About to Leave, 2017

About to Leave records the drama and symbolism of plants as greenhouse prisoners; outgrowing the greenhouses, craving for light and freedom they grow adhering to the glass surfaces, stretching out through the openings in the constructions. They are a metaphor of being kept safe and alive, but at the cost of freedom.
The photographs explore the relationship of man with plants and the history of this relationship, as well as botany's role in imperialism.
Today the plants lost their original purpose of decorative exoticism showing what the flora looks like in far off places. Heritage, memory, and places of silence and contemplation cannot compete with the economic value that seems to be imperative.
A drama took place at the botanical garden Serres d 'Auteuil in Paris, when it was decided that part of the garden and greenhouses would be sacrificed for the construction of the new Roland Garros stadium. The picturesque garden and historic greenhouses will now serve as backdrop for the entertainment of the masses of people that will visit the tennis tournaments for a few weeks a year. Despite the efforts of representatives from the Society for the Protection of Landscape and Aesthetics of France, advocates for heritage conservation and the general public, the construction has not been stopped.