Weeds
Marguerite Humeau
The Swiss Church
London, United-Kingdom
21.05 – 26.06 2021

Weeds is a sound installation by Marguerite Humeau presented within a Swiss church, transforming sacred architecture into a space of collective memory. The work pays tribute to women: healers, botanists, midwives whose knowledge shaped the history of medicine, yet whose names were systematically erased from it. Persecuted, often accused of witchcraft during the European Witch Hunts of the 14th to 19th centuries, they left behind a vast body of plant knowledge that was largely lost with them.

At the heart of the piece, the voice of musician Lafawndah lists their names and fragments of their histories, carried by the resonant strike of a gong. Through this act of naming, Humeau restores presence and dignity to those rendered invisible. The surrounding sound system activates the church's acoustics, enveloping visitors in an immersive, meditative experience that invites them to move slowly through the space and to listen.

Rendering the invisible visible
Public programme with: Salomé Voegelin, Gina Buenfeld, Aliya Say, and Rasheeqa Ahmad

Alongside the exhibition, a series of talks opens space for knowledges long pushed to the margins — plant knowledge, oral tradition, the power of sound. How do artists and activists bring these buried ways of knowing back into visibility? Taking Marguerite Humeau's sound piece Weeds as a point of departure, the programme gathers researchers and activists Salomé Voegelin, Gina Buenfeld, Aliya Say, and Rasheeqa Ahmad to explore the paradoxical nature of plants that are universal symbols, yet deeply misunderstood; and the role of artistic practice in nurturing our relationship with more-than-human worlds.