Vvzela Kook

Film & Video (Film & Video)

Columbus of Horticulture stems from Vvzela Kook’s ongoing research into the central and often-ignored role that botany played in the history of European imperialism. The colonial project, with its maritime explorations and voyages, was for the most part centred around the profits made from the discovery and exploitation of valuable plants (or from the kidnapping of the people needed to work on them). Vegetal products thus constituted a great part of the volume of the colonial economy, from spices to drugs, from textile fibres and dyes to tea, coffee, or cocoa.