Challenging notions of beauty and usefulness in our relationship to land and plants, Francesca Castagnetti and Andrea Popyordanova collaborated on a publication about Vartopo, a vast meadow on the edge of Sofia which is neither city nor garden. The book investigates people’s natural inclination to collect, name and classify, and questions the language we use to talk about plants, as well as the values we attach to them. The publication is based on herbaria and botanical field guides, but challenges these formats and the way they mediate our relationship to plants. “A useless guide to Vartopo and its weeds” is an invitation to get out and meet a place through your own senses and impressions.
“A useless guide to Vartopo and its weeds”
concept and texts: Andrea Popyordanova and Francesca Castagnetti
illustrations: Andrea Popyordanova
first English edition of 100
published by Center for Social Vision
in the frame of “New Ecologies”
(2023) at Swimming Pool, Sofia
price: 28 BGN
