Seed Bank project
Weed/un-kraut: an undesirable plant
Many garden weeds are edible, some being the ancestors of modern crops.
For this project the seed of six species of wild growing plants were used for interactive events at the Centre for Art and Urbanistics ZK/U, Berlin, with audiences during open-house events invited to make clay seed bombs to take home and cultivate.
The research for this project is based on a group of highly visible weeds around Berlin, endemic or naturalized to the local environment. Each plant is ubiquitous, having been harvested for food and medicine since humans began to migrate around the globe. Carried as seed for energy snack or fast growing crop of highly nutritious leaf, flower, seed or root.
Seed were collected over two months in vacant lots, parks, roadsides and construction sites where plants flourish unhindered, with other artists and curious art audiences eager to participate. Each location was documented for a type of food map for future foraging from seed bombs planted by participants to grow and harvest in 2017.
This research at ZK/U was undertaken to develop a concept for The Conceptual Cookbook, a long-term archive project that will explore edible weeds as a symbol of migration and adaptability, global food security and our impact and role within broader ecological systems. Each plant has an ethnobotanical history which will be explored during a project in 2017 at Prinzessinnengärten – an urban farm in Kreuzberg.