Botanical worksheets designed to serve during the workshop with citizens, Nature and us: botany, traditional knowledge and literature in our environment. The workshop consisted of an ethnobotanical, literary and artistic itinerary, from a library in Barcelona to the Maternity Gardens, where the activity took place.
The activity highlighted our connection and coexistence with nearby species through traditional knowledge, becoming aware of sensations (views, sounds, smells, textures, tastes) and feelings (comfort, tranquility, discomfort ...). Participants were encourage to draw, write or sketch on the given cards or worksheets, which also contained several poems by Catalan writers rendering homage to the different plants we explored in the gardens. Audiences can download and use the worksheets to engage with the vegetal environment by writing, reciting, drawing or sharing knowledge multidisciplinarily.
The workshop was led by a team of professors and researchers from the Pharmacy and Food Sciences Faculty and the Fine Arts Faculty of the University of Barcelona, as well as the director of the Botanical Institute of Barcelona (IBB, CSIC-Barcelona City Council): Eva Figueras (Fine Arts), Teresa Garnatje (IBB), Mar Redondo (Fine Arts) and Joan Vallès (Pharmacy and Food Sciences). The group has been working on projects together since 2019, sharing scientific and artistic perspectives.
JOAN VALLÈS and TERESA GARNATJE are, respectively, a professor at the Botany Laboratory of the Faculty of Pharmacy and Food Sciences of the University of Barcelona and a researcher at the Botanical Institute of Barcelona (IBB, CSIC-Barcelona City Council). They belong to the EtnoBioFiC research group, dedicated to all aspects of plant diversity and genome evolution, as well as ethnobotany, and the overlap of social and natural sciences. The team has experience in subjects related to literature, art and botany. etnobiofic.cat
EVA FIGERAS and MAR REDONDO are professors and researchers in the Department of Visual Arts and Design of the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Barcelona. They belong to the ‘Poció’ (Art, Poetry and Education) research group at the university, which is dedicated to researching and studying the characteristics of liminal poetics, especially hybrid genres. The aim is quality education, encouraging artistic and literary creation to develop critical thinking about two of today's major social challenges: social discrimination and environmental changes, so that creation can become an engine of social change. pocio.cat
Images by Joan Martínez Urango