Welto and the Sacred Bush
Marvin Systermans, Spore Initiative Photo credits
Group Exhibition
Berlin, Germany
—
June 2025 - March 2026
Spore Initiative
Curated by Antonia Alampi & Francesca Schweiger
Installed by Simon Krosigk & Santiago Doljanin with support from the Spore team and in collaboration with Marcel Jean-Baptiste and Permactivie, Martinique.
In a time of ecological breakdown, Welto and the Sacred Bush invites visitors to listen to the quiet wisdom of Caribbean gardens. Presented at Spore Initiative in Berlin, this group exhibition draws on two years of collaboration with Permactivie—a Martinique-based collective dedicated to earth care and mutual aid. Together with artists, herbalists, and children from École Clémence Caristan, the exhibition unfolds as a space for learning, remembering, and imagining futures rooted in land-based knowledge.
Welto, from Martinican Creole, names what hides in plain sight, the fugitive, the unseen. The Sacred Bush recalls healing traditions carried through generations. Within the gallery, these concepts converge across textile, sound, drawing, soil, and ritual. Works by artists from the Caribbean and their diasporas explore plant intelligence, sacred landscapes, and the potential for regeneration amidst collapse.
Annalee Davis shows A Recuperative Gesture, a wall-based herbarium created from pressed plants gathered along Martinique’s north-west coast, and Bush Bath in the Glasi, an embroidered recipe for protection and healing rooted in Afro-Caribbean bathing practices. Davis’ Martinican Mandala and Open Source Recipe for a Bush Bath incorporate vines, dried fruits, and Madras fabric, honouring plants as kin and healers. Her meditative work, Be Soft, offers a visual strategy for slowing down—an invitation to stillness amidst the climate crisis.
Alongside these, works by Aurélie Derard, Françoise Dô, Isambert Duriveau, Guy Gabon, Florence Lazar, Mawongany, and 37 schoolchildren from Martinique evoke rhythms of survival and community: sonic landscapes of bèlè drums, papier-mâché garden guardians, drawings in dialogue with trees. Together, they ask—what can we learn from what grows quietly beneath our feet?
At once archive and seed, Welto and the Sacred Bush resists linear narratives. Instead, it becomes a collective process: of learning, contributing, and returning. Visitors are invited to listen deeply, share their reflections, and engage with the unfolding story of Caribbean gardens as models for repair.
Contributing Artists:
Annalee Davis, Aurélie Derard, Françoise Dô, Isambert Duriveau, Guy Gabon, Florence Lazar, Mawongany, children from École Clémence Caristan, and more.
Adapted in part from content on the Spore website.
Marvin Systermans, Spore Initiative Photo credits
As reviewed in taz.de:
The exhibition “Welto and the Sacred Bush” at Berlin’s Spore Initiative explores Caribbean gardens as spaces of collective resistance and healing. Featuring artists like Annalee Davis, the exhibition draws on histories of enslaved people cultivating small gardens for food, medicine, and spiritual care—offering alternatives to plantation monoculture. Davis’ work, incorporating leaves gathered in Martinique, is described as both a mandala and a representation of peace, reflecting the individuality and interconnectedness of each plant.
The exhibition extends beyond aesthetics, highlighting the role of Caribbean gardens in fostering community and resistance. The Permactivie initiative from Martinique, blending permaculture and activism, emphasizes connection to the land through composting and shared cultivation practices. Video works by Florence Lazar document farmers reclaiming land poisoned by pesticides and resisting land privatization.
Spanning sculpture, video, and participatory works with schoolchildren, Welto and the Sacred Bush reframes gardening as a political and cultural practice rooted in survival and communal care.
Read the full review at taz.de (German).
