Datscha Radio’s vision of the garden as a living image of communication and growth had been carried southward to Central Spain in pre-spring 2018. There it sprouted an off-shoot at the garden of „Esta Es Una Plaza“ on the 23rd of March. We broadcast on stream from this site (and possibly other) and on-site via micro transmitter on 103.7FM.
Datscha Radio Madrid happened on invitation of and in collaboration with Medialab Prado and the IN-SONORA artist collective.Apart from this, there were garden mappings, wondrous encounters in plant hospitals and honey shops. Have a look for yourself and browse through the following posts.
Diary of the Day: Datscha Radio Madrid, 23rd March
Gracias!!!
Back again… already for some time
Waiting for the sun… or a long cable!
Pink Dreams: La Quinta de los Molinos
Datscha Radio Madrid te invita!
The Batán Permaculture Garden
Otro Pequeño Diario: 16-17.3.2018
16th Century Thistles: Visiting the Library of the RJM
A visit at the “Hospital De Plantas”
The Honey Gardener
Earth Waves
Esto es Datscha Radio!
Sunday Diary: Gardens within Gardens
Esta es una Plaza!
Radio Kitchen
The aim of this residency lies in collaborative work with Madrid sound and performance artists with a focus on „radio gardening“ on practically all levels:
- gathering field recordings and interviews in and about the Madrid urban gardens (Huertos Urbanos comunitarios)
- inclusion of the local communities
- creating an artist’s collective from scratch to make radio
- investigation of the sound spheres of the historical gardens and parks of Madrid
- furthering exchange in languages, plants and knowledge
- staging a 6 hour garden event embracing the Madrid spring – hopefully in showers of almond blossoms.
- creating a documentation in text and sound
With being the first time for Datscha Radio to travel abroad, some of its perspective shifted – from being locally (or at least nationally) anchored to becoming a nomadic entity – dependent on the support and openness of its hosting country.
Plants travel – we know that. Their seeds do anyway. Gardens can only travel in parts. I once knew a lady who moved from her old house and garden to a new home somewhere else in Germany and they were taking the compost pile with them. They carefully lined the car trunk with plastic and that is how they travelled. (She sold some her plants too and that’s how the three rhubarbs settled into the Datscha garden).
Travelling is (too) often associated with freedom. Really it just means a shift in dependencies. When you are a gardener (and/or an artist), your currency is exchange.
As a consequence Madrid made my focus of research shift to the matter(s) of dependencies and sharing. The relationship(s) to nature – or what we call „nature“ – are many-fold. From ornamental shaping to the exclusion of decorative plants in „proper“ gardens, from forming horticultural networks to offering medical care to suffering plants, from liking plant species to brainscapes or diverse „-isms“ to the never-dying evocation of spiritual unity: Difference and dependency define each other by nature; equality and sharing may, if they are lucky , escape from them into some other realm… maybe the one of radio gardening.
Since my (and the project’s) arrival here, I encountered (and still do) countless people and collectives supporting Datscha Radio Madrid. Without them, none of this would be happening.
Present supporters and institutions involved:
- the Datscha Radio artist group
- Medialab Prado
- In-Sonora
- Esta Es Una Plaza
- Radio Hortelana
- aporee.org
Please note: All of this is in the making and subject to changes.
Coordination: Jesús Jara, Maite Camacho
This post is also available in: German