Ecologies of Diversity: Plants, Art, Film is a collaboration between Koel Gallery, Karachi, Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (RBGE), and Edinburgh Napier University’s School of Arts and Creative Industries (ENU SACI). This hybrid residency is curated by filmmaker Sana Bilgrami.

Working closely with Dr Kerstin Stutterheim, visual artist, filmmaker and Head of Research at ENU SACI, an emerging Pakistani visual artist, Sara Aslam, is being supported to develop her practice, including the use of poetic and experimental documentary film.

The residency physically took place on Gumchi Farm in Tumair, Islamabad, in September 2024, and in Edinburgh at RBGE in November 2024. The project will map the indigenous and cultivated plant diversity in the farm environment, whilst artistically and cinematically exploring the conservation of plants and their associated cultural heritage in the face of environmental and cultural change.

Using collections of South Asian plants and botanical illustrations at RBGE, alongside artistic-research film-practice expertise from ENU SACI, the residency offers a rich programme of mentoring, collaboration and outreach, embedding the resident-artist’s practice in international and interdisciplinary knowledge exchange.

The residency will culminate in exhibitions, screenings and talks at Koel Gallery in April/May 2025, and at RBGE in June/July 2025. A catalogue of the work will also be published and printed.

 Partners:

Koel Gallery

School of Arts and Creative Industries, Edinburgh Napier University