A Contaminated Garden of Our Own

A Contaminated Garden of Our Own is a collective sowing of medicinal herbs on contaminated land. The gathering recontextualises herbalism’s historical and gendered practice, spreading remedies and poisons in a post-natural landscape. Since human bodies are not inert in the face of the industrial past, the pollutants in landscapes affect hormonal systems. If the sage tea that one drinks, known for supporting women’s hormones, is contaminated, it becomes a complex entity – both remedy and poison. The project explores this ambiguity from an ecofeminist perspective, occupying lands marked by industry and sowing seeds that are allies for women facing hormonal disorders. It transforms contaminated land into a place of repair through gardening and knowledge revival instead of harvesting.