Nettle, or urtica dioica, is a plant whose leaves and stems are covered with brittle tips that break when they come into contact with another surface. When this happens, the nettles transfer histamine and formic acid from the plant body to another body. Through this exchange, the nettle begins to inhabit us.

On a used Colombian National Army uniform shirt, one by one I sew a layer of fresh nettle leaves. As the nettle gradually covers the military camouflage with another camouflage, the formic acid and histamine released by the plant enter the shirt and my hand simultaneously, producing a prolonged stinging sensation that numbs my skin. The dialogue between these three skins continues for days as my hands break down the chemical compounds and the nettle leaves mimic the fabric and dry out.

As a ritual action, ARDE, homage to reparation processes investigates nettle as a somatic technology and draws inspiration from the cosmovision of several indigenous Andean-Amazonian communities of Abya Ayala, for whom the plant is an important tool of internal rectification used as a means of detoxification, revitalization, and somatic learning.

ARDE, homage to reparation processes seeks to complexify the relationships between jungle territories and war, environments where beings with diverse realities and cosmovisions coexist, including indigenous communities and farmers, armed agents from different sides, and thousands of more-than-humans who witness the conflict.

ARDE, homage to reparation processes aims to address the psychological consequences of war, such as emotional anaesthesia, and the possibilities of transmutation by extending reparative processes into the realm of the more-than-human and the subtle.

Exhibited at

Corpórea performance festival Zacatecas Oaxaca, Mexico 2022
Curated by: Diana Buitrón and Lorena Tábares

Projected on the façade of the Centro de Memoria Histórica de Colombia, 2023

AVD Indiferido. Curated by: Tzitzi Barrantes

‘On the edge of, Goldrausch 2023’ Weißer Elefant Gallery, Berlin
Curatorship: Hannah Kruse and Laura Catugier