2022, CrIss-Cross PollInatIon, SomoS, BerlIn

 Artists: İnci Eviner, Anwar Al Atrash, Jasmina Metwaly, Verena Kyselka, Manaf Halbouni

Plants, like humans, have been geographically displaced throughout history by settling from one settlement unit to another due to natural causes, such as seasonal cycles and disasters, or unnatural causes, such as commercial, political, and religious issues. As a result of the struggle of plants and people against the dominant species of the geography to which they migrate, devastating effects sometimes occur for the migrant and sometimes for the migrated areas. These two species, which must coexist in a politicized ecosystem, are intertwined parts of a larger whole.

The research process was completed with a combination of botanical archives and a series of social experiments and used the personal experiences of the participating artists as a guide. The exhibition questions all official and unofficial definitions of the immigrant concept and proposes alternatives. This exercise suggests replacing the term "immigrant" with the concept of Sojourner, inspired by French author Edouard Glissant's book Poetics of Relation, published in 1990, discovered during curatorial research. As the name implies, Criss-Cross Pollination uses "plants" as a central metaphor through plant-specific vital actions, emphasizing the critical importance of diversity and cross-pollination in response to the harmful effects of monoculture on intertwined plants and humans.

Inci Eviner's video, titled Parliament, makes one consider the European ideal through the suspended lives of imaginary citizens queuing at the EU Parliament Building in Strasbourg. To achieve this idea, the migrant must go through a series of difficulties that are against human rights and state systems. This suggests that the "red carpet will not be rolled out" for those who migrate on their way to the new ecosystem, and, as the phrase is, "they will have to earn it." Anwar Al Atrash welcomes the audience with a red carpet placed between the exhibition space's entrance and the majestic, monumental presence of the Parliament Building. However, just as people are not given a red carpet, if plants are in migrant status, they are subjected to a series of "paperwork"…

Verena Kyselka creates an artificial garden inspired by Berlin's diversity of communal gardens. The ecosystem that emerges with diversity is chaotic and not equal to all. Some members of this ecosystem can grow, while others cannot…

In Manaf Halbouni's work, politicians appear as one of the main actors of migration. The portraits of the politicians evoke the magnificent exotic gardens used as a symbol of power since colonization. On the contrary, can nature be instrumentalized to reduce tension? "Nature" appears as a buffer zone that helps to create lasting peace conditions, similar to the United Nations Peacekeeping zones that Manaf Halbouni uses as the subject of his compositions. Jasmina Metwaly, on the other hand, brings a strong example of the documentary to the exhibition through her profession.

Criss-Cross Pollination investigates similarities in the sociopolitical relationship between plants and humans through the act of migration. It aims to present a critical perspective on the effects of global migration policies, as well as the effects of alienation, belonging, and identity on immigrants, through works by five important artists who use art as a narrative tool.

Text by Ayca Okay