Birth act

This work is a long-term visual narrative about the human experience of growth and development through non-biological parenthood, as seen in adoption. Adoption is not something that people acknowledge quickly, which is why many children tend to hide, cover up or, more drastically, forget about their birth origins. However, adoption can also be a story of love, empathy and strength. It can provide a space for imagination and creativity, as is the case in my story. In different environments, I explore the concept of plants as living beings that find life in places very often unrelated to their birthplace. Nevertheless, these fertile spaces offer prosperous and beautiful conditions for the development of relationships. I discovered that these spaces are environments where cultivation and care play an important role in shaping their inhabitants. To tell this story, I observe the world of plants, from their aesthetics to their growth methods and roles, in various domestic, and private or public, environments in South Tyrol, northern Italy. My aim is to create a language that encourages empathy with plants as living beings and as metaphors for individual life and existence. To achieve this, I will consider their biology, the contexts in which they are placed, how they are cultivated, and the personal meaning humans give them, as well as their ability to generate new life. From the Treccani Italian Dictionary (English translation): "To cultivate means to take care of a piece of land or a plant in order to make it capable of bearing fruit through work, fertilisation and other appropriate means [...] Figuratively speaking, one can cultivate an activity or a passion, which means devoting oneself to it and exercising it [...] One can also cultivate a relationship, which means keeping it close and strong."