LA MALA HIERBA, TREMENTINAIRE
performance
La mala hierba, trementinaire is the second part of the series La mala hierba performances de-
landscape, which refers to those spaces, edges and wastelands that are "unexploited, usually considered negligible
considered negligible "*.
The 1st part of the series, La mala hierba es medicinal, focused on the curative aspect of weeds, while this 2nd part, La mala hierba, trementinaire, features the women known as trementinaire in Catalonia, who used to cross the Pyrenees to pick and trade plants. This activity disappeared in the 60s, but some people still remember it:
They'd walk for miles to get to the remote villages, and we'd always buy them a little something
Teresita, Bausen, Catalonia
On the outskirts of the city, the wastelands between two walls, two buildings, two roads, it's a disgrace," says the neighbour. Broken up by the shortcuts taken by hurried pedestrians who cut through the vegetation to find the shortest route; wasteland. Not far from the station, parked cars, abandoned cars and then spring like a plant bomb: large vipers with violet flowers, orange daisies, clovers with bright yellow flowers.... She makes bouquets, swarms of numb mosquitoes swarm in, one bouquet, another, she hangs them around her waist, then higher on her back until she's covered in them and carrying the wasteland on her back, invisible. She leaves, goes to the station, crosses, all the dogs bark as she passes, worried people smile, some strike up a conversation... Sardinia, Italy.
*Gilles Clément
Spazio ARKA, Sardinia, Italy
MDAC, Cagnes-sur-mer, France
