For this new edition of “Stakeholders”, a regular event dedicated to exploring the archives of Bétonsalon, we invite you to revisit “Tropicomania: The Social Life of Plants”, an exhibition curated by Mélanie Bouteloup and Anna Colin, assisted by Flora Katz, with the scientific participation of Françoise Vergès and Serge Volper, organized in 2012 as part of the “Intense Proximity” Triennale.

Drawing on the concepts of the “social life” and “cultural biography” of objects developed by anthropologists Arjun Appadurai and Igor Kopytoff, this exhibition sought to explore the trajectories of certain tropical plants – banana, pineapple, and rubber tree – cultivated within a colonial context from the 16th century to the present day. This research takes as its starting point the resources of the Historical Library of CIRAD, located in the former colonial experimental garden in the Bois de Vincennes – now known as the Jardin tropical de Paris – a site emblematic of colonial history and the agricultural experiments conducted by the French Empire.

Bringing together works by historical and contemporary artists, scientific illustrations, archival documents, literary testimonies, and films produced in a variety of contexts, Tropicomania explored the role of experimental gardens in establishing a globalised economy based on the extraction, standardisation, and transfer of plant resources. More broadly, it highlighted the power dynamics at play at the intersection of science, exoticism, and commerce.

This collective session will provide an opportunity to revisit these issues with Anna Colin and Françoise Vergès, and to open a dialogue with the current exhibition by Orla Barry – artist and shepherd – who addresses other forms of resource exploitation and economic dependency through the history of wool and sheep farming from a global perspective