What Grew at Home
What Grew at Home (curated by Vanessa Agnew) is an exhibition of photographs showing plants from the home countries of Academy in Exile’s international fellows.
The exhibition stresses the importance of a continued connection to the natural world. New landscapes and vegetation are often experienced by migrants as strange and alienating. Reestablishing a connection to the natural world through a project like What Grew at Home can contribute to a process of refamiliarization. People, like plants from home, are shown to be transplantable. At the same time, the exhibition highlights the fact that climate change and habitat loss are having a deleterious effect on global biodiversity and food security which depend heavily on pollinator services. Plants that once grew in certain places, no longer do so. By capturing this sense of loss and mourning, the project adopts a creative approach to encouraging public engagement with the topic.
Finally, the exhibition serves as a reminder that climate change exacerbates environmental degradation and that this is a significant contributor to global conflict, social inequality, and political discord, all of which are major drivers of forced migration. The exhibition provides a window into TU Dortmund University’s commitment to internationalization and to hosting displaced scholars, but also into the deep personal cost of being driven from one’s home.

Photo credit: Jobst von Kunowski/////////////////////////////////////////Abelmoschus esculentus (Okra), Herat, Afghanistan

Photo credit: Jobst von Kunowski//////////////////////////////////////Capsicum annuum (Chilli pepper), Herat, Afghanistan

Photo credit: Jobst von Kunowski///////////////////////Lycopersicon esculentum (‘Afghan’ tomato), Karokh, Afghanistan

Photo credit: Jobst von Kunowski///////////////////////Platycladus orientalis (Oriental arborvitae), Kondusu, Turkey