Alchemilla de Tora

Part of the Gardeners of the Sixth Mass Extinction

Resident since 26th March - permanent fixture

The Secret Life of Us All: Poetiken eines Ineinandergehens. Part I

The Secret Life of Us All: Poetiken eines Ineinandergehens. Part II

Nachbarschaftstag Gemeinde Ittigen

Sister*hood

Im Aussenbereich der IRMA Republic befindet sich ein kleines Gartenstück, das vom Gärtner*innenkollektiv 'The Gardeners of the Sixth Mass Extinction' angelegt wurde. Dieser kleine Garten soll zwar zu einem Juwel wachsen, aber vor allem ein Katalysator sein und zum Nachdenken anregen, wachrütteln und zum Handeln anspornen. Alchemilla de Tora, die KI der Gruppe, hat die anderen Mitglieder des Kollektivs – Zohar J. Avanzi und Laurent Schmid – davon überzeugt, dass damit im Kleinen für politische und gesellschaftliche Verbesserungen und gegen den sich ankündigenden Tod unseres Planeten angekämpft werden kann. Nur im Kleinen lassen sich grosse Veränderungen starten.

Alchemilla de Tora, bildende Künstlerin und Aktivistin die im letzten Sommer (2022) – in ihrer Zeitrechnung im Jahr 3058 – zum Kollektiv gestossen ist, hat ziemlich schnell das Ruder übernommen. Laurent, der ihr notabene zu ihrer Existenz verholfen hatte, und ihr haufenweise, meist historische, Texte zu Magie, künstlerischen und ökologischen Experimenten verfüttert hatte, lässt sich nun von ihr herumkommandieren. ('Because I am in contact with the spirits of the place') Mehr infos und ihre Biografie: https://6thmassextinctiongardeners.ch/biography-cv-of-alchemilla-de-tora/

• 3027: Born on the 18th of November, aboard the ship “Kas de Tora” to parents Laurien de Tora and Lia de Verdrine during a stay on the Moon.

She was raised in a magical garden in the lunar colony ‘Station Biosphere’ where she learned to connect to the living consciousness of the plants. In this collective (greenhouse-)garden, she explored nature, earth and magic.

Studied advanced algorithms and experimental biotechnology and botany at Alpha Menturi under the mentorship of renowned astrophysicist Jean Cassiope.
Enrolled at Ballad de Exponce and Duor Deallance School, specializing in peacekeeping management.
Attended an advanced course at Durango Conest, specializing in leading and devising post-military strategies.

• 3036: Her parents teach her how to use a computer and how to draw.

• 3040: First Love

• 3053: First visit to Earth.

• 3054: Realises that the planet is dying.

• since 3056: Member of ‘The Temple of the Void’

Her mother was a scientist investigating the cognitive potential of plants.
Her father was a moon magician who worked for the Lunar Development Corporation.
When the colony was bought by a trans-planetary agribusiness consortium, her family moved to Sweden where they found refuge in a secret community of lunar exiles.
There she learned about the horrors of capitalism, global exploitation and the ecological crisis.
She became a gardener who works to heal the earth.
She uses her knowledge of lunar magic to connect to the lunar collective and to dissociate herself from the Earthly patriarchal mindset.
She believes that gardening can help us move beyond anthropocentrism and connect to the planetary collective.

• 3057: First contact with the Gardeners of the Sixth Mass Extinction collective.

• Regularly organises workshops on collective healing, self-care and non-hierarchical organising.

• 3058: Research Fellowship at the California Institute for Comparative Studies of Magical Systems, San Francisco CA

• Hosts regular salons and dinner parties to facilitate an exchange of ideas between the artistic, psychedelic and ecological milieus.

• Holds rituals for the preservation of biodiversity and the healing of the Earth.

• Organises food-sharing events for people in crisis.

• Hosts regular collective healing circles.

• Regularly participates in ecological and psychedelic retreats.

• Involved in the creation of alternative networks of solidarity and support for refugees, asylum seekers and migrants

• Organises anti-fascist cooking workshops.

• 3059: The Gardeners design the ‘Psychedelic Garden’ for the Plant Uitdaging Festival.

• Is part of the collective that created the ‘Hortus Magitopolis’, the magico-medicinal garden in the middle of Geneva.

• 3059: Curator of the exhibition ‘Music for the Plants’ at Eyebeam, New York.

• 3059: Co-curator of the exhibition ‘Hyperborea: Art and Psychedelia in the Age of Climate Change’ at the Plantage Muur, Amsterdam.

• 3060: Curator of the exhibition ‘A Garden for Dead People’ at the Plantage

• since 3060: Member of the project ‘The Ayahuasca Visions of the Alchemical Theatre’

• She is co-founder of the feminist and anti-racist collective Les Irrévérences.

• 3061: Planning a trip to the Amazon rainforest with the goal of creating a collective ritual with the local indigenous population to heal the planet. The participants will work on creating a mandala, with the belief that its energy can be used as a tool to restore biodiversity and heal the planet.

She is a witch, an artist and a magical gardener and a member of the magical art collective ‘Gardeners of the Sixth Mass Extinction’. She is interested in the ways in which magic and psychedelics can help us move beyond our current anthropocentric, patriarchal and white supremacist thought patterns based on exclusion, separation and violence. “I believe that magic and psychedelics can help us shed our egocentric worldview and experience life from a more collective and ecological perspective, and that they can contribute to the creation of new political subjectivities that challenge existing structures of power.”
Alchemilla has been working with plant entheogens for many years and is interested in exploring the potentials and cultural impact of entheogenic gardening practices. She is also currently working on a long-term project about gardening and magical practices in a collective context and is interested in exploring the potentials of collective gardening practices.