Moving Garden
2023
Planter box with wheels and vegetables
Colle di Tora (Italy)
Moving Garden is a nomadic project that involves creating a platform of foreign plants that can move through different places, where the cultivation of non-native vegetation becomes a form of minority resistance.
During this residency, I cultivated five plants of Chinese origin in my garden: coriander, chives, bok choy, Facing Heaven chili peppers, and Artemisia argyi. All these plants are considered wild species that do not require special care and can withstand various climatic conditions. Their continuous adaptability to new territories reflects the extinction and survival strategies of immigrants once settled in other countries.
I rediscovered the last plant, Artemisia argyi, near the Po River while walking along the shore. Artemisia argyi, also known as wild wormwood, has been naturalized for centuries in Europe and is native to China, Korea, Mongolia, Japan, and the Russian Far East. Its medicinal use was first documented in the famous texts Ming Yi Bie Lu (名医别录) from the Liang dynasty. In addition to its medicinal applications, the consumption of Artemisia leaves was recorded in the Shi Liao Ben Cao (食疗本草) from the Tang dynasty. To this day, in my hometown in Hunan, there is a tradition of eating sweet Artemisia dumplings (艾蒿粑粑) during the Qingming Festival.
After the exhibition's opening, I invited visitors to join me on a journey through the village of Tora and then return to the exhibition, where I prepared Hunan-style cold noodles using the plants I had cultivated.