WITCH CARE WHICH
Corinne Wiss
Corinne Wiss
WITCH CARE WHICH
main project for semester topic "Urban Nature"Website, work in progress, 2021
Growing up my mother created different rituals for me, teaching me about herbalism. Some memories are not archived in my brain, but are archived in my body. I try to investigate this archive. I try to learn from my mother’s knowledge.
Transmission of knowledge does not just happen in the family. I learn about medicinal plants from friends, acquaintances, communities. I am asking myself: What does it mean to co-create with nature? How to live together with nature? It is a thin line between care and violence towards nature.
To capture my relation to herbal plants I create an archive. An archive that shares the knowledge I was invited to. This archive is created between playfulness with the plants and critical observation of structures. I create rituals to rename plants, trying to break the western botanical power structure of name giving and categorization of nature. Through visual images I try to give a voice to Palo Santo (holy wood), screaming to finally stop burning him/her. I fabulate stories, what would a plant dream of? I experiment with different colors. I talk about exploitation of nature and workers and how plants are commercialized.
I record oral knowledge from my mother. These recordings do not just share her knowledge, they also examine and develop the relationship we have to each other. Leading to the question which spaces have to be created for exchanging with each other? Encounters face to face, not on a screen, creating a safe space to listen actively and to be heard. Should I even create this archive on a website?
The files are documented in different languages. Making some text incomprehensible to my mother, making some recordings inaudible for others. It is experimenting with if we can hold the void, the incomprehension. And nonetheless to listen actively to one another and to read with radical attention. My aim to give plants a voice could easily do the opposite, create the Corinne-Empire of knowledge. I actually imagine the plants laughing at me even thinking I have a slightest idea.
This archive is not finished, it will grow steadily. For me it is a playful way to archive my experiences with nature, trying to hear and see the experiences of nature. You are invited to collect and share your knowledge. Broadening together the definition of knowledge, building a platform of exchange, a platform of unlearning, to actually start learning. It is important to me to create an anti-capitalist, anti-racist, anti-sexist exchange.
link: witchcarewhich.xyz