Daniela Ortiz

The Rebellion of the Roots (France)

The Rebellion of Roots by Daniela Ortiz depicts a series of situations in which tropical plants, held hostage in the botanical gardens and greenhouses of Europe, are protected and nurtured by the spirits of racialized people who died as a result of European racism. The work is divided into four short stories: ??About Afghanistan and heroin, About Exposition Colonial and cow, About Jardin d’acclimatation and potato, and About Vietnam. The series of 14 painted panels draw upon the aesthetic of ex-votos, a genre of traditional religious folk painting that acts as a tribute for divine intervention in response to personal tragedy. In the paintings, the plants create their own forms of justice by confronting the authorities and institutions that perpetuate structural racism. In particular, the series exposes the violent influence of French colonialism around the world. 

The series draws connections between current geopolitical events and colonial histories, underpinned by various forms of poetic justice. At once colorful, naive, and humorous, the paintings are also sobering and cruel. For example, the poppy flowers in Afghanistan which witness the French military intervention, end up killing a French soldier in Mali who receives morphine treatment after an injury. In another painting, Frontex officials (the agency that regulates European borders) die choking on ‘anti-colonial’ potatoes from the Andes, or fall into the Seine, in the same spot where police repressed Algerian anti-colonial protests in 1961.