Disclosure of the doctoral dissertation of Pablo Ramírez González

Plantifictions
Pablo Ramírez González_ solo show
Curator: Daniela Tagowska
Photos: Małgorzata Kujda
MWW Contemporary Museum of Wrocław

Curatorial text

The famous 15th-century Aztec lyrical work that begins with the words We only came to sleep/We only came to dream evokes a picture of interspecies coexistence in which the Nahuatl poet Tochihuitzin Coyolchiuhqui emphasises that the purpose of our life is not merely to be on earth in the human experience, but also to live in symbiosis with nature and transform with its biocycles. The poem could serve as a motive for the Plantifictions exhibition, which focuses on the notion of Mesoamerican materialisms seen through the prism of indigenous thought and con- temporary cosmologies that take into account the socio-philosophical perspectives of non-human beings. The exhibition consistently pursues the idea of rejecting anthropocentrism in favour of much broader inte species entanglements, such as the Chthulucene - a concept put forward and described by scholar Donna Haraway, who strongly advocates storytelling and myth as elements on a par with rational cognition. We can understand the premise of Plantifictions in the context of a rather poetic passage from Haraway's work Staying with the Trouble: Making Kin in the Chthulucene: It matters what matters we use to think other matters with; it matters what stories we tell to tell other stories with; it matters what knots knot knots, what thoughts think thoughts, what de- scriptions describe descriptions, what ties tie ties. It matters what stories make worlds, what worlds make stories [Haraway 2016, 12]. Pablo Ramírez González's practice follows this thought by deconstructing the hitherto ametaphorical language and methodology of the natural sciences and employing the language of art to address the need to create new interspecies collaborations, stories, archaeological fantasies and SF structures (i.e. science-fiction, speculative-fabulation, science-fact, among others). Plantifictions is a space where plants, objects, ceramic artefacts and technologies enter into post-natural "entanglements" to weave alternative narratives about the past, present and future. The artist combines natural, organic and synthetic entities, juxtaposes ancient ceramic techniques with contemporary biotechnologies and incorporates them into a vital weave of matter. Referring to the histories of slavery, land appropriation, monocultures, cloning and genetic modification, Ramírez turns towards extraordinary electricity-conducting materials and uses biodata to transform the audiovisual environments of his installations. The viewer has therefore the opportunity to experience a different coexistence with nature in the exhibition space, where myth and science operate within the same cognitive framework. The exhibition offers a space for reflection on possible scenarios for decolonial futures based on non-hierarchical interspecies relations and communication between humans and more-than-humans. The artist poses questions about the possibility of creating relationships beyond human exceptionalism. Plantifictions also draws attention to the limitations of the neo-colonial logic that per- vades almost every sphere of life today. Its questioning allows us to consider what it means to be human in a way that transcends Eurocentric perception. The overarching idea in Plantifictions is that of interspecies kinship, which includes non-organic systems (such as mythological, fantastic and archaeological organisms) and the very palimpsest of the walls of the Contemporary Museum, which become "overgrown" by the plants and sculptures grafted by Ramírez.

Press release

Plantifictions is a speculative fiction created at the intersection of ancient Mesoamerican materialisms and a modernity haunted by the colonial past of plants from the Global South. It is the practice of creating worlds based on an expanded concept of kinship and including non-human entities. Pablo Ramírez González combines ancient ceramic techniques with contemporary biotechnology and incorporates them into the vital weave of matter. Referring to the history of slavery, land grabbing, monocultures, cloning, and genetic modification of plants, the artist uses unusual materials, including those that conduct electricity and uses bio-data to transform the audiovisual environments of his installations. In the exhibition space, the recipient has the opportunity to experience a different coexistence with nature within a structure in which myth and science function within the same cognitive framework. The exhibition offers a place to reflect on possible scenarios of decolonial futures based on non-hierarchical interspecies relations and communication between humans and more-than-human entities. It is a space where plants, objects, ceramic artifacts, and technology build post-natural entanglements in favor of alternative ways of narrating the past, present, and future. links: IG: @Pvlo.rg Web: www.pabloramirezgonzalez.com Link Museum: https://www.muzeumwspolczesne.pl/wystawy/pablo-ramirez-gonzalez-plantifictions/