Research Symposium Plants & Symbiosis: Botany and colonialism

Plants & Symbiosis aims to let plant and forest ecologies guide investigations into notions of hybridity, prompting us to reorient photography away from classificatory precision and toward more reciprocal, situated modes of relation. Drawing on queer, decolonial, Indigenous, and environmental humanities the project explore how photography in an expanded field can become a practice of vegetal co-existence rather than distant observation.The aim of this symposium is to explore how multispecies ecologies reveal how forests are intertwined with colonial and postcolonial worlds. We have invited the two artists Michelle Piergoelam and Marie Karlsson to present their current practices. Michelle Piergoelam will present the project Fourteen Leaves and a Cup of Water as a photographic and research practice that rethinks botany through its links to colonial histories. It considers how working with plant perspectives and image-making can highlight embodied and resistant forms of knowledge rooted in enslaved and Indigenous worlds.Based on her interdisciplinary practice Marie Karlsson will discuss how biodiversity assessments can be combined with artistic expression to defend indigenous land against neocolonialism when traditional indigenous knowledge is regarded as less important by industrial developers. Afterwards they will engage in a conversation convened by Nina Mangalanayagam and Louise Wolthers. Bios:Michelle Piergoelam is an art photographer who reveals hidden histories and brings them to life in a layered manner. Work from her ongoing project The Untangled Tales has been shown at the Nederlands Fotomuseum and Museum Hilversum, among others. Her latest series, Fourteen leaves and a cup of water, is on display in a solo exhibition at Museum Naturalis Biodiversity Center and a solo exhibition at FOTO ARSENAL WIEN.Marie Karlsson is a craftswoman, visual artist, biodiversity assessment consultant. Her recent art project Bury my heart (2025) examines the impact of the green transition on natural values, reindeer herding and the Sami society and culture, as well as for other residents of the affected areas. About the research environmentThis event is part of HDK-Valand’s interdisciplinary research cluster focusing on themes related to environment, ecology, and climate challenges. You can read more about the research environment here:: Environment: Ecological and Climate ChallengesThe Symposium is free and open for all.