DOTE Garden is a physical space in the city of Palermo, conceived and cared for by the collective Aterraterra. It is born out of Listening to Seeds, the third moment in our Year of Listening. You can visit the garden by reading the stories of the seeds that have been planted in it.
Stories sprout when one listens.
Seeds tell stories of people and places close and far. Listening to seeds we hold space for what connects us as humans and non-humans.
A garden is a set of entangled relations, an ecosystem.
For the March public moment in Palermo, we invited people to send or bring a seed to a 100 m2 piece of urban garden that Aterraterra and Dancing on the Edge (DOTE) are renting.
A seed that is connected to personal memory, that tells us about the relations between humans and food plants, that uncloses stories of migrations and sometimes reveals a past linked to a difficult heritage…
We started listening to the soil and the species of plants and other forms of life already living and growing there, we listened to the different seed stories, and we planted the seeds. We will be following how they will grow together and possibly transform, as the ones of the same species will cross-pollinate.
DOTE Garden is a place to explore how the practice of gardening can inspire our collective and cultural practices, and to cultivate a sustainable and ecological way of working, critical to the dominant logic of production.
The seeds that have been planted so far are: No Seeds of Natascha from Amsterdam, Garlic of Magdalena from Russia via Berlin, Calendula of Magdalena from Berlin, Chickpeas of Lina from Palermo, Freesia of Alessandra from Palermo, Nasturtium of Marta from South Poland, unidentified seeds of friends of Marta from Poland, Small Eggplants of Nour from Lebanon, Ethiopian Eggplant of Fabio & Luca via Palermo, Chilies of Anastasis from northern Greece, Hybrid Chilies of Maureen from Indonesia/Malaysia via Amsterdam, Cucumbers of Lola from Milan, Red Chilies of Christian from Lebanon, Jabali Tomatoes of Christian from Lebanon, Squash of Christian from Lebanon, Squash of Fabio & Luca from Palermo, Red Chilies of Marta from Thailand, Pupi Chilies of Fabio & Luca from Palermo, Gratitude of Reza from Amsterdam.
Click here to read/see the different stories…
Photo by: Lina Issa
