an ecology of practice

mise-en-discourse
Fachwerk Allschwil, CH, 2023
for and with the biodynamic farming school Demeter Ausbildung Schweiz

Learn, how to do it else!

The Demeter Training is the school for biodynamic agriculture in Rheinau, Switzerland. Led as a collective with a feminist drive, it is a unique learning environment where hands-on ecological practices meet speculative philosophy and the question of how to survive as a present-day world society. Some members of the collective are Firekeepers at the World Ethic Forum, and Nicolas is one of them as well. The connection caught fire and developed into a mise-en-discourse workshop on Isabel Stengers’ concept of an “ecology of practices”. Focussing on the question of how agricultural and cultural work can create synergies and what a farm’s cultural, political and societal position can be, the workshop gave space to the individual thesis research projects to understand the network of practices they create together. 

In a public event, the population of the outskirts of Basel commune, Alschwil, was invited to engage in community asset mapping and the sawing of a “map of possible futures”.

That map, made of clots of fabrics, scrap material, wool, tape and wire, grew into a wall tapestry that will be hung in the local community café. It is framed by a ribbon asking: 

What belongs to “landscape”
What belongs to “passion”
What life lives here
What lack lacks here
What problems do we live here
What potential lies here
Which reality makes future
Which future gives confidence