‘Travelling Plants’ explores the journey of plants across different territories and their impact on local cultures

If you are a plant lover (well, who isn’t), this exhibition is one you should not miss. Artists Karolina Grzywnowicz (Germany), Wendy Therméa (Reunion Island, France), Waylon D’souza (India) and Rashmimala (India) come together to bring you an immersive experience with Travelling Plants, a multiphase transdisciplinary project initiated and led by the Goethe Institut Chennai, in collaboration with the Alliance Française of Madras and the Institut Français de Pondichéry, curated by Lina Vincent, an independent art historian and curator.

“This collaborative project is one-of-a-kind and powerful way to bring meaningful ideas together through research and art. The first phase of the project commenced in early March, 2024, bringing together the artists for a research-focused residency at The French Institute of Pondicherry. During the residency, the artists had transdisciplinary interactions that offered the gravity of analytical systems and factual data to their creative explorations. They also interacted with beauty and aesthetics of a different kind, embedded in the microcosmic and macrocosmic elements of the botanical world,” Lina tells us.

Surrounding the central theme of plant migration, Travelling Plants sets forth a series of thoughts, responses, propositions and questions, inviting curiosity, participation and contemplation. The exhibition brings together the artists’ ongoing projects that represent their individual research lenses and creative processes, investigating varied socio-cultural, political and environmental concerns.

Travelling Plants explores the journey of plants across different territories and their impact on local cultures, environments and economies. The concept highlights the way in which plants, often transported by explorers, traders or migrants have taken root in new places and become essential elements of their new home. “My project (video installation with sound on water hyacinth mat) focuses on the territories of India and Reunion Island, my native land. Visitors can expect to discover a captivating artistic exploration of the water hyacinth, a plant that is both invasive and useful. My work aims to reveal the visual beauty of this plant while highlighting its complex ecological impacts. On entering the exhibition, visitors will be greeted by an installation that combines handmade water hyacinth carpet with video projection,” says Therméa Wendy.

This installation becomes a living painting, where movement is present. In addition, we can hear the sound of nature, the presence of man’s creations (a helicopter), and the artist’s voice, leading the viewer into a reflective experience.

Using the device of a timeline, Waylon D’ Souza creates a web of information and overlapping histories through printed textiles with Garden of Time: The changing landscape of the Southern Peninsula through fact and fiction. “My work is a deep dive into time through a multidisciplinary toolbox of paleobotany, botany, mythology and culture maritime and trade history, through custodianship, ancient to modern agriculture. This gives rise to imaginative emerging patterns evolving from these intersections with domestication and alteration of shared landscape. The aim is to cultivate an understanding of contemplative caution and bridge divides with sensitivity,” says Waylon, adding, “I have worked with fossils, plants, pollen, herbarium specimen photography, illustrations, insignia, photo motifs and digital collage, maps, fabric, and scents.”

Karolina Grzywnowicz’s Exotic Plants is a project about landscapes of power, the politics of planting and the ways in which territory can be colonised through plants. Any plant can be weaponised, but some are particularly well suited to this, causing permanent and often irreversible changes to the environment.

Plants are close companions to all beings. They are familiar presences on pathways, a sight one is constantly drawn to. In Rashmimala’s Trailing Traces (installation of paintings and drawings), the artistic gaze moves from mere glancing to an investigation. The project delves into the multilayered histories that plants carry within them, including their own migratory patterns.

The exhibition will travel across six venues in India and Sri Lanka in 2024 and 2025.

Apart from the exhibition, the event also includes a lot of exciting workshops, panel discussions, tree walks, art activities, and more. Professional make-up artists will showcase transformative power of plants and make-up through floral face painting, followed by portrait photography. The event will also witness the unveiling of the community project by Chennai’s own Parvathy Nayar, an installation bringing together contributions of photographs of plants from local surroundings.

Free entry.

June 14 to 29, 6 pm onwards.

At Alliance Française of Madras. 

Email: rupam@newindianexpress.com

X: @rupsjain