Strategies of survival in times of heat
Plants, insects and humans form one related environment, co-responsible for each other. After all, thanks to flora our species began to lead a sedentary lifestyle. They are not only part of the landscape of agricultural areas and forests but are an essential part of urban life. The rich world of plants is a place of production of knowledge, often forgotten or civilizationally rejected, which nevertheless influences interspecies coexistence.
Annelotte Lammertse is researching social-political connections of dye plants growing in urban surroundings. Looking into the way these entities use colour as strategies of survival in precarious landscapes. Searching for forms of cooperation between human and non-human organisms, she invites us to befriend with the Polish cochineal and the St. John's wort – the insect and its host plant which are disappearing from the landscape. Their bodies contain red pigments that protect them from outside influences and predators.
On St. John's Day, the artist invites you to harvest collectively the flowers of the plant carrying the same name in the park of the U–jazdowski and create a healing oil. The anti-inflammatory and antibacterial preparation will be a proposal for community survival strategies and mutual interspecies protection in the context of climate change. Part of the meeting will be a shared meal, consisting of, among others, the Polish cochineal.
The workshop with Annelotte Lammertse is being held as part of {The Common Field} long-term artistic and research project, focused on the green surroundings of U–jazdowski.
