30 July 2016
Plantón Móvil is a project developed by the Peruvian artist Lucia Monge, it has occurred yearly since 2010 in different communities throughout Lima and was commissioned for the United Nations Climate Change Conference in 2014. Last year it made its international debut in Providence, Rhode Island, and in 2016 in London. It was the first of its kind in Europe and in Peckham, London. In Peckham, an area which has undergone vast changes in recent years, this initiative will be a commentary on social movement and movement as a less perceptible form of inhuman mobility at large, an organic mobility that operates perhaps on different scales from people to plants.
Lucia Monge staged a workshop on 23 July 2016 in Copeland Park, London, in collaboration with Bosse & Baum, which invited the public to create a transportation vessel for their plants (using bags, helmets, pushchairs etc.) and a Plantón Móvil around Peckham on 30 July, where the public are invited parade through the streets with their plants and transportation vessels. “Plantón” is the word in Spanish for a sapling. This project takes on both: the green to be planted and the peaceful protest. It is about giving the plants and trees the opportunity to walk down the streets of a city that is also theirs: like a small forest peacefully claiming its place and respect. People of all ages are invited to lend their mobility to these plants and in return, momentarily borrow some of their slowness.” At the end of each walk, the plants and trees will be planted in Copeland Park, Peckham.
We would like to thank the Foundation for Contemporary Arts Emergency Grant for making this possible.
We are also grateful to Quadron Services and the show gardens at the Royal Horticultural Society Hampton Court Palace Flower Show 2016 for donating plants to the project, without them this would not be possible.