The Vegetable Parliament: GROWING SESSION #1

The Skin of the Pumpkin: Utopia as the founding axis of the American continent

with Santiago Elordi - in the frame of the Berlin Poetry Festival

A milpa has been growing on an outdoor installation in the silent green garden since March: “The Vegetable Parliament”. Its basic principle is mixed cultivation: it is vital for the growth and survival of the milpa that the different species harmonize with each other.

The event series The Growing Sessions takes this as its starting point: to accompany the growth of the milpa, we grow together with it. We contribute our knowledge and curiosity, our collective work, our bodies and cultural practices. During the Growing Sessions, the Vegetable Parliament will take root with the neighborhood as well as with international actors and create a cross-species community. Invited guests from the fields of activism, art, music, performance and poetry will open up insights into indigenous agricultural practices and post-human utopias in their sessions, bringing organism democracies to life and interweaving us in alliance with the plants. 

To kick off the Growing Sessions, Chilean writer Santiago Elordi will revive American utopias - from the search of the lost explorer Percy Fawcett to social and artistic revolutions. He combines narrative and poetry with elements of folk magic. The performance culminates in a collective action in which the audience imagines everyday miracles.
 

Programme
4, 25 Jun, 11, 22-24 Jul 2025: part three THE GROWING SESSIONS

14 Aug 2025: part four THE VEGETABLE OPERA

13 Sep 2025: part five THE CONQUERING BANQUET

Full programme: www.thevegetableparliament.com

Wednesday, June 4
Garden
Start: 5:30 pm
Admission free
In English language
 

Team
Artistic Director: José Délano
Curator The Growing Sessions: Christian Hiller
 

“The Vegetable Parliament” is funded by Hauptstadtkulturfonds.