2025
1 channel audio, 10’ loop
Cello and Singing: Sumanie Gächter
Text: Hildegard von Bingen – Ordo Virtutum
A buried speaker sounding from the earth in a tomato greenhouse.
The history of the tomato is a history of loss—not only because of the human cost of colonization, but also because of the knowledge systems that were wiped out: as a nightshade plant, it was associated in European folklore with poison, magic, femininity, and, not least, witchcraft. “Witches” were often midwives, herbalists, guardians of physical and plant knowledge.
“Paradeisapfel” is an outdated term for tomato. The term is derived from the Latin “paradisus” (paradise) and alludes to the idea that the tomato is a forbidden fruit, like the apple in paradise.
Hildegard von Bingen (born in 1098 in Bermersheim vom der Höhe, Germany) was a German abbess, poet, composer, and an important polymath with expertise in nature and healing.