saturated soils

Opening: Thursday, October  1, 2026, at 6 p. m.

Exhibition: October 2 – November 12, 2026

Opening hours: Fridays, 3–6 p.m.

and by appointment

 

Workshop: decolonising botany #2

Saturday, October 31, 2026, 1–4 p.m.

Finissage: Thursday, November 12, 2026, at 6 p.m.

 

 

Saturated soils

 

Saturated soils stems from a garden sustained across generations: the garden of my grandmother. Situated in the village of Vojska in Serbia, it is nourished through the agricultural labour of three women: my mother, my aunt, and my grandmother. It establishes a material continuum between bodies, soils, plants, and temporalities, in which inheritance operates as an ongoing process of incorporation and transformation.

The body that eats from the garden is already implicated in its material histories. It incorporates the soil it has been tending through the plants and their fruits, while itself remaining subject to multiple processes constituted through continuous exchanges.

As a body is not singular, nor is it contained within the limits of its skin. It is, however, comprised through metabolic exchanges: through the absorption, digestion, and transformation of matter that exceeds the fiction of bodily autonomy. What is cultivated outside the body is continuously reworked within it, undoing any stable distinction between environment and organism, cultivation and embodiment.

Another aspect points to the practices embedded in cultivation, which propose a model of continuity based on care and sufficiency instead of extraction and excess. Here, the idea that everything must be immediately consumed, replaced, or made productive is replaced by patient and respectful observation of natural cycles, which are then harvested for growth. The embedded temporality and repetitive performativity of the processes of maintaining and caring for the garden are essential facets of the project.

However, the controlling impact humans have on their surroundings modifies the Earth’s crust through agricultural practices, whether on a small family scale or an industrial one. Saturation, in this sense, on the one hand implies the accumulated human impact deeply embodied within the soil histories of small family-scale grounds, while on the other hand emphasising the emotional value and care labour ingrained in every molecule of the tended soil.

 

Saturated soils is situated under the umbrella of Grafting a Garden / The Story of Rose Lilac, a project funded by the Ministry of Culture MA7 and the City of Vienna through the Arbeitsstipendium 2025.

 

Workshop: Decolonising botany #2

The workshop is grounded in an understanding of decolonization as an ongoing process through which participants engage with diverse topics and perspectives. It follows trajectories connected to human and plant histories, more-than-human anthropology, speculative storytelling, colonial infrastructures, and the cultural and aesthetic meanings embedded within botany.

The starting point of the workshop is the methodology of the project Grafting a Garden / The Story of Rose Lilac, explored through a text written by Jelena Batinić (the artist’s aunt) about the plants in the grandmother’s garden. Her stories evoke a continuous understanding of the relationship between plants and humans, weaving human emotions and desires into the lives of plants while granting them personhood and folkloric significance.

After reading the text, participants are invited to choose a book from the table and read a marked passage connected to a specific topic. These short, thought-provoking texts serve as tools for reflection, activating personal memories and forms of knowledge. Through this process, we begin to uncover how colonial infrastructures are embedded in our memories, emotions, and perceptions of the plant world, from the food on our kitchen tables to so-called exotic or invasive species.

The second part of the workshop focuses on the molecular aspect and materiality of plants through the technique of eco-printing. This method uses fresh or dried plant materials, such as leaves, flowers, and fruits, together with mordant-treated natural fabrics.

Participants would use collected rose petals from the family garden in Serbia to create prints together on a strip of first-aid cotton bandage previously prepared with mordant and fixative. Once the bandages are dry, they will become a sculptural piece in the exhibition.

 

Working language: English

Duration: 3h

Number of participants: 5–15 people