rooting our cities: focusing on the unexpected guests

The Artists for Plants 2023 International Call is focused on artworks and creative projects dedicated to the plants world, and invites the production of works and proposals dedicated to the plants in the cities, also to those growing sometimes as wonderful unexpected guests, spontaneously popping up in the most unexpected places, taking their right of citizenship.

The call, named “Rooting our cities - focusing on the unexpected guests“, is developed in collaborations with the Botanical Garden of the University of Palermo (Sicily, Italy). The Garden is a two hundred years of history Museum of scientific collections of plant species, with a monumental Ficus macrophylla f. columnaris tree as a symbol. Over the years, it has acclimatised numerous species that are now widespread in many cities, such as Ceiba speciosa, Citrus reticulata and Eriobotrya japonica.

Creatives of all backgrounds (from all arts, from writing to poetry, to filming, photography, painting, multimedia, music, theatre, digital art and more) are called upon to contribute with proposals dedicated to the plants that grow in the city: on terraces, on roofs, on walls, on pavements, in public and private spaces, those that grow spontaneously, those planted by humans, native or alien, those that unfortunately are not there...

Plants that can be present, absent, future, past, clandestine or legalized. Plants in the city.