UMA CONVERSA SOBRE TERRA (conversations on soil) was part of the Porto Bienal‘19 “The garden is the smallest parcel of the world and then it is the totality of the world.“ – Foucault. Uma conversa sobre terra is an ongoing conversational piece that uses the garden with its multiple levels of meaning and histories as a starting point to reflect on longing, belonging and the relation to the world. Using Soil as a metaphor and notions on rooting and uprooting in different life-conditions the work explores interconnected fields in human migration and how we treat the environment and host ourselves in analogy with the threatened eco-systems. Adaption is not only a crucial process in the reaction and regeneration of stressed ecosystems but also a question of resilience-building and conviviality in societies in times of increasing populism in the political landscapes. How do we make the world home?
Portraits are part of these conversations touching upon longing and belonging, language, identities, migration and (post)colonialism in every day‘s experience. Originating from the initial question: when do we decolonize the forest? sentences are used as poetic stand stills interrogating our relation to ecology and world making and turned into “Propaganda Banners“ for the display in the Garden.
As a consequence, the work invited through different time&artwork-exchange-gestures during the Bienal and after to commonly spend money for trees being planted in Portugal in collaboration with the regional Projeto Cabeço Santo – a growing landscape(image), as a lasting imprint and impact after the Bienal. This contribution seeks an active and expanding framing of landscape photography responding to local ecological emergencies and the reoccurring Forest Fires, the threats of Eucalyptus Monocultures in a country that is already prone to the impacts of Global Warming.
