Botanical gardens like Amstelpark bring together plants from different geographies—but also from different histories, relational weavings, and memories. Hira Nabi explores, through Super 8 footage from botanical gardens in Amsterdam and Berlin, ways of being attentive and receptive to other forms of remembering. In this work, her own memories intertwine with the exercise of a relational gaze toward plants.

In a filmic letter to her grandfather, Hira Nabi seeks out kinship with familiar and unfamiliar plants, recalls childhood memories, and tries to pay close attention to daily life, and to make sense of the world, and its violent impulses as she moves through cities, travels on rivers, on highways, and keeps a lookout as the world keeps moving on.

Hira made this film in 2025.

After the screening the program continues with a conversation with biologist and writer Arjen Mulder on botanical agencies, memory, and consciousness, as guides for potential learning from the wisdom of plants.

BIOGRAPHY

Hira Nabi is a visual artist and filmmaker. She is based between Amsterdam, Berlin, and Lahore. Gathering and archiving testimonials in the wake of destruction and extinction make up an important part of her practice. In her work, witnessing is a charged act of radical possibility, holding immense potential for collective responsibility and love.