Opening: 19.11.2022, 4pm - 8pm

Which connections can be drawn between caring for the Earth and caring for the body? The group exhibition Where Shall We Plant the Placenta? compares motherhood with ecology, and establishes connections between the two through mutual notions of nurturing and caring. The placenta is anatomically designed to nourish and protect the baby, containing hormones required for pregnancy and breastfeeding. Particularly in western countries, it is common practice for a number of hospitals and healthcare facilities to dispose of the placenta as medical waste, however, an alternate choice is to keep it for certain traditional practices, rituals, stem cell research and production, as well as for holistic and alternative medicine purposes. The placenta can be kept in the freezer until it’s turned into capsules to swallow or to be buried in a special place as a way of connecting the baby to a specific land and heritage. But what to do when you live in a city without a garden or displaced from your land and heritage? Then the question arises: Where shall we plant the placenta?

The group exhibition Where Shall We Plant the Placenta? is inspired by Molly Arthur’s “MotherBaby\MotherEarth” theorizations as well as Bracha Ettinger's psychoanalytical examinations of 'Carriance', a concept that symbolises the sublimation (from the 'real) of maternal carrying, as her theorizations are concerned with internal processes. Arthur develops the idea of a depleted Earth and draws a parallel between the communal grief felt in both nature and motherhood. Similarly, the mining and excavation of bones and blood from Mother Earth can be compared with changes and interventions that affect our bodies. This group exhibition subverts the concept of mother figures as caretakers, examines manifestations of partnership, and considers the environmental impact of humans through displaying dependencies and the role of genealogy in environmental transformations.

Image credits: Manjot Kaur, While She Gave Birth to an Ecosystem, 2022, archival print on archival paper, 28 X 38 cm

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Where Shall We Plant the Placenta? is supported by the Municipality of Rotterdam and the Mondriaan Fund.

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OPENING

19.11.2022, 4pm - 8pm

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EVENT

21.01.2023, 14:30—16:30
Transfer Resort: CLOTHING AS CORRESPONDENCE
by LENN COX & WIEDJAI DIHAL

During this workshop we will work with the concepts that align with the research of Lenn Cox, local resident Wiedjai Dihal, the neighborhood and the current exhibition Where shall we plant the placenta?, which compares motherhood with ecology and connects them from mutual notions of care and concern. Together we share, through transfer printing of images and text and the processing of textiles, what care and community mean to each of us and we look for where these meanings can come together.

You can purchase your tickets here.

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EVENT

11.12.2022, 14:30—16:30
To all my relations, ritualised performance and guided meditation
by SUSANA PEDROSA

To all my relations is a ritualised performance, inspired by Pedrosa's personal experience of attending sweat lodges - also called Inipi, the Lakota term for sweat lodge, which means “to live again”. The sweat lodge symbolically represents the womb of Grandmother Earth and the steam supports the process of purification and healing. This ritual is also called: “The house of the breath”. As we enter the sweat lodge, we all greet the space with the sentence: “Mitakuye Oyasin” (to all my relations).

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