio piece Der Garten and an accompanying publication.
In Der Garten Alexandra Baumgartner and her collaborators, biologist Andromeda v. Prondzinski, landscape architect Yanik Kloter and art historian Theresa Deichert, set out to expand the notion of tending to a garden. Every crack, groove, and joint, every overgrown border, and even the sealed paving stone terrace is proclaimed a garden.
In the site-specific work Der Garten at Heidelberger Kunstverein, Baumgartner looked at possible ways of interaction that challenge common practices of tending gardens. Understanding the garden as a method, a tool and a mirror the project seeks to advance new perspectives on ‘natural’ surroundings in urban spaces.
Going beyond the division into ‘native’ and ‘alien’, a way of looking at things is proposed that accepts a disruption of the planetary ecosystem and biogeographical shift of flora and fauna as a given. Displays of transitions, seams, imperfections, cracks, gaps or fissures quickly become the main object of study. Inspired by the flourishing mini-biotopes in pavement joints, Baumgartner and Kloter explored the different qualities of these interstitial spaces. Which surfaces favour the settlement of life? The duo‘s intervention aims at expanding the existing habitat joint in the garden of the HDKV, and in general the biodiversity of non-human organisms in urban space.
For this purpose, individual interlocking stones are replaced with precisely fitting objects of different materiality. The result is a multitude of self-contained micro-landscapes that nevertheless relate to each other through the existing network of joints.
The process-based project Der Garten was commissioned by the Heidelberger Kunstverein in collaboration with Die Biennale für Aktuelle Fotografie, public talks and workshops were held in Heidelberg during the summer 2021. Results of the artistic research are the site-specific intervention, the audio piece Der Garten and an accompanying publication.
Filed under:artistic research
Outcomes
Audio piece Der Garten, Heidelberger Kunstverein, Soundcloud, 2022.
Publication Der Garten, with texts by Andromeda v. Prondzinski, Theresa Deichert and Alexandra Baumgartner.
Audio piece Der Garten, Heidelberger Kunstverein, Soundcloud, 2022.
Publication Der Garten, with texts by Andromeda v. Prondzinski, Theresa Deichert and Alexandra Baumgartner.
The audio piece Der Garten (GE/EN) accompanies the visitor through the garden on site, where listeners can encounter the protagonists. While encouraging own observations, hints are provided on how to break-open paved areas and expanded them with a few actions.
Publication Der Garten, design by Studio ROLE, Zürich.
Images, publication Der Garten, Johannes Immel, 2022.