Preparation of the soil: with wool, clay, humus and wild seeds

Nendo Dango Workshop

This activity seeks to explore how we can think about the earth like a spirit: one that is full of life, a guide, not as property or a border. In this workshop featuring composting, soil, wild plant seeds from Catalonia and clay as our guides, we will practice a strategy of sowing seeds during a time of resistance and recovery against all strains of colonialism. To do so, we will use the practice of Nendo Dango, as introduced by Masanobu Fukuoka. 

Preparation

There are different ways to prepare the soil prior to cultivation. There are different ways to prepare the soil depending on the region, without using tractors, where plows are still used with a team of mules or oxen. If we go beyond the colonial gaze, there are also practices that do not change the living soil, but rather, on the contrary, help to nourish it. For example: the practice of cool fires, the raised carbon-rich beds of the Ovambo people, the use of compost or leaving fields fallow. For this activity, we are planning to prepare the beds of the Mobile Garden with local materials and tales, using mulch made of sheep’s wool. In recognition of the long and rich history of shepherding in Catalonia, in collaboration with the shepherd Josep Montoya who leads his herds around Barcelona, we will work together with the properties of wool to nourish and help prepare the soil. In this collaborative preparation, we will think by doing and reflect on our relationship with wool and the agricultural calendar, insofar as they are linked to life’s stories and journeys. 

Hacer t/Tierra is a multidisciplinary project of artistic creation and research that emerges from the desire to heal the wounds inflicted by the global North through multiple violent actions during its colonial/modern civilizing project over the last 500 years. Hacer t/Tierra refers to the processes to restore our bonds with the Earth as a living being, in direct dialogue with philosophies of thinking and feeling, as well as worldviews that comprehend the development of life as part of the interdependence among all beings.