collaboration with Beatrice Catanzaro and Leen De Gaeve and Xavier Gorgol
How does a Palestinian use sage? What memories does the smell of thyme evoke in a Syrian? The uses of spices and plants have taken infinite directions and narratives. They have been domesticated, they have travelled, and they have become subjects of storytelling and anecdotes. As the spectrum of biodiversity is in danger, also many stories might lose their natural references and fall into oblivion.
Fatima’s Chronicles consists of mapping the cultural understandings of a number of plants and spices through narratives, anecdotes, medical uses and memories of different cultural communities. These narratives will give form to a multiverse of cultural heritage, and unfold the diversity of how we perceive and use some of the plants and spices of Jardin Essentiel.