Regenerative Ecologies: Practices of Interspecies Care Within the Arts

Led by Aterraterra, the workshop invites collective reflection on how art can reframe regeneration: not as a process acting on non-human life as static subject matter, but as one in which other-than-human beings are active participants in a dense web of relations.

The first part of the workshop includes a discussion of Aterraterra’s experimental cultivation practices in Palermo and how their research intersects with art, science, and multispecies ecologies.  

In the second part, participants take a walk and observe and taste the plants in Spore's garden. They look closely at the plants growing there and in its surroundings, paying particular attention to species in ongoing or never-settled processes of domestication, such as wild chicory and thistles, which grow spontaneously alongside the garden's wild and cultivated plants. Through this kind of attentive observation – a method that artistic practice can help cultivate – we see how these plants adapt, spread, resist and surprise us with their unpredictable characteristics.  

These observations serve as a lens through which to view these plants as entangled in ever-shifting, ever-negotiated relations. This way of looking also reveals our role and the consequences of our actions within these relationships. Building on these encounters, we will reflect together as humans, growers, and artists on what regeneration might mean when it begins with an awareness of the interspecies dynamics already in place.  

This event is open to Berlin's community of gardeners, artists, practitioners, researchers, and neighbors. 

If you’re interested in this workshop, please register via the following form: Regenerative Ecologies – Registration  

This work was produced with the financial assistance of European Union. The views expressed herein can in no way be taken to reflect the official opinion of European Union.