Árbol de agua Instalación con telas imprimadas con plantas medicinales, Yauhtli, Muicle, calea zacatechichi, curcuma, spirulina guarumbo, guajes, capulín, palma chit, y otras plantas del monte. Espejos rotos y proyección de luz
La pieza funciona como un portal del tiempo, que lleva a los visitantes a una dimensión natural. Consiste en una serie de telas imprimadas con estas plantas que respiran vapores medicinales, y evocan a las plantas de la selva. distribuidas en una de las casas en obra gris de Nek Há. El movimiento del viento y la luz proponen una atmósfera que lleva a pensar en un futuro en armonía con la naturaleza por medio de reflejos, impresiones y aromas.
The Cosmic Seed Basket is a speculative vessel. In the shape of the seed of Colorín, of Tzité, of Erythrina americana it is currently nesting in Kew’s Garden in Wakehurst. A vessel across time and space, traversing a triangle across Mexico, Colombia and England. It was sent to rebuild relations where connections were lost, to reimagine reciprocal ways of being and knowing. This rebalancing of ecological relations, deeply informed by Indigenous knowledge, is also political. The Cosmic Seed Basket brings together many conversations with elders, healers and plant scientists, across geographies and cosmologies, guided by the seed and its inherent wisdom.
0 Seed as Spirit
To bring back the spirits of the seeds.
“That was the task ordered by the elders, the taitas up in the heavens and down in the Earth, as grandfather Berito Kuwaruwa told me when he consulted with them. They said this job has to be done, we need to bring back the spirit of the seeds. This seed is part of the law of origin.” (Cristina Ochoa)
1 Seed as Origin
Colorín. Tzité. Erythrina Americana. Names are part of this seed’s story. A bright orange, tiny cosmos. The origin of the world:
Colorín – Tzité for the Mayans, Tzompantle in Nahuatl – is deeply connected to the origin of humanity and time. According to the sacred Mayan book Popol Vuh, the first grandparents threw the seeds of Tzité alongside corn seeds to create humanity. In this cosmology, Mayans emerge as masters of time, time becomes malleable and traversable.
2 Seed as Oracle
Today Mayan Kʼicheʼ and Mexica peoples still read the future in the seeds of Colorín. Across her conversations, Cristina met Tata Cristóbal Cojti who reads the Colorín seed in Guatemala. It holds both the beginning of the world and what is to come. The knowledges of how to listen to the seeds is passed on from generation to generation. Yet, they can get lost if no one is left who remembers. Learning from elders in Tlapacoyan, in Veracruz, Mexico, Cristina met traditional healer Juana González who still works closely with Colorín, both as medicine and as oracle.
3 Seed as Medicine
If consumed, the seeds of Colorín are poisonous, yet the flowers are edible and delicious. The seed’s toxicity is hypnotic, it is an anaesthetic and relieves pain, yet it is also psychoactive. In its sedating, paralysing ways the seed of Colorín puts time on hold. It is a time traveller in many ways, also into stillness and paralysis.
According to Mayan practices, medicine goes where medicine is needed. Healing seeps where healing is needed. Might the Cosmic Seed Basket have been called to Kew’s gardens in Wakehurst to sense a healing of the connection of plant science to the cultural knowledge of plants?
4 Seed as Record
As pointed out by the Ancestors that Berito Kuwaruwa spoke with, the seeds have been called here to rebuild connection, to restore and heal the spirit of those seeds, of the same kind, that are held in the Millennium Seed Bank, a few minute’s walk from the Cosmic Seed Basket.
These seeds are frozen in a different way, at -18C in cold storage chambers their metabolic lives are on hold. In glass jars, they rest inside the seed bank, the most biodiverse place on the planet, where jar after jar is working towards creating an archive of the genetic biodiversity of wild plants.
5 Seed as Collaborator
The teams at Kew’s Millennium Seed Bank, which holds many records of wild seeds globally, work directly with partners in countries of origin to deposit seeds. Through the Cosmic Seed Basket, Cristina has started a conversation with seed scientists Slyvia Bacci and Tiziana Ulian on a collaboration with Juana Gonzalez, the traditional healer in Veracruz, on future collections of Colorín into the seedbank. Juana harvests Colorín seeds only on specific dates with the right words and intentions, closely observing the tree over time. This potential future collaboration would be one way of exploring how Indigenous knowledge and cultural practices can guide global conservation projects such as the Millennium Seed Bank.
6 Seed as Portal
The Cosmic Seed Basket includes twenty woven nets and small hanging sculptures. These are made of Colorín seeds and string, creating spider-weblike organic patterns. These woven nets are at once trans-dimensional portals and amulets of protection.
