Heracleum Persicum
the Forbidden Garden of EuropeVoor de 17e editie van de architectuur Biënnale in Venetië in 2021 heb ik samen met Studio Wild een project met de titel ‘De verboden tuin van Europa’ gemaakt. Hierbij was het uitgangspunt een vanuit de Europese Unie opgestelde lijst van ‘invasieve uitheemse plantensoorten’. Deze planten staan op deze lijst vanwege hun etnische en biologische karakteristieken en de bedreiging die zij vormen voor inheemse plantensoorten. Volgens de Europese wetgevingshandeling van 2016 gaat het om 35 invasieve plantensoorten die van Europees grondgebied verbannen en uitgeroeid moeten worden.
Voor een aantal van deze planten heb ik een verhaal geschreven met het idee om deze uitheemse invasieve soorten een podium te geven. Hieronder vind je het verhaal van de Heracleum Persicum ofwel de Perzische berenklauw. (in het engels)
dQuisque vitae ornare tellus, scelerisque
Phasellus laoreet vestibulum felis
Phasellus laoreet vestibulum felis
“Hello, I am Heracleum Persicum, I come from a strong mountain family and am used to extreme weather conditions. My family is tall and robust and we are admired for our wealthy beauty. My ancestors come from the Alborz region in the North of Iran, but we were taken to Norway through England about 180 years ago.
Our beauty is one of the main reasons we were taken all the way from Iran to England. Looking at old photographs from the 20th century we can be seen all around Norway confined in our garden communities. But since no one really cared about our destiny we started to become more independent and were able to move out of the confinement of these designated communities. As a result, we have spread to Sweden, Finland and several other countries in Europe. Due to our peculiar appearance we have been given numerous names around the different regions in Scandinavia, like Stormtræ ‘storm tree’ or Rottefrø ‘rat seed’ or Høyrakel ‘long being’ or Orakleum ‘oracle’ and many others of which Tromsøpalme, “the palm of Tromsø” is the most commonly used and has since became our official name in Norway.
Persian Hogweed Heracleum persicum sketchbook study.
By Lizzie Harper.
By Lizzie Harper.
Since we have moved far away from the garden communities we were first put into we have become a regular sight between native Scandinavians. We have become part of Norwegian folklore tradition and are a favorite motive among photographers, jewelers and local artists. One of my family members is even portrayed in a large sculpture at the Nordnorsk Kunstmuseum. And since we grow so large, kids tend to play with us, we can make the perfect spot for a hide-out, or building huts, I have many nice recollections with children amazed at my size and imagining me and my brothers and sisters as a fairytale forest to play in.
We adorn the memories of children and the folklore of Norway, we are the inspiration for photographers and were brought here on the notion of our beauty. But the sad reality is that ever since we have become more numerous in European society and have gotten out of our ‘garden communities’ as exotic guests, we have become nuisances, a pest to be dealt with. I have heard many stories of the eradication of my family, not proving any function, unlike my brothers and sisters in Iran, who are called Golpar and are used for their medicinal importance, their spices and making pickles.
As much as we were brought here for our beauty, we are now degraded into a minority to be dealt with, exterminated without further ado. As long as we don’t bother too much with native society and stay an exotic in small numbers we don’t pose a threat, but as soon as our numbers grow and we are seen more often in the European landscape it becomes clear we are different and we have to be eradicated.
To be a visitor or an exotic artifact means something very different then to become part of a society. It is a hard lesson for my family that, in order to be part of a different society, we have to become identical, but we can’t, since we are physically and biologically different from our European counterparts. We still are the same family, as we are all on this pale blue dot we call Earth.
I wish I could live together with the others and not be judged for my appearance and be accepted for who I am as a present entity, with my downfalls and differences. But sadly, my present verdict is that I will never be the same, so eradication and banishment of my existence are on the doorstep. Especially since the instigation of the list of European Invasive Alien Species of Union concern in 2016, my family, together with others can be lawfully eradicated and banned from Europe just because we are different.
How will we live together?”