Eduardo Barba spreads his passion for nature to everyone who listens to him in each of his interventions, even more so when he does so about one of his specialties: the search for connections between art and botany.

The gardener and researcher reveals to us in his talk Aquella botánica the presence of natural elements in the collection of the Archaeological Museum of Córdoba. After listening to him, we will surely look with different eyes at the museum’s treasures in which nature has, once again, a lot to tell us.

If there were more philosophers with an outlook capable of understanding the world with plants and botany in mind, as Michael Marder does, it is very likely that many of the problems our society faces would be fewer. An absolute reference for philosophy in its connection with nature, he has been proposing for years a new concept of our time with his theory of “plant thinking”.

In his lecture created for FLORA, Marder explores the fascinating concept of plant intelligence, along with the notion of extended and extensible plant cognition. Specifically, Marder hypothesises that the cognitive processes of plants are not enclosed within their bodies, but extend into the environment: plants modify the world around them.

As a result, a plant can no longer be considered an isolated organism easily distinguishable from its environment. With the help of plants, says Michael Marder, “we will redefine intelligence as an interface between organisms, as well as between the organism and its environment, and begin to see intelligence not as an exclusively human or computational property, but as the hallmark of coexistence and symbiotic organisation.

What is urban spontaneous flora? What are the adaptations and strategies for living and reproducing in the urban environment of all that flora that we encounter on any walk through the city? Loyola University proposes a guided walk through Córdoba and a brief conference to discover the surprising floristic diversity, intelligence, adaptability and resilience of spontaneous urban flora and to enhance its value. For this we have the biologist from Córdoba Rafael Tamajón, a passionate expert on this urban and natural phenomenon, often forgotten.

After a brief introductory conference at the San Hipólito Cultural Center, Tamajón and a small group of people (previous registration is required) will take a guided walk to discover these natural resistance exercises that, if we know how to look, we can find in any corner of Córdoba.

Loyola University and researcher and teacher Alfredo Ramos offer a mapping session on contemporary artists who work on the connections between botany and technology. For centuries, plants have been considered a passive setting for human action. In recent years, Critical Plant Studies seeks to modify this representation by recognizing their agency, their different forms of intelligence/sensitivity and trying to create bridges with plants to “think with them.”

In this conference we discover how different artists and artist collectives have used technological devices to generate meeting spaces with the plant world, highlighting their ability to create worlds.