Natural feeling, 2017, Qwas, Vzletana, Art Bat Fest, Almaty Art Biennale 2017, Kazakhstan. Tarpaulin, clay, paint, light, wires, soil, weeds. Photos: Rada Leu and Lucien Wampfler
In 2017, with the transcultural project Qwas and following an invitation by the Almaty art biennale in Kazakhstan, I travelled and crossed borders with plants. On a long train journey from Zurich to Berlin, Warsaw, Moscow, Turkestan, and finally Almaty, I collected common plants along the way. At each train stop, I picked a variety of weeds growing on and near the tracks. The plants were planted and cared for within a small portable garden travelling with me, all the way to Almaty.
At that time, Almaty was a city in full urban regeneration and I was impressed by the sheer amount of building work hidden by immense tarpaulins illustrating idealized landscapes. A trompe l’oeil of sort. Along the streets of the changing city, a large amount of street vendors were selling cups of exotic fruits displayed on colourful carpets. Collecting discarded tarpaulins, I transformed them into rugs. The trompe l’oeil fence originally depicted palm trees, foreign plants labeled “exotic” and therefore coveted as a symbol of escapism, while plants such as the ones I collected are usually considered as weeds or undesirable invasive species.
An obvious parallel and metaphor can be made between unwanted plants and unwanted humans. And I have been looking into the semantic and the modes of representations through which binary categories are perceived and communicated. Even though Palm trees might be categorised as an invasive species in countries such as Switzerland, their evocative power and desirability give them a privilege over other unattractive plant species. What gives value to natural beings?
Natural Feeling, 2017, Art Bat Fest 2017
On the same train journey, artist Anne-Laure Franchette collected common plants from stops along the way, and then placed them in pots on a piece of a construction fence banner, illuminated by a UV light. She mused about how some foreign plants are labeled “exotic” and therefore coveted, while others are considered to be weeds and marked as undesirable invasive species.
Lesley Ann Gray, Critic “Highlights from Artbat Fest 8”, Art Asia Pacific Magazine