Tracing Agricultural Memory – Refiguring Practice
Summary
Initiated by visual artist, researcher and amateur plant breeder Åsa Sonjasdotter, in collaboration with practitioners of cultivation, the project Peace with the Earth – Tracing Agricultural Memory, Refiguring Practice revisits histories of agriculture. It investigates soil, habitat and dwelling histories, in order to challenge dominant cultural narratives of cultivation and ecological thinking.
Supported by
The Swedish Arts Grants Committee
HDK-Valand, University of Gothenburg, Sweden
Project Arts Centre, Ireland
Description of project
Initiated by visual artist and researcher Åsa Sonjasdotter, in collaboration with practitioners of cultivation, the project Tracing Agricultural Memory – Refiguring Practice revisits histories of agriculture.
A long-term enquiry, the project investigates soil, habitat and dwelling histories, in order to challenge and transform long-established cultural narratives of cultivation and ecological thinking.
The project’s title was borrowed from a call to action written in 1940 by two Swedish suffragettes and peace activists: Elisabeth Tamm (1880–1958, an organic farmer and one of the first women in parliament) and Elin Wägner (1882-1949, a writer on matters of ecology, suffrage and peace). Their proposal was based on: ‘…a long, hands-on experience of old as well as new agricultural methods and the effect they have on the soil, the animals and on the humans.’ Their conclusion was as simple as it was challenging, suggesting that ‘peace on Earth and a new and peaceful relationship with the Earth are inseparable’.
In their view, the reconsideration of human-kind’s relation to the land and soil is a pre-requisite to solving problems of peacekeeping, maintenance of health and soil, as well as demographic and educational challenges. Eighty years on, their call is alarmingly timely. Tamm and Wägner not only spotted problems that are still acute, but also proposed solutions for how to reconsider a sustainable relation to soil and the land.
Following in their footsteps, Sonjasdotter investigates the overlooked knowledge and role of smallholder farmers and kitchen gardeners, which were so often women and children. She points to the potential of cracks, reading between the lines of dominant narratives.
Type of work
Assemblage
Published in
Archive Journal #9, Archive Books, Berlin
Link to web site
www.archivejournal.org/current-issue/
Date
2020-04Creator
Sonjasdotter, Åsa
Keywords
agriculture
memory
refiguration
practice
smallholding
kale
Publication type
artistic work
Language
eng