Flora Abortivum Europae

Companies of reproduction. Three excursions through the ignored interdependencies of plants and humans.

These excursions look for plants that were and are used in Europe for abortions. They are paths through the complex ramifications between humans, plants, systems of power and powerlessness. They lead through parks, brownfields and housing estates, such as monastery plans, medical ordinances, court records and biological order systems.

Part 1: savin tree / order, synopsis

In the first part of Flora Abortivum Europae Julia and Constanze accompany me in my search for the savin tree. As a poisonous ornamental shrub, it stands unnoticed in parks. Step by step we try to pay attention to it. Its intertwining with human societies is well documented. Men have determined him, described him scientifically, taken away his voice, taken away his names, bred him and liked him. Women have used his branches to terminate their unwanted pregnancies and have died far too often. On our way it is becoming increasingly clear that the establishment of the natural sciences has helped to build a society that not only categorizes plants and assigns them a place at the lower level of the hierarchy of life.