Fabulochory
Agnieszka Dragon, Anna Siekierska, 2023
All beings use their bodies and specially created tools to move. Plants, contrary to the human belief that they do not move, are extremely movable. And it is a collective movement. Plants use the help of other bodies and elements to spread themselves. The seed of the dandelion is equipped with a flying parachute, the greater celandine adds a fleshy structure to the seed - a delicacy for ants, the seed of bidens have horns that are used to catch hairy passers-by. Some species of birds, after eating mistletoe berries, sharpen their beaks on branches and scatter the sticky seeds, jays hide hazelnuts and acorns in cracks in the bark or holes of trees.
Seeds ultimately inhabit the soil, but they also continually go through various processes of circulation, storage, improvement or alliance-building. The seed's body is a carrier containing genetic information, but also a site of vitality and constant change - it is the biological matter through which different layers of knowledge, desire and power, and a broader understanding of nature, come together.
Different ways of seed dispersal have specific names in biology. Anemochory is sowing with the help of the wind, hydrochory with the help of water, zoochory involves animals. Through the forces of its own tissues and mechanisms, autochory takes place. Our human practice of seed dispersal belongs to the field of zoochory, despite strenuous efforts to separate humans from other animals. With the development of civilization and the emergence of new devices, we are dealing with technochory. There is also an extra-material way of spreading that seeds have taught us - fabulochory (Latin - fabula - story, fable). Each seed in the hands of a human being is a story that is remembered and passed on. This is how seeds can travel from hand to hand, wrapped in bags, knots and bundles, scattered in pockets, jars and on quickly folded envelopes.
The container is used to collect and store goods in it. Ursula K. Le Guin concludes that it may have been one of the earliest cultural creations. In her essay 'The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction'1, she describes the possibility of spinning a story from the position of the collector. Can a story about the daily collection of seeds into a container be as interesting as a hunter's tale full of sharp tools and fast-paced action? Story matters. We want to spin the stories of women collectors. We are giving a voice back to the people involved in collecting and storing seeds, and help to listen to the voices of non-humans.
Exhibitions
For the three exhibitions in Poland, we showed sculptures depicting scaled-up seeds of the greater calandine, bidens and lime. Photos of real seed containers could be seen at each location. This was an attempt to capture the different ways in which people hold seeds and pass them on to each other. The bean seeds brought back after the outbreak of war by a woman from Ukraine became iconic for us, in which the past, the future, identity and hope are revealed. The photographs are kept in the style of family albums and traditional photographic studios, as well as scientific publications documenting natural objects, i.e. stones, meteorites, insects. Unconventionally professional, evoking the aesthetics of early digital photography. An additional element of our work was to conduct walks in each city to overgrown sites, inviting participants to create their own seed containers. This became the basis for the development of the Fabulochory zine.
