Companion Plants, (2025)
La Centrale, Montréal, QC

"Companion planting is the practice of growing one plant to help another as part of a community. Fruits, vegetables, and herbs are noticeably more resilient and productive when each member supports the next. The benefits can be one-way, such as when nectar-rich flowers planted around fruiting crops, like tomatoes, improve insect pollination, or reciprocal, such as when the famous Three Sisters of corn, pole beans, and squash are grown together for mutual benefit. By growing communities of plants that are known to support each other, you can save a lot of time and potential heartache." [From The Old Farmer's Almanac]

Companion Plants is a response to the question How do we protect a radical idea? It explores questions around slowness, messiness, mutual support and reciprocity. Salima Punjani started collecting plant cuttings from friends and family starting in January 2025, and has been growing them in anticipation of the symposium.

Starting slowly, with spaciousness, honouring the time it takes for roots to grow and accepting that sometimes the conditions aren’t quite right. Visitors are invited to engage with the plants, either taking them and passing them on, offering a cutting of their own and taking one home, or simply appreciating the care in which they were grown. They are also invited to add a word to the bottles, contributing to a constantly transforming collective poem.

Salima also hosted a guided daydream at the