Plant Stories Radio | Anguezomo & Fetwei Tarekegn

PLANT STORIES is a current summer programme, running from June - October at ZK/U. This radio show accompanies, documents, and reflects themes and activities in the series, and shares related sounds.

Plants and humans share habitats and (hi)stories in many different ways. The community of human and plant life seems casual in its everydayness but is not at all self-evident – the presence of plants and human relationships with them are shaped historically, socially, economically, scientifically, and personally.

Together with artists, activists, researchers and guests, the event series PLANT STORIES asks: Which narratives and ambivalences shape human perspectives of the plant world? Which projections form part of the fascination for flowers, trees, herbs or indoor palms? What do plant stories reveal about the people telling them? Why are the relationships between humans and plants political? And how could they be different? The ways in which humans make sense of and deal with vegetation changes e.g. through colonialism, extractive economies, knowledge systems and aesthetic trends, but also through migration histories, medical practices, everyday life, care and affection. From June to October, many different artistic approaches and perspectives will come together at ZK/U to exchange and experience stories about and with plants, to remember and speculate, and to explore the emancipatory potential of different plant stories for living together across species.

Plant Stories Radio is a collaboration between PLANT STORIES curators Andrea Goetzke & Lina Brion and participating artists Anguezomo Nzé Mba Bikoro & Fetewei Tarekegn.

In the first episode, Anguezomo and Fetewei talk about their projects, themes and experiences in the series, which deal with the use of and relations with plants in struggles of resistance and liberation, plants as witnesses, as well as the urban garden as refuge for minorities and how aspects of class and race shape the plant stories of gardening.

Foto Credit: Stefanie Kulisch, Poster: BANK.TM