Papitas Taypuycha -Earthing Potatoes
A collaboration by visual artist Daniela Edith Zambrano Almidón, researcher and curator Gatari Surya Kusuma, and artist Åsa Sonjasdotter.
Root fruits are elements of maternal shelter, vessels of migratory stories and global movement. The action of Papitas Tarpuycha – Earthing Potatoes starts with the re-learning and recognition of practices based by the place of origin, the mother Earth. The action brings voices together for the generation of new forms of connection and transformation.
Natasha, the Singapore Biennale, 2022 - 2023. The action of Papitas Tarpuycha – Earthing Potatoes contributes to Natasha with a series of interventions in public space towards the celebration of a Pachamancha, a Quechua ancestral technique of cooking on the land and in the community. (Sunday March 12. 11.00am. Southern Islands, Singapore.) From a sculptural installation on the Southern Islands in Singapore, to actions open to public participation in a village in the region of Huánuco, Peru; a farm field in the region of Scania, Sweden; and a potato plantation in Java, Indonesia – the action finally returns to Singapore for the gathering of vegetables in the Pasir Panjang Wholesale Centre, and in a sweet potato garden in Seletar Aerospace Heights before celebrating the Pachamanca.
Gathering vegetables for the Pachamanca with wholesale agent in second generation Mr Kenny Chua. Mr Chua demonstrates how the vegetable market at the Pasir Panjang Wholesale Centre operates, as well as he shares the story of his family and the changes in vegetable trade they have experienced since the 1970s. (Friday, March 10, 8pm. Pasir Panjang Wholesale Centre, Singapore.)
Gathering sweet potato leaves for the Pachamanca in the syntropic garden of farmer and designer Ee Peng. Diverting local waste streams into high utilization for agricultural and horticultural developments, Ee Peng attends to an edible garden providing herbs for the staff at the Wah Son Engineering industires. (Saturday March 11. 10.30am. Wah Son Engineering Pte Ltd, 1 Seletar Aerospace Heights.)
Joining us in the Wah Son Engineering industries, writer and curator Gatari Surya Kusuma, called Gatari, from Java, Indonesia, shares her work on how narratives and rituals become tools for preserving local knowledge. Based on her close experience of the relations between cassava, myth, and the story about the crisis, Gatari invites to a storytelling session inspired by the monoculture plantations that ruins rooted culture and local knowledge. (Saturday March 11. 10.30am. Wah Son Engineering Pte Ltd, 1 Seletar Aerospace Heights.)
Artist and researcher Zambrano Almidón brings to debate and reflection the topic of migration and food production, as well as she shares a Pachamanca (earth pot), an ancestral technique of cooking on the land and in the community. (Sunday March 12. 11.00am. Southern Islands, Singapore.)