7 Seed as Memory
In spring this year, Doña Juana and Cristina went to a specific Colorín tree in Veracruz to make an offering, to speak with the tree before collecting its seeds. Doña Juana shared that ‘The tree wants to be remembered, it’s dying or disappearing, it wants its seeds to be planted in a special place’. This is what Doña Juana wants for her community, too – to be remembered.
8 Seed as Kin
Through the stories of Doña Juana, kinship with seeds emerges as a link between generations where communities act as the guardians of seeds across the past, present and future. Across Cristina’s practice, and the many conversations and knowledge that are woven into the Cosmic Seed Basket, Colorín seeds also become connections across cultures and practices, across knowledge systems and relations to the living world.
9 Seed as Future Plant
A seed is a promise that hasn’t happened yet. Hinting at the future lifeworlds contained in each seed, a small Colorín tree sits inside the Cosmic Seed Basket’s soft fabric shape of Colorín. Throughout the exhibition, this small plant that was grown by Jo and her team in Kew’s nursery in Wakehurst, is a reflection of the promise of seeds. Gently swaying in the wind, it feels almost animated by the bio-sonification sounds that are playing inside the seed basket, a rhythm of future life, of awaiting germination. After the exhibition, it will be planted in Wakehurst, continuing the story, song and call of the Colorín seed. A reminder of this journey and what it might mean to return the spirit of the seeds.
10 Seed as Voice
Inside the Cosmic Seed Basket, you can hear the voice of Doña Juana, describing her relation to the Colorín seed, its medicinal power and a tree that is very close to her heart. Yet there’s also another voice present. Almost bird-like the twitching sounds of a Colorín seed itself can be heard. Cristina asked Doña Juana for permission if the sound of the seed could be recorded and listened to. Recorded with sound engineer Eduardo Benitez through an electrode, the sound reflects the electric impulses and frequencies inside the side, asking what it might mean to imagine this as a voice, a voice of origins and future paths.
A few hundred metres from the Cosmic Seed Basket, in Wakehurst’s forested garden, deep underground, are the remains of a WW2 listening station. Extending the imagination of what it might mean to broadcast (literally, to scatter seeds) the voice of the Colorín seed, this abandoned listening station offers an invitation to imagine who else might be listening to the seed’s song.
11 Seed as Traveller
Through the work Kew is doing on seed longevity and viability, another offshoot has emerged from the Cosmic Seed Basket. Colorín seeds might travel to the International Space Station. They’ll be on this journey as both carriers of cultural and natural knowledge, a powerful example of how separations between nature and culture are a construct of a very specific Eurocentric knowledge system. Who might eventually come across these seeds?
12 Seed as Ritual
Doña Juana works with the Colorín seed in a variety of ways, to treat evil eye, to support endeavours, to release darkness and depression.
On June 24th, hold two seeds together, hold them up to your ear, and you will hear them, ‘thank you’.
13 Seed as Future, Seed as Beginning
Dr. Marleen Boschen Post-doctoral Fellow: Future Ecologies of Art Interdisciplinary Research Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
The Cosmic Seed Basket is a speculative vessel. In the shape of the seed of Colorín, of Tzité, of Erythrina americana it was nesting in Kew’s Garden in Wakehurst. A vessel across time and space, traversing a triangle across Mexico, Colombia and England. It was sent to rebuild relations where connections were lost, to reimagine reciprocal ways of being and knowing. This rebalancing of ecological relations, deeply informed by Indigenous knowledge, is also political. The Cosmic Seed Basket brings together many conversations with elders, healers and plant scientists, across geographies and cosmologies, guided by the seed and its inherent wisdom.
Dr. Marleen Boschen Post-doctoral Fellow: Future Ecologies of Art Interdisciplinary Research Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
Cosmic Seed Basket Cris0na Ochoa Mexico Site Specific installa0on 4 meters long, by 2.30. 2.40 Bamboo, metal structure Natural dyed coDon fabrics Sound from the Erythrina Americana Seed Voice Juana Gonzalez Tlapacoyan, Veracruz, Mexico Weaving Yolanda Sanchez, Tlapacoyan Veracruz, Mexico Juana González tradi0onal healer, Tlapacoyan,Veracruz. Mexico Eduardo Benítez Sound engineer, Mexico City Architect Juan Ignacio Cinich , Tulum, México Emily Jones, Curator produc0on manager Kew Gardens Wakehurst, Seedscapes exhibi0on “Seedscapes” 25th anniversary Millenium Seed Bank Marleen Boshen. Curator, Kew Gardens, UK. Produc0on structure building Set works, Croydon, UK. Produc0on manager on site Tlapacoyan; Veracruz Claudia López Produc0on team Tlapacoyan Mar0n Pimentel cultural touris0c promoter, and Totonaca leader Pablo López, cultural promoter, Tlapacoyan México Special Thanks Berito Kuwaruba, Spiritual Leader, Uwa people, Colombia. Guadalupe Corona, Grandmother, Tradi0onal Healer,Tetla, Tlaxcala, Mexico Tata Cristóbal Coj0. Aljib. Guatemala Don Valerio Canché. X-Meen Merida, Yucatán, Mexico Tiziana Ulian, Kew Gardens Gabina Sol Quintas Kew Gardens Coatepec, Veracruz Javier Calderon, Somers gallery, London, UK.
