Using the method of the Three Sisters, the milpa forms a close-knit community. In addition to maize, beans, and squash, it also creates a diverse habitat for many other life forms. Its foundational principle is polyculture. For the growth and continuity of the milpa, it is vital that the various species exist in harmony. They support each other and interact just as richly with non-plant species—such as fungi, animals, and, not least, humans. In this symbiotic relationship, the different human and non-human actors mutually support each other, allowing the milpa to thrive as a whole and benefit all involved.
The Growing Sessions take this as a starting point: as the milpa grows, we grow with it. We bring our knowledge and curiosity, our collective labor, our bodies, and cultural practices. During the Growing Sessions, the Vegetable Parliament aims to take root both in the local neighborhood and with international participants, giving rise to an interspecies community. Guests from the fields of activism, art, music, performance, and poetry will offer insights into Indigenous agricultural practices and posthuman utopias, make organismal democracies tangible, and weave alliances between us and the plants.
Wednesday, June 4, 5:30 PM
As the opening of the Growing Sessions, Chilean writer Santiago Elordi revisits American utopias—from the quest for El Dorado to social and artistic revolutions—as the living pulse of the continent. He fuses storytelling and poetry with elements of folk magic. The performance culminates in a collective action where the audience imagines everyday miracles.
Growing Session #1 is held in cooperation with the Poetry Festival Berlin, taking place from May 15 to June 15 at the Akademie der Künste, silent green Kulturquartier, and various other venues across Berlin.
June 7–9
Starting June 4, the Berlin Poetry Festival will take place at silent green. The meadow of the former crematorium becomes the festival grounds, and the Vegetable Parliament turns into a stage. A highlight of the festival is the Pentecost weekend. On the meadow at silent green, over fifty poets from around the world will read. The Vegetable Parliament will become an international auditorium for readings and performances that explore dreams and utopias, nature and community, conflict and hope.
Wednesday, June 25, 6:00 PM
Not far from silent green—on a vacant lot between Osloer Straße 107 and 108—lies a small magical place where all living species have equal rights: the Organism Democracy. On June 25, this multi-species community, initiated by Club Real, will make a state visit to the Vegetable Parliament, present the Universal Declaration of the Rights of Organisms, and open its contents up for public debate.
Friday, July 11, 6:00 PM
The Berlin-based project Tlayolan critiques the global agribusiness and counters it with knowledge of Indigenous cultivation methods such as the milpa ecosystem. The milpa principle also forms the foundation of the Vegetable Parliament. In the Growing Sessions, the group around Monserrat Peniche provides insight into their community work and demonstrates how plants, animals, and humans can cooperate for the common good.
July 22–24
Artist and researcher Marina Guzzo connects bodies with landscapes, fashion with nature, memory with everyday life. As part of the Growing Sessions, she conducts a multi-day Mistura workshop, fostering alliances between people, clothing, objects, and plants. The workshop begins with the search for fallen leaves, discarded items, colorful garments, and personal memories. These are ritually woven together and, on the final day, presented as a choreography in the silent green garden.
Workshop registration is now open at www.thevegetableparliament.com/mistura-open-call
