Herbarium Cataplasma

Herbarium Cataplasma is a two-fold community art project developed for the neighbourhood Oldegalileën-Bloemenbuurt at the invitation of the city of Leeuwarden in Friesland, the Netherlands.

Aëgerter led a careful reconstruction of the plan of the medicinal garden of the medieval Abbey of Saint Gall on an unused plot of land in Leeuwarden, which was once part of a convent. This project was realized in collaboration with the local residents who Aëgerter then invited to partake in a symbolic healing ritual.

Photographs of ruined landscapes from the previous century were treated with the medicinal plants, each one with the appropriate antidote found in the library or through the resident’s own experience (e.g. ginger against pain in burns). The 100 photographs were selected by searching Google for news photographs of a diversity of disasters in different parts of the world. Aëgerter took photographs of these landscapes to then be healed.

Through this process, plants and landscapes merged into a new image. The photographs appear in the form of a newspaper, as well as a series of large photographs, Healing Plants for Hurt Landscapes.

Related projects:
Healing Plants for Hurt Landscapes (photographs)
Healing Plants for Hurt Landscapes (artist’s book)

The research, proces and results of Herbarium Cataplasma are gathered on the blog Herbarium Cataplasma