Las Yerbas Apothecary
Curatorial Research Residency by Liana_____Collective
Canal Proyects, NYC
July to October 2023
Themes: Plant intelligences, Futures Design, Decolonizing plant wisdom, Healing Plants.
Approaches: Anthropology and Design aproaches, Experimental Pedagogies, Art Dialogues, Speculative Design, Curatorial Practices, Action Research aproaches.
My role: Educator, Facilitator, Researcher, Designer, Storyteller, Strategic Communicator.
Curatorial Research Residency by Liana_____Collective
Canal Proyects, NYC
July to October 2023
Themes: Plant intelligences, Futures Design, Decolonizing plant wisdom, Healing Plants.
Approaches: Anthropology and Design aproaches, Experimental Pedagogies, Art Dialogues, Speculative Design, Curatorial Practices, Action Research aproaches.
My role: Educator, Facilitator, Researcher, Designer, Storyteller, Strategic Communicator.
"Las Yerbas" Apothecary (La Botica Las Yerbas) serves as a platform for dialogues among artists, Indigenous sabedores (Native thinkers), local communities, and researchers hailing from New York City and Latin America, all centered around the potency of sacred plants.
Combining aspects of an herbal market stand and an apothecary, "Las Yerbas" at Canal Projects aims to challenge Western paradigms of knowledge creation. It accomplishes this by placing emphasis on the medicinal properties of herbs, sacred plants, and other vegetal entities. During our residency, we will facilitate discussions, workshops, and gatherings, with the aim of re-envisioning the pivotal role of plants in guiding us toward a redefined future.
Combining aspects of an herbal market stand and an apothecary, "Las Yerbas" at Canal Projects aims to challenge Western paradigms of knowledge creation. It accomplishes this by placing emphasis on the medicinal properties of herbs, sacred plants, and other vegetal entities. During our residency, we will facilitate discussions, workshops, and gatherings, with the aim of re-envisioning the pivotal role of plants in guiding us toward a redefined future.
This residency involved a special collaboration with artist Tatiana Arocha who brought to the residency pieces from her installations Impending Beauty, 2017 and Decocainizing Coca: Challenging Western Narratives of a Sacred Plant, 2023.
Images: Alejandro Jaramillo and Angélica Cuevas
In Liana______, we constitute a multidisciplinary collective led by Colombian artists and social researchers: Angélica Cuevas (MA Anthropology, The New School), Juan Pablo Caicedo (MA Arts and Politics, NYU), and Giselly Mejia (MFA Transdisciplinary Design, Parsons). Our collective delves into the intricate relationships between humans and plants, as well as artistic expressions anchored in medicinal and sacred plants.
Our objective is to broaden people's perception of plants as active entities with their own agency. Our work ardently champions the mystical, political, and medicinal significance of sacred plants, as they consistently nurture and fortify numerous diasporic and local communities.
Throughout our residency, we will establish an experimental realm for collaborative learning centered around the healing properties of plants utilized by local and diasporic communities within the city.
Our objective is to broaden people's perception of plants as active entities with their own agency. Our work ardently champions the mystical, political, and medicinal significance of sacred plants, as they consistently nurture and fortify numerous diasporic and local communities.
Throughout our residency, we will establish an experimental realm for collaborative learning centered around the healing properties of plants utilized by local and diasporic communities within the city.
