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19/4/2012

Tropicomania

Betonsalon, Paris

Tropicomania: the social life of plants proposes to recount the trajectory of a few tropical plants such as the banana, the pineapple and the rubber tree, from their place of origin to our local grocery store. Using anthropologists Arjun Appadurai and Igor Kopytoff’s concepts of “social life” or “cultural biography” of objects, the exhibition sets out to map the socio-economic, cultural and political implications behind the circulation of tropical plants since the end of the 16th century. If the cultivation and consumption of produces from the tropical world have spread to the entire the planet, what are the implications of this expansion? Within the four commonly accepted stages used to represent the path of economic plants (i.e. domestication, exchanges, modes of production and regulation), what are the differences and singularities experienced by each of these? At what point does a plant enter a commercial circuit or acquire a symbolic dimension?

Starting from the archive of the Historical Library of the Cirad (Centre for International Cooperation in Agronomic Research for Development) located in the former Garden of colonial experimentation in the bois de Vincennes, the project Tropicomania aims to question the role played by the network of gardens of experimentation in globalisation. Bringing together artworks, scientific illustrations, archive documents, literary accounts and films produced in a variety of contexts, Tropicomania addresses the interrelation between science, exoticism and commerce, and the power relations engendered by this very alliance.

Image: Jardin Colonial, années 1910 Expédition de plants en « caisses de Ward », destinés aux jardins d’essai de Bingerville (Côte d’Ivoire), Sor (Sénégal), Papetee (Tahiti) © Bibliothèque historique du Cirad

Opening April 20th

Betonsalon
9 esplanade Pierre Vidal-Naquet
Rez-de-chaussée de la Halle aux Farines - Paris
Tuesday - Saturday 11-19

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