Bringing back the spirits of the seeds That was the task ordered by the elders, the taitas from up heavens and down earth, as grand father Berito Kuwaruwa told me when he asked them, they said this job has to be done. This is seed is part of the origin. The piece Is a 1me vessel in the erythrina americana seed minimum shape, amplified. The colorin, Tzité, for the Mayans, Tzompantle In Nahuatl is connected to the origin of humanity and 1mes, according to the sacred book Popol Vuh the first grandparents throw the seeds of Tzité along with the corn seeds to create humanity. The oracle practice of seed reading with the erythrina americana is s1ll in use by the Mayan quiché and by the Mexica who carries 260 seeds with precious stones in the sacred bag, and throw the over the mayan calendar Tzolkin or Mexica tonalpahualli. The Mayan created the concept of cero depicted as a seed or a shell. For the totonacas lak’tanga” o “lak’1lo” in Veracruz, this was also a sacred seed, a protector used to prevent form bad eye and cure spiritual and natural illness: envy, tooth pain, and muscular soreness as Doña Juana tell us. The 1me travels in numbers and codes, from dates of recollection of the seed to different purposes, on the first of march, for bad eye, on the second to protect a business, and so on, on 7th un1l the last ones on the 13 th of march, The effect of the ingestion seed is to stop 1me, as sedative, hypnotic, anesthetic and analgesic, and psychoactive agent
Inside this structure build with bamboo, iron and natural dyed coYon fabrics, with Colorin seeds, Dragons Blood, achiote (annayo), grana cochinilla, moons blood, zapote. The work of weaving of 20 nets of seeds are trans dimensional portals and amulets of protec1on. You find the sound of the Erythrina americana seed, taken from the electrical resistance thru a vegetal sound translator, the sound has a bird style codes, and Mrs Juana Gonzalez, voice in Spanish, telling her relationship with the seed and the tree. She’s a traditional Healer from Tlapacoyan, Veracruz. Who take us in her narrative to the seed as an interstoce on dimensional passage to 1mes, honoring her culture and the law of origin of American people, or Abya Yala. We will broadcast from this cero temporal seed sta1on and also grow a plant of erythrina americana the piece will be vanished and disappeared. Cris1na Ochoa
Telas de algodón, 108 acuarelas sobre papel, tierra, tejido en palma, frutas, texto sobre la pared, pinturas sobre cartulina negra
Instalación con 52 acuarelas de plantas del centro de México círculo interior y 52 acuarelas del territorio Maya, Circulo exterior, dispuestas en circulos de trece cuatro telas a modo de velas creando un espacio ritual en el centro con tierra y una cuerda suspendida para cubrirse. 7 dibujos y pinturas alusivas a tlazolteotl de 45 cm x 35v cm
Tlazolteotl es la madre transformadora en la cultura nahuatl, la madre de la medicina, de las plantas, de la composta, del suelo, el temazcal, el tejido, el algodón, la que provoca la lujuria y la perdona. Vive en el rumbo del oeste con sus cuatro hermanas que perdieron la vida en el parto, es la sangre que recorre nuestras venas , tlazol es amor, los españoles lo interpretaron como residuo, tierra. La devoradora de inmundicias, el amor transformador.
wall intervention
Tlazolteotl is the transformation mother, the compost, eating the dirt, is the love of earth, sexual and weat, temptress, weaving relationships, the medicine giver, the listener of the sins, the healer, the wise, the diviner, temazcal mother, corn mother.
INVOCATION TO TLALZOLTEOLT
I will listen to you, I will come to lick all your filth.
