Ex Situ - Plants For a World Waiting to Germinate

This book is a tool. An invitation to become allies, to raise questions about the complexities and opportunities of an earthly site-specificity. It is a call for an alliance with plants. Plants allow us to tell sometimes painful stories and penetrate the stratification of history. Their roots inhabit it, and their seeds sprout, giving new meanings to it. The intensity and violence of enduring colonialism and its extractive processes imperil the planet. This is nowhere more dramatically apparent than in Democratic Republic of Congo. Here, Ex Situ embraces what arises from a locality, listening to it, learning from it, understanding its importance, and sharing it. The project aims to repair an ecosystem, and to act beyond the global economic system, including its values, narratives, teachings and institutions that produce our identity-driven, consumerist, nationalist societies. Acting with the culture of remedial plants, tilling the detritus of toxic ecosystems, and regenerating them, Ex Situ proposes cultivating a new sensibility of radical care.

Texts in EN /FR

An invitation to become allies, to raise questions about the complexities and opportunities of an earthly site-specificity. It is a call for an alliance with plants. Plants allow us to tell sometimes painful stories and penetrate the stratification of history. Their roots inhabit it, and their seeds sprout, giving new meanings to it. The intensity and violence of enduring colonialism and its extractive processes imperil the planet. This is nowhere more dramatically apparent than in Democratic Republic of Congo. Here, Ex-Situ embraces what arises from a locality, listening to it, learning from it, understanding its importance, and sharing it.
The project aims to repair an ecosystem, and to act beyond the global economic system, including its values, narratives, teachings and institutions that produce our identity-driven, consumerist, nationalist societies. Acting with the culture of remedial plants, tilling the detritus of toxic ecosystems, and regenerating them, Ex-Situ proposes cultivating a new sensibility of radical care.

Ce livre est un outil. Une invitation à devenir des alliés, à soulever des questions sur les complexités et les opportunités des spécificités d’un site terrestre. C'est un appel à une alliance avec les plantes. Elles nous permettent de raconter des histoires, même très douloureuses, et de pénétrer la stratification de l'histoire : leurs racines l'ont habitée et leurs graines sont prêtes à germer et à donner un nouveau sens. Lorsque nous pensons à l'intensité et à la violence des processus d'extraction coloniale, la République démocratique du Congo est l'un des endroits du monde qui les représente le mieux. Ex-Situ signifie embrasser ce qui émerge d'une localité, l'écouter, apprendre d'elle, comprendre sa valeur et la partager. Pour réparer un écosystème, nous devons d'abord réparer le système économique occidental, ses valeurs, ses récits, ses enseignements et ses institutions qui pourrissent encore dans nos sociétés identitaires, extractives, consuméristes et nationalistes. Agir avec la culture des plantes restauratrices, planter et reconstruire sur les détritus des écosystèmes toxiques, en essayant de les régénérer, est l'acte le plus sensé et le plus significatif que l'on puisse faire.

Preface: Elizabeth Povinelli
Authors: Merkal Abilwa, Marco Armiero, Bibatanko, Jackson Bukasa, Lucrezia Cippitelli, Luigi Coppola, Donatien Dibwe Dia Mwembu, Edouard Ilunga wa Ilunga, Nico Wassa, Kevin Kabambi, Petna Ndaliko Katondolo, John Mpaliza, Bérénice Mujinya Kweyi, Oduor Obura
Editors: Lucrezia Cipitelli, Dalida María Benfield and Christopher Bratton / CAD+SR
Editorial coordination: Rosita Ronzini

Publisher: Kunstverein Publishing Milano www.kunstverein.it
Graphic design: Lungomare Bolzano, Bozen
Editorial coordination Kunstverein: Katia Anguelova
Translations: Simon Chapman, Anne-Claude Ruet, Karen Tomatis
Illustrations: Merkal Abilwa
Images: Jackson Bukasa, Luigi Coppola, Kevin Kabambi
Paper: Materiaca Cobalt, Munken Polar Rough, Fedrigoni Giallo Oro
Typefaces: PP Editorial New, Caslon Ionic, Punk Nova, Maison Neue
Print: Rubbettino Print
Print run: 1000
Distribution: Les Presses du réel / www.lespressesdureel.com Idea Books / www.ideabooks.nl
ISBN: 978-88-32125-10-8

EX-SITU is a project conceived by Luigi Coppola and curated by Lucrezia Cippitelli for the 7th Biennale of Lubumbashi Toxicity (October- November 2022). It was developed in Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of Congo, in the frame of the educational program Ateliers Picha 2020-2022 The symbiotic planet and led to an artistic intervention at the Biennale and the conception of this book.
Project produced and coordinated by Ramdom (Italy) for the 7th Lubumbashi Biennale in the Democratic Republic of Congo, entitled Toxicity.
The project is made in collaboration with Picha Asbl (Lubumbashi, Congo); CAD+ sr (center for arts, design and social research) (Boston, USA); Royal Institute of Art (Stockholm, Sweden); IASPIS Swedish Arts Grants Committee’s international programme for Visual and Applied Artists, (Stockholm, Sweden); Framer Framed (Utrecht, Netherlands); Arts Catalyst (Sheffield, UK); Wiels (Bruxelles, Belgium).
Project supported by Italian Council (10th Edition, 2021), program to promote Italian contemporary art in the world by the Directorate-General for Contemporary Creativity of the Italian Ministry of Culture.
The publication is also supported by CAD+SR /Center for Arts Design and social research (Boston, USA)