Tulip Mania II
2022 –
We are attracted by the beauty of flowers. Although, it remains to be seen if the beauty and emotions of those flowers justifies the environmental issues they cause or the issues brought by the global economic system in which we live?
Tulip Mania II consists of 5 video works and glass sculptures about tulip bulbs production and export referring to a speech by an economist Dr. Milton Friedman and to a text by Dr. Leonard E. Read. She uses video footage that she has documented in the Netherlands and Poland. The work shows that neoliberalism and market fundamentalism are deeply rooted in our lives. This aspect can also be seen in the field of organic cultivation of bulbs. The work is supported by seasonal workers from Poland and the demand for expensive organic bulbs accounts for only 0,22% of the bulb market. Along with this fact, the work suggests that organic bulb cultivation is not established solely on the basis of human collaboration and trade, but in the context of human-ecological relations.
Concept, Research and Development: Kumi Hiroi
Supported by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union, AFK (Amsterdam Fund for the Arts) Special thanks to: Huiberts biologische bloembollen,
Lia Gieling, Karin Astrid Siegmann (Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam), Maciej Kaarwowski (FNV), Free To Choose Network, Mirka Chojecki-Nuckowska, Paolo Di Lonardo & Giulia Bongiorno (Wageningen University & Research), Koki Toyota & Risako Kato (Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology), Alice Smit (zone2source)
Concept, Research and Development: Kumi Hiroi
Supported by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union, AFK (Amsterdam Fund for the Arts) Special thanks to: Huiberts biologische bloembollen, Lia Gieling, Karin Astrid Siegmann (Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam), Maciej Kaarwowski (FNV), Free To Choose Network, Mirka Chojecki-Nuckowska, Paolo Di Lonardo & Giulia Bongiorno (Wageningen University & Research), Koki Toyota & Risako Kato (Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology), Alice Smit (zone2source)
Supported by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union, AFK (Amsterdam Fund for the Arts) Special thanks to: Huiberts biologische bloembollen, Lia Gieling, Karin Astrid Siegmann (Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam), Maciej Kaarwowski (FNV), Free To Choose Network, Mirka Chojecki-Nuckowska, Paolo Di Lonardo & Giulia Bongiorno (Wageningen University & Research), Koki Toyota & Risako Kato (Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology), Alice Smit (zone2source)