A Vegetal Encounter
May 28–September 19, 2021
La Casa Encendida (Madrid) and Wellcome Collection (London) present Un Encuentro Vegetal - A Vegetal Encounter, an exhibition that explores our symbiotic relationship with plants as shown through the work of Patricia Domínguez (1984, Santiago de Chile), Ingela Ihrman (1985, Kalmar, Sweden) and Eduardo Navarro (1979, Buenos Aires).
The plant world represents 85% of life and it sustains all living organisms on the planet thanks to photosynthesis. It is worth remembering that by means of this process plants convert inorganic substances like carbon and water into organic ones—carbohydrates—and they also release the oxygen for animals to breathe. Plants are sensitive beings. They bond with the elements and the living forms that surround them. Rooted in the ground, but constantly evolving, plants are able to construct alternative anatomies to survive and flourish. They breath, sense, feed and reproduce through their entire organism. They have memory, they communicate with each other, they create symbiotic communities and they influence the planet’s climate. Contrary to our common perception, plants have transformed humans more than we have transformed them. And surely the key to our prosperity and survival lies in them.
In keeping with this premise, La Casa Encendida organizes a program of activities—courses, concerts, film projections—out of which the core event is the art exhibition A Vegetal Encounter opening on May 28. Curated by Bárbara Rodríguez Muñoz from the Wellcome Collection in London, the exhibition presents the work of Patricia Domínguez, Ingela Ihrman and Eduardo Navarro.
“Our fellow plants left the water and colonized the mainland 450 million years ago. Homo sapiens emerged 300,000 years ago and today humans represent only 0.01 percent of the Earth’s biomass. Though we as humans are also creatures of the earth (“human,” from the Latin humus: earth), we have cut off our ties with earth and nature, regulating them as resources while denying the vital and fragile ties that connect all human and non-human life. The exhibition Un Encuentro Vegetal, and the three new artist commissions, will reimagine our relationship with plants and highlight their significance and agency.” Said curator Bárbara Rodríguez Muñoz.
We live on a vegetal planet. Thus, the exhibition and related activities are intended to make us reconsider plants’ role beyond their use for human consumption, to show how complex and sensitive these beings are and, furthermore, to encourage us to thoughtfully reflect on the plant world and the knowledge we can obtain from it.
The exhibition A Vegetal Encounter. Patricia Domínguez, Ingela Ihrman and Eduardo Navarro is conceived as a dialogue between the practices of the three artists. Their work slowly deconstructs the omnipresent artificial wall there is between human beings and nature, the wall that is devastating our ecosystems, our life and our health.
Patricia Domínguez presents five futuristic totem figures containing ethnobotanical reproductions from Wellcome Collection (London) and the Museo de America (Madrid), and pieces from South America and Europe owned by the Real Jardín Botánico and the Real Academia de La Historia (Madrid). She thus gives voice to the narratives of violence and healing incarnated by the material displayed.
Ingela Ihrman’s silent installation of corporeal algae A great seaweed day refers to her convalescence period by the seashore and thus suggests links between her intestinal flora and that of the oceans.
Eduardo Navarro’s expansive and contemplative drawings use biodegradable envelopes containing tree seeds. At the end of the exhibition, the seeds will be returned to nature and, in contact with the land, they will activate reconnecting us with the holistic humus. Written in collaboration with philosopher Michael Marder, Navarro’s performative instructions—encouraging us to imagine how a plant would respond—invite us to embark on a new path to vegetal enlightenment.
The ongoing collaboration with various partners, practitioners and collections will culminate with the exhibition Rooted Beings at Wellcome Collection in 2022.
Patricia Domínguez and Eduardo Navarro’s commissions are developed in partnership with Delfina Foundation.
Collection research and texts for Patricia Domínguez’s commission: Kim Walker, Cinthya Lana and Dominic Neergheen.
Exhibition designers: Futuro Studio
A Vegetal Encounter is a wide and diverse program of theme-related activities such as the courses “How to Tell The Story of Our Plants” and “Wolves, Dolphins and Zamioculcas: Research And Sound Art.” It also includes a workshop and a set of talks dedicated to the Brazilian writer Clarice Lispector under the title “Ecology of The Soul.”
In July and August, The Magnetic Terrace program of film and open-air concerts at La Casa Encendida will be also devoted to exploring our relationship with plants in film and music. And musician Lucrecia Dalt will present her multichannel sound installation Terra Preta.
