Open Atelier: From Plant to Icon

Botanical Storytelling participates in the Naaldwijk exhibition with a contribution titled From Plant to Icon. The work asks what happens when a plant is transformed from a living being in nature into a visual icon. Does the icon become a means of preserving the plant and the memory of place, or does it reduce the plant to a simplified form and symbol? Which remains more present: the plant itself or its transformed image?

These works revisit plants and scenes from Syria as expressions of identity, craft, and cultural memory. Here, the icon does not erase the plant, nor does the plant replace the symbol. Instead, the two meet in a visual language that reflects on belonging, absence, and reclamation.