A Eulogy To This Ground, Dillon (2020).
A Eulogy To This Ground, Dillon (2020).
A Eulogy To This Ground, Dillon (2020).
A Eulogy To This Ground, Dillon (2020).
A Eulogy to This Ground, Dillon (2020).

A Eulogy To This Ground
Vive les Groues, Paris
03.10.2020 - 03.10.2020

What histories does the soil, we stand on hold? What flora and fauna have made it their home, been lost, eradicated or relocated, so that this place, this city can be built? What survived, emerged and took hold between the cracks of such human habitations? A Eulogy To This Ground, takes the form of a situated ritual and tele-sorcery cast. Weaving narratives of lost, forgotten and extinct wildlife, urban sites are transformed into a consecrated places through which the memory for the plants and creatures, who live and once lived in this area can be remembered.

Working with structures already present in the Vive les Groues, urban garden in the Nanterre district of Paris, the garden’s yurt was transformed was paired down and transformed into a mediative space. Within the centre a pyre of plants taken from the garden, including Alfalfa, Clover, Fennel, Yarrow, Alinte and Japanese Knotweed, Basil was created. Around which kneeling stools were placed, with three screens looping a video in which images of the Alfalfa plant disappeared. Interjecting this image, a live performance was streamed in which a story about the history garden of the soil through the ages was retold.

Opening/premiere: Vive les Groues, Nanterre, Paris as part of Nuit Blanche on 3rd Oct 2020. Materials: Soil, plants [Alfalfa, Clover, Fennel, Yarrow, Alinte and Japanese Knotweed, Basil], screens, Jitsi, web-browser, Max MSP, open source botanical images.

Team: Teresa Dillon (concept, direction, performance). Production and installation: Irina Bogdan, with thanks to Thom Charli (curator); SCIC La Main (organisers); the team at Vive les Groues and Alberto.