The Planetary Wheat FieldAlexandra Baumgartner

(CH)

Mediation, Territory, Natureculture, Agroecology, Land art, Agriculture, Commons

A public art and observation workshop for primary schools. The workshop is part of an interactive outreach program with sixty students aged 8-11 from primary schools of La Tour-de-Peliz.

The Planetary Wheat Field invites a crop plant to an urban environment. The project proposes moments of encounter with one of our most important food crops - wheat.

Spanning a full growing cycle, The Planetary Wheat Field creates opportunities to reflect on growing practices, agrobiodiversity and the network of ecological and commercial relationships that emerge around this crop. Planted in the middle of a park at La Tour-de-Peilz, the wheat field becomes a gathering place for children, passers-by and the foodculture days’ audience.

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June 2 | 1:30 pm - 3:10 pm | La Faraz, 1814 La Tour-de-Peilz

Alexandra Baumgartner (* 1991, Zurich) is a Swiss-Italian artist based in Biel/Bienne. Embracing her subject’s complexity, Baumgartner uses various forms of storytelling while building on photography as a key tool within her research-led practice. Her latest works expand on sound, gardening, performance, and food, in response to a multifaceted world of intra-actions between cultivated plants and humans. Exploring the ambiguous relationships towards what is commonly referred to as ‘nature’, Baumgartner navigates between the emotional and political realms of resource management, conservation strategies and knowledge production, responding to the biodiversity crisis.

Alexandra Baumgartner received her BA in Camera Arts from the Lucerne School of Art and Design in 2019 and holds a BA in Middle Eastern Studies and Modern History (University of Zurich). She is currently studying for her MA in Social Anthropology and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Bern.