Phantom Roots

“Phantom Roots” is a performance and installation by the artist Filip Vest taking you on a journey in and outside the urban garden and cultural institution, Losæter. The work addresses the relationship between humans and plants. It is a story about interdependency and loneliness, about growing, longing, and being homesick. It revolves around a lonely gardener and a group of walking plants, ”the potted plant people”, that have come into being through a series of mysterious incidents and now inhabit the spaces as they reproduce themselves and make plan(t)s. The function of flower pots, to make plants mobile, are taken to an extreme as the plant people start walking and detach themselves from the collective mind (of the ground). But independence comes with a price...

To explore the project “Phantom Roots” the visitors are invited to borrow
 a pair of potted plant headphones and participate in a tour of the fictional universe. It takes two people to activate the piece: one will take on the role of the host, the first potted plant person, and the other will take on the role of a potted plant infant, getting introduced to the place.

Thank you Losæter and KORO for the help and support!

Photodocumentation by Cirenia Escobedo Esquivel