co-embracing natures
Did you hear the tuber murmuring? Gathering in the kitchen we get a feeling of textures, smells, processes and relations involving potatoes, perennial herbs and other beings. While peeling potatoes, we work on our alchemic notebook and imagine conversations among tubers, rosemary, insects, herbalists, artists…
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A Seed holds all its potential of its future.
Seed is self organised. Symbiosis is the way nature works.
Vandana Shiva
At the beginning of the year we reconnected with the teachings of plants and the diversity of knowledges. At the celebration of Earth Day, Vandana Shiva spoke about the oneness of seeds.
Read more: Between Us and Nature – A Reading Club #44Another seed brought to us in a conversation with a friend, was the Agricultural Cooperative of Somankidi Coura. While we were researching gleaning, she mentioned this initiative in Mali from the end of the 1970s, that has not been on our horizon yet. Starting to read about immigration, struggles and “The chili peppers strike” in “Sowing Somankidi Coura – A Generative Archive”, we would like to learn more together with you about this territory and the people establishing a self organised agricultural community, named the ACTAF initiative.
“The Somankidi Coura cooperative was established in a region, on a territory, that was the scene of multiple historical episodes, from the colonial period characterized by predatory exploitation of workers and land, to the attempt by Mali’s first independent president Modibo Keita to develop agricultural communities and lead his country’s return to the land. However, in contrast to the forced migrations of the colonial period or the managed migrations implemented by Modibo Keita after the country gained independence, the ACTAF initiative revolved around another type of mobility: a voluntary migration, an intentional „return to the land“ from Europe, towards Africa, outside of any migration management policy.”
Between Us and Nature is an ongoing reading club that chooses texts related to natural sciences, art, anthropology, postcolonialism and the (post)anthropocene from a mostly female* perspective. Attendees read passages together out loud, and share experiences and thoughts about the nature they live in. Looking beyond disciplines, the group creates a space to learn from and with bacteria, algae, fungi, soil and multinaturalist narratives.
NOTE the TIME: We start at 18:30 CEST. We have 2 hours of reading together.
Come and join us with an open mind here:
What: The Reading Club is in English language
Where: Zabriskie, Reichenberger Str. 150, 10999 Berlin
When: Wednesday 10th of May, 2023 18:30 CEST (sharp!)
Who: small group of lovely, people who would like reading collectively (personal rsvp is necessary:
RVSP: betweenusnature gmail com
Why: to read together, be inspired and meet people
Hosts: Eva-Fiore Kovacovsky, artist, and Sina Ribak, researcher for ecologies and the arts
In collaboration with Zabriskie Buchladen für Kultur und Natur.
References
Citation from the talk by Vandana Shiva at the Opening of the Spore Initiative in Berlin-Neukölln, 22.04.2023.
Raphaël Grisey & Bouba Touré (eds.): Somankidi Coura – A Generative Archive, Archive Books, Berlin, 2017.
Cities are like the mitochondria in our animal cells – they are consumers, fed by autotrophs, the photosynthesis of a distant green landscape.
Robin Wall Kimmerer
Meeting at sunset of the spring solstice, the reading is an invitation to gather practices of gleaning and to speculate about the possibilities of interliving in more-than-urban environments.
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The second edition of this interdisciplinary project invites me to speak about agriculture, food, health and climate change at a roundtable organised by the Fédération française des Maisons de l’Europe in the french rural region Lozère.
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Read More« Le jardinage se prête au modèle gestionnaire dépassant les limites du jardin. On comprendrait qu’une société s’en inspire – c’est l’enjeu du Jardin Planétaire – à condition d’en percevoir les dérives et de les éviter. »
Gilles Clément
Read MoreIn gathering roots, just plunging in will get you nothing but a hole. We have to unlearn hurrying. This is all about slowness. “First we give. Then we take.”
Robin Wall Kimmerer
We invite you to our first Biosphere Study Group meeting creating a moment together to broaden and rethink the understanding of the relationship between urban spaces and the natural landscape.
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Where does the city end and nature begin? On Sunday 4th Dec, the transdisciplinary Biosphere Berlin team offers a public walk along the Tegeler See. Join in us in a creative exploration led by artists and researchers of the complex urban biosphere, harvesting insights and new perspectives on ecological and social resilience.
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Investigating the relationship between Tegel residents, the biosphere and the city, in this walk we observe wildlife interactions in the area between the Flughafensee and the Tegeler See. For instance, we learn about human-beaver negotiations around the willow tree.
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