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Archive: Learning from Artemisia

 
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Taipei Biennial 2020 | You and I Don’t Live on the Same Planet | Bruno Latour and Martin Guinard

Taipei Biennial 2020 titled “You and I don’t Live on the Same Planet” was co-curated by French scholars Bruno Latour and Martin Guinard, along with Eva Lin as the public programs curator. This exhibition invited 57 artists and teams from 27 countries and territories with specialized expertise in fields such as political science, sociology, geography, marine science, and relevant humanities and history departments. Considering that the world is facing serious ecological conflicts and that acknowledges and perceptions toward the world or planet are utterly disparate, the curatorial team introduces the concept of “political and diplomatic tactics” to create “new diplomatic encounters”.

 

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British Art Show 9 | 2021

Presented every five years, the British Art Show provides a vital survey of contemporary art in the UK. This, its ninth edition, has been developed at an extraordinary moment in British history, a time during which the UK was in the last throes of Brexit negotiations and, along with the rest of the world, finding ways to cope with a global pandemic. 

British Art Show 9 is curated by Irene Aristizábal and Hammad Nasar and is structured around three main themes: healing, care and reparative history; tactics for togetherness; and imagining new futures. The 47 artists in the exhibition look at how we live with and give voice to difference; explore alternative economies; and propose ways of living together that emphasise commonality and collaboration.

This dynamic catalogue includes two wide-ranging curatorial essays, over 200 colour illustrations and original texts on all 47 artists. 

Featured artists: Hurvin Anderson, Michael Armitage, Simeon Barclay, Oliver Beer, Zach Blas, Kathrin Böhm, Maeve Brennan, James Bridle, Helen Cammock, Than Hussein Clark, Cooking Sections, Jamie Crewe, Oona Doherty, Sean Edwards, Mandy El-Sayegh, Mark Essen, GAIKA, Beatrice Gibson, Patrick Goddard, Anne Hardy, Celia Hempton, Andy Holden, Joey Holder, Marguerite Humeau, Lawrence Lek, Ghislaine Leung, Paul Maheke, Elaine Mitchener, Oscar Murillo, Grace Ndiritu, Uriel Orlow, Hardeep Pandhal, Hetain Patel, Florence Peake, Heather Phillipson, Joanna Piotrowska, Abigail Reynolds, Margaret Salmon, Hrair Sarkissian, Katie Schwab, Tai Shani, Marianna Simnett, Victoria Sin, Hanna Tuulikki, Caroline Walker, Alberta Whittle and Rehana Zaman. 

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Conversing with Leaves

Publication released the occasion of the exhibition Conversing with Leaves by Uriel Orlow at Kunsthalle Mainz, November 30, 2019 – March 15, 2020.

“The title derives from the book of the same name written by Luther Burbank, a nineteenth-century American botanist renowned for watching plants and conducted numerous botanical experiments. Significantly, he used his knowledge to teach plants, as it were, as he considered them to be learning organisms that could be optimized and enhanced for human use. Although more than a century separates Burbank and artist Uriel Orlow, there are considerable overlaps between them, regarding the relationship between plants and humans, and the communication between them. However, there is one fundamental difference as regards their visions: Burbank specifically wanted to shape, cultivate, and enhance plants; while also interested in human influence on plants, Orlow does not himself exercise it, instead providing space for the plants themselves to tell the story. In media such as film, photography, and installations he uses archive and documentary material, the city, architecture and real people, to tempt the stories out of trees, flowers, herbs, and seeds — stories that are deeply bound up with humans, our past, our place in the world today — in short: our lives.

It is clear that plants have long served people and have constantly been made into witnesses of history, memorials to certain events, and therapeutic agents. Plants have for centuries been put to many purposes foreign to them, and have been exploited by all of us. That said, the ways in which they are used differ greatly, as do the interests involved.”

Stefanie Böttcher

Contributions by Uriel Orlow, Stefanie Böttcher, Lina Louisa Krämer, Shela Sheikh and Hans Rudolf Reust.

Monograph published in 2020 by Archive Books, Berlin.

More info can be found at Archive Books here.

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Learning from Artemisia

Artemisia afra, an indigenous medicinal plant, effectively treats and prevents malaria and can simply be taken as an infusion. Despite studies that show its effectiveness and the simplicity of its administration and sustainability of its local production, it is not recommended as a treatment by the World Health Organisation which appears to favour the pharmaceutical industry and its global reach.
Originally commissioned by the Lubumbashi Biennale, Uriel Orlow worked for several months with a women’s cooperative in Lumata, south of Lubumbashi, DRC. The cooperative is growing Artemisia afra with the proceeds funding a collective health insurance for themselves and their families. However, because of the lack of support on an international and local level few people are aware of this home-grown treatment.
For the Biennale, Orlow and the women from the cooperative planted a small Artemisia afra garden in Lubumbashi which was complemented by mural painted by Musasa and a live concert by the Lumata based music group Jeunes Etoiles des Astres who sing about the virtues of Artemisia.
Learning from Artemisia is an installation that consists of a three-channel video composed by a letter from the artist, a slide show of the process of production and processing by the cooperative, and a video of the song. The installation also consists of a series of small paintings commissioned by Musasa, visual research and Artemisia afra tea.
In 2019, Malaria continues to kill a child every few minutes and the parasite that causes it is becoming ever more drug resistant. In the 70s, research to develop new anti-malarial drugs led to the discovery and extraction of Artemisin from the Chinese variety of Artemisia used for two thousand years and now patented in medications. However, resistance is now also building up against the extracted artemisin. At the same time it has become evident that the non-extractive use of the whole plant is still highly effective, yet the plant is prohibited in many parts of Europe and scientific research is suppressed. Artemisia afra grows in different parts of Africa including the Congo and contains no artemisin (but a potent cocktail of minerals, including abundant copper) yet is still highly effective as an infusion; not only does it resist drug resistance but it also resists extractive medicine. In the context of the Democratic Republic of Congo whose colonial and postcolonial economy has been dominated by various forms of extraction (mainly of minerals) Artemisia afra can help us to imagine much needed non-extractive relationships to natural resources as well as local and sustainable healthcare solutions and forms of solidarity.

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