PoliNations invites you to step into a city-centre forest garden of magical proportions where you will be welcomed by an epic array of colour and nature.
Giant architectural trees drink rainwater as the forest garden plays host to a vibrant and spectacular free events programme situated in an oasis of thousands of plants and flowers co-planted by the city’s residents.
This super-natural wonderland uncovers the origin stories of the plants we know so well, in a celebration of colour, beauty, and natural diversity.
The entire PoliNations programme is free to enjoy and everyone is invited!
2PM - 6PM | Activity | Plant Up!
Get your hands dirty and join in with the co-plant, with 600 people from all over Birmingham. Made up of thousands of plants and flowers, the PoliNations super garden will bloom with colour throughout the festival!
Over the opening weekend, pick up one of the 600 beautiful pot-marigolds grown from seed and Plant Up! With the 60+ community groups from around the city to add to the colour and vibrancy of the PoliNations super garden. No need to book, just pop by and our team will give you a plant and help you place it in the super garden. Afterwards stay and explore PoliNations at your leisure.
2PM - 3PM | Talk | Lunchtime Talk with Claire Ratinon and Sam Ayre: Environmental responsibility in the creative world
Mother Tree, Victoria Square
A conversation between writer and organic food grower Claire Ratinon and artist and educator Sam Ayre about creative responsibilities towards the environment, the possibilities of decolonial practice within art and horticulture and how this might encourage wider change in society.
Claire Ratinon is an organic food grower and writer based in East Sussex. Claire has grown edible plants in a variety of roles from growing organic vegetables for the Ottolenghi restaurant Rovi, to delivering workshops throughout London. She co-wrote the pamphlet, ‘Horticultural Appropriation’ for Rough Trade with artist, Sam Ayre and her first book, ‘How To Grow Your Dinner Without Leaving The House’ is out now. Her second book, ‘Unearthed: On Race and Roots, and How the Soil Taught Me I Belong,’ was published in June 2022.
Sam Ayre is an artist based in East Sussex. Sam specialises in socially engaged projects that focus on opinions, society, learning, ecologies and ideas of legitimacy surrounding art, culture and history.
Find out more about Claire and Sam here. This event will feature BSL interpretation throughout.
8AM - 9PM | Everything | Iconic Plant Audio Tours
Put on some headphones and travel throughout the suepr garden in a zen like experience, as you listen to music and audio responses to our iconic plants, and found out how they came to be here.
You can choose to listen to the audio and music, or the music only channel.
Estimated time: 40mins – 1 hour
The Audio Tour features text by renowned author and environmentalist Jon Drori (author of bestseller "Around the World in 80 Trees") set to original music from cutting edge musicians and created by Olivier Award winning sound designer Tom Gibbons. Around each plant you’ll also find creative responses from award winning poets.
Follow this link for Jon Drori's full texts.
Writers: Romalyn Ante, Casey Bailey, Sujana Crawford, Olga Dermott-Bond, Isabel Galleymore, Sam J Grudgings, Emilie Lauren Jones, Roy McFarlane
Musicians: Tingying Dong, Meesha Fones, Petter Grevelius, Rakae Jamil, Fizz Margereson, My Panda Shall Fly, Sam Lee, Rosie Tee
Sound Design: Tom Gibbons
Audio Descriptions: Ask the Information Point for information on accessing Audio Descriptions of the sculptures through the headsets
Braille: Identification panels are found at the signs by each of the Iconic Plants.
7.53PM - 8.23PM | Sound & Light | Sunset Shift
Every day at dusk, our super will undergo a beautiful transition into night. Enjoy a mesmerising light show, nature-inspired soundscapes and ethereal performances, taking a moment to pause and reflect before moving into the evening's activities. The soundscapes centre around the ancient ritual musical instrument, the Bullroarer, and are developed and recorded by brass and percussion players from BCU’s Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, part of Birmingham City University in collaboration with PoliNations’ Sound Designer Tom Gibbons.
Website: unboxed2022.uk and polinations.com
