SEA BEHIND THE WALL | WORKSHOP | HARVESTING RESILIENCE: FORAGING AND GUERILLA GARDENING

Harvesting Resilience – a workshop series by Zeren Oruc

This workshop series gives you the opportunity to rethink your relationship with nature, food and consumption. You will be able to connect with different people in an exchange of skill, knowledge and thoughts.

What is this workshop about?

Harvesting Resilience workshops series are part of a long-term research project focusing on the food-land-culture relationship to examine the impact of our food production and consumption habits on the environment, land degradation, and forms of exploitation. Curated by Zeren Oruc, the project looks at how we eat our land, our cultural and emotional connection to food based on where it’s grown, and less extractivist practices such as disappearing knowledge of foraging, food banks, gardens, and more.

By using foraging and guerilla gardening in “community gardens” as one of the artistic and curatorial methodologies, the workshops intend to decolonize and reclaim urban landscapes and ecological narratives from the lens of BIPOC and people with migration backgrounds. While tackling mainstream Western environmentalism that dismisses indigenous and migrant knowledge, we want to relearn and share our knowledge in relation to the plant world and form new connections where we feel safe in nature. To facilitate the generation of this intergenerational and intercultural knowledge, we invite participants to join us, along with their elders*, in remapping Berlin’s foraging paths and sharing their experiences.

The workshops will be guided by curator Zeren Oruc, who is revisiting her place in gardening and foraging after relocating to Berlin, and horticulturist, forager, herbalist, and kochende Gärtnerin Lea Nassim Tajbakhsh. On the first day of the workshop, we will go on a guided foraging tour where we get to know each other and share our knowledge. On the second day, we will meet at Oyoun’s community garden for an intimate discussion about food, and belonging in nature, and revisit the idea of community gardens through guerilla gardening principles. The workshop dates are: 1) September 9-10, 2) September 29 and October 1, 3) October 28-29.

*The term “elders” here refers to older individuals who possess wisdom and knowledge to share and are not limited to family. You are welcome to join us with a neighbour or someone you might want to learn from. If you don’t know such a person, join us anyway, maybe you will connect with someone.

Dates:

1st Workshop: 9-10 September

09.09.: 10:30 – 13:30 h (Hasenheide)

10.09.: 13:00 – 17:00 h (Oyoun Garden)

2nd Workshop: 29 September, 1 October

29.09.: 16:00 – 18:00 h (Anita-Berber-Park, Neukölln)

01.10.: 11:00 – 14:00 h (Oyoun Garden)

3rd Workshop: 7-8 October

07.10.: 13:00 – 15:00 h (Treptower Park)

08.10.: 11:00 h (Oyoun Garden)

Language: English

Ticket: FREE ADMISSION!

Application: 

The workshops are open to those who self-identify as BIPOC, and are limited to 10 people. For the second workshop on 29 September and 1 October, please register until 25.09.2023 via this form.

You can also already register for the third workshop. For any questions or inquiries, please contact the curator at zerenoruc(at)gmail.com

Please come prepared for any type of weather conditions with warm/water-resistant shoes and raincoats.

Programme:

DAY 1: Harvesting Resilience: Waving stories through foraging

A guided workshop about the fundamental principles of foraging, local plants, their use, and sharing knowledge and stories. We will meet at Oyoun’s garden with a warm-up conversation and have a foraging walk.

Please come prepared for any type of weather conditions with warm/water-resistant shoes and raincoats. If you would like to collect plants and herbs on the go, we recommend bringing a pair of scissors and a canvas bag or a small container.

DAY 2: Harvesting Resilience: About the gardener

A discussion-based gardening workshop about our rights to green spaces, gardening communities, food, and more. We will meet at Oyoun and use a portion of the garden. Please come prepared for any type of weather conditions with warm/water-resistant shoes and raincoats.

Biographies

Zeren Oruc

Zeren Oruc is an independent curator who engages with and explores contemporary issues of ecology, society and sustainability through interdisciplinary artistic projects.

Her practice revolves around decentralised and non-hierarchical approaches based on long-term collaborations, with the intention of creating an environment that fosters open conversations and care. She has curated exhibitions and projects that illuminate the complexities of contemporary environmental awareness and rural ecology.

Zeren is co-founder of the Montemero Art Residency in Almeria, Spain, which focuses on alternative art production and land-based practices. In addition to her curatorial work, she organises curatorial sessions and workshops on mental health in art and fair practices and transparency in artistic fees.

As part of Listening to the Land, Zeren will organise food foraging workshops with local migrant communities as a platform for testing alternative ways of sourcing food, as well as guerrilla gardening tours to uncover ecological narratives in different Berlin neighbourhoods.

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Lea Nassim Tajbakhsh

Lea Nassim Tajbakhsh is a herbalist, horticulturist, perennial gardener & pedagogue for wild plants, who works in fields of Urban Gardening, environmental education, and indoor greenery.
To show gratitude for our ecosystems Lea Nassim studies plants & guides people and communities through learning processes about food and nature. By working against disconnection that keeps us apart from ourselves, she wants to strengthen her bond and the ones of others to nature through biology, ecology, botany, ethnobotany, medicine making, independency, fermentation, cooking, history, and storytelling. Lea Nassim studied horticulture and plant technology (B.A.), is a herb pedagogue and experiential educator, and is currently in training to be an urban nature and landscape guide.

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Photo: © Mahdumita Nandi

The project “Sea Behind the Wall” is part of the initiative DRAUSSENSTADT funded by Berliner Projektfonds Urbane Praxis as well as Senatsverwaltung für Kultur und Gesellschaflichen Zusammenhalt. Further funded by the Globus Opstart Programm of Nordisk Kulturfond