Long Live The Palm

in collaboration with Ola Korbańska
Agueda, Portugal.
2020

The Palm Is Dead.
A series of sculptures transform the biomass of dead palm trees—an undesired element of the local streetscape—into a praise of often unwanted natural processes, like wilting and decay. Made of the soil, clay, palm tree compost and seeds of domestic plants, these giant seed-bombs were rammed to celebrate the full circle of nature. Project is questioning the permanence of things. Monoliths, however solid they may look, will eventually decompose, becoming a testimony to temporality and circulation of matter.
Long live the Palm.

We have deliberately designed objects which will disappear and made a decision not to preserve them. It is challenging to accept the process of the decay of things. It is particularly hard to see one’s own creation decomposing, more and more with each passing day. Learning to do so brings another perspective on understanding materiality.

Formally, the sculptures connote victory columns—the monuments traditionally commemorating victorious historical events, made of materials such as stone, bronze or concrete. The lasting qualities of these materials express human attempts to preserve memory.
Here, the victorious moment is a germination of new plants. The soil columns won’t remain long, their impermanence is crucial – exhibition will last until erected objects become landscape.
The Palm is dead. Long live the Palm.