Freedom Sown from Seeds in San Basilio de Palenque – Medicinal Plants

Photography, film, video, non-fiction web based platform, and interactive electronics.

An Ongoing project and series of works started in 2013. It takes place in San Basilio de Palenque, Colombia, the first free settlement founded by runaway slaves in South America. The series includes different works as Bahareque (Adobe), Mala Hierba (weeds), calling Zoom IN the Plants and OUT on the Stories, Estera (mat), estera.migratedplants.com, etc… (See alexandragelis.com).

These works explore the use of medicinal, edible and ritual plants as a form of resistance. Migrated plants moved by the African enslaved population from Africa into San Basilio de Palenque help transform the new and unknown land into a familiar ground and surroundings by planting the African edible, ritual and medicinal plants. The travelling of these plants implies the transformation of the species due to the new surroundings; in the plants/humans relations, it also means shifting beliefs, transplanting records, and growing new stories in the ground that somehow become familiar thanks to the transplanted plants.