The rebellion of the roots (Belgium), 2021

Botanical gardens and greenhouses in the European context are the buildings where plants brought from the global south, and mostly from tropical areas, are currently kept in captivity. Most of this colonial devices were built during the 19th Century in Universal and International exhibitions where the narrative of an industrial, developed and civilised Europe was built through diapositives such as the Eiffel Tower in Paris, when at the same time so called “human zoos”, botanical gardens, greenhouses and zoos were set up in order to sustain racist narratives in regard to global south territories, plants, people and animals. The racist protrayal created in the 19th century in order to legitimate the violence inflicted in the global south is one of the bases for contemporary institutional European racism imposed now a days by the migratory control system.

The paintings of the series “The rebellion of the roots” depict a series of situation in which tropical plants kidnapped in botanical gardens and greenhouses of Europe are protected and nurture by the spirits of racialized people who died in the hands of European racism. These plants find their own way to confront and make justice in regard to those politicians and authorities responsible of institucional and structural racism.