Ixhuina , take me, cleanse my flesh, pain, make me come and feel, cover me with your cotton, give me your blood, help me give birth, snake woman, take my pain, with every drop of sweat, with every moan. Fertile, abundant, orgasmic, seductive woman, earth, moon, carries the darkness, in her hand is the blue and yellow water, purifies and disappears dirt, transmits and shares, change everything.
Listen to my confessions, my secrets, protector of the desperate, of the lives of mothers, of births, of vaginas. Goddess of cotton, weave my broken threads, write the secrets of sinners, covered with the skin of a human victim and the tail of a snake. Queen of the transforming sacrifice that forgives sins, beautiful woman of cotton, goddess of healing, of plants, of sweat, of steam baths. Great fortune teller, give me the vision, mother of corn, mother of flowers, with the tail of a coral snake, the entrails and the feather of a turkey. Cleanse me with your earth, give me deep healing, between your open legs, make me reborn, with sacred plants sing in my ear with that dirty voice, while the stench transforms my body into fertile soil. Bite me, eat me, lick me, drink me, suck me, swallow me, listen to me, clean me, change me, take me out, let me grow leaves, let me turn into a fungus, let the microbes speak to me, let the bugs, flies and worms come, until I am light and fly in the feathers of the trees.
I hear the flowers, I hear the fruits, I hear your moans, I feel your heartbeats, the seed of your residue is born, in a spasm, life is born from your filth.
I give everything, I change everything, I take away everything, I heal everything, convulsing and crackling, everything heals.
Listen to the songs of death, listen to the pain of life, listen to the flower, listen to the mango, listen to the heart. The jicama sounds, the potato sounds, the cactus sings, the pineapple moans, suck, eat, enjoy, play, sing, jump, cry and laugh, writhe mortally, roll around in the dirt, you are the same, putrid and delicious. Feel the earth under your feet, mother I feel you under my feet, mother I am earth under your feet.
Pharmakon es un proyecto de investigación artística que abre la discusión para desmitificar el concepto ambivalente de ‘droga’. En Pharmakon se propone un laboratorio experimental, bioquímico y estético, en el cual se examina el uso histórico de diferentes sustancias y sus efectos en el comportamiento, cuestionando tabúes sociales y culturales con respecto al uso de drogas.
Ante la urgencia de una pedagogía, el tema de las drogas se aborda aquí desde una perspectiva estética y política. Tras realizar un trabajo de campo, intervenciones, visitas, encuestas, entrevistas y colaboraciones con diferentes grupos de personas, profesionales y espacios en Barcelona, se presenta un trabajo experimental dentro y fuera del estudio. Este comprende una serie de piezas y acciones alusivas a las sustancias psicoactivas, así como colaboraciones e interacciones que operan a modo de ventanas hacia otros conocimientos.
El deseo de controlar el comportamiento es tan antiguo como el deseo de intoxicarse a sí mismo, sin embargo ahora es necesario entender las razones por la cuales ciertas sustancias han sido utilizadas de forma recreacional y/o medicinal. En la búsqueda de una cura y de alterar el cuerpo se desarrolla la farmacopea moderna con la exploración y consumo de fármacos. Deleuze y Guattari entenderían la esquizofrenia como parte del problema de capitalismo. La locura está en tensión constante con el poder, mientras lo abyecto trata de ser delimitado por el estado, vigilado y normalizado. A pesar de que Hinduistas, orientalistas o chamanistas están aún encantados por exotismo y su fetichismo capitalista espiritual, quizá sea en esas esferas desde donde se puede aportar a la discusión una mirada menos ortodoxa o no occidental al reflexionar sobre el papel de la poesía, el arte y otro tipo de conocimientos no académicos entre magia, alquimia, chamanismo, ocultismo y hermetismo.
A través de una investigación en torno a la historia de la farmacia que incide en la propia noción de droga; la producción de pinturas y acuarelas con diferentes sustancias -café, vino, tabaco, marihuana, amapola, efedrina, peyote, cocaína, MDMA-; una instalación laboratorio con un glosario de drogas; y un video registro de viajes psicodélicos bajo el efecto de ciertas sustancias Pharmakon trata de romper paradigmas con respecto al uso de diferentes sustancias psicoactivas, cuestionando los mecanismos políticos de la prohibición, la gestión de placeres y riesgos, la guerra del narco o la prevención de la dependencia.
Así, en la locura y lo abyecto también se manifiestan visiones y voluntades de resistencia para emancipar la mente del capitalismo cognitivo. El Pharmakon sería una forma de acceder al conocimiento negado, el arte y la poesía un fármaco que activa la percepción y la reflexión.
La residencia de Cristina Ochoa es una colaboraciónentre SOMA (Mexico) y BAR project
