Wyrtig, Weedy House

‘Wyrtig, Weedy House’ was created in collaboration with Layla Durrani. In the bigger context of Art Rotterdam, it was an effort to ‘glitch’ the larger space of the art fair. As a result, a new reality emerges, but not entirely. The greenhouse structure was inhabited and brought to life each of the five days of the fair by different collectives of performers. These inhabitants recited -in canon- our revisited version of ‘The Nine Herbs Charm’ while tending to the plants, preparing each other tea, and engaging in activities of their own choice.

In reciting and re-writing (again) a century-old poem, we hope to re-establish a connection, however fragile, with past knowledges and practices that have been entangled with its words, with the labor and many voices that over time have been forgotten and, in some cases repressed.

Next to the ‘Nine Herbs Charm,’ our greenhouse sheltered ‘Greenness,’ a performative singing workshop created and facilitated by Bergur Thomas Andersen. Performers were learning/singing/canoning a song based on the first melody of Hildegard of Bingen’s “O viridissima virga” (O branch of freshest green).

_{Emma van Herk, Carolien de Valk and Alina Setjowikarto}

_{Stampa x Prospects @ Art Rotterdam (at min 33)}

_{Audio recording of ‘Greenness’, created and facilitated by Bergur Thomas Anderson}

_{‘Greenness’, with Bergur Thomas Anderson, Katrina Niebergal, Mylan Hoezen, Vera Mennens, Layla Durrani and Liza Prins}