Botany of ruins

"And wouldn't it be conceivable,"Austerlitz continued, "that we also have appointments in the past, in what has been and is already largely erased, and that we go back to places and people who, beyond time in a way, maintain a connection with us?" 
W.G. Sebald, Austerlitz (translated by Patrick Charbonneau)

What can we perceive of a place's history? Walking around means paying attention to what places tell us about themselves and about us. And to the silence they sometimes keep. In spaces as diverse as landscaped parks, former sites of world's fairs or colonial exhibitions, prehistoric or Gallo-Roman sites, castles and other ruined buildings, or even industrial wastelands, Botanique des ruines sets out to question our physical perception of history—and possibly its blind spots.

During this workshop, we will carry out work similar to that of botanists: first, during a one-hour walk, participants will gather sensations and impressions of the place; then, during a writing session, we will take a closer look at the impressions we have gathered and link them to a broader understanding of the place, using a selection of archives. Everyone will be invited to write a personal text based on these various materials.

Together, we will attempt to "brush against the grain of history's overly polished surface," as Walter Benjamin invites us to do inOn the Concept of History—but also to carry out the iconoclastic gesture that philosopher Paul B. Preciado calls for: "Let's bring the statues down from their pedestals and climb on them to speak and tell our own story of survival and liberation" ("Pour un monument à la nécropolitique" [For a monument to necropolitics],Libération, July 4 & 5, 2020).

A Botanique des ruines was presented as part of the "Indispensable!" festival, organized by the Atelier de Paris / CDCN in September 2020, in the tropical agronomy garden of the Bois de Vincennes.

Cover photo: Reclining sculpture, tropical agronomy garden in the Bois de Vincennes © Pépita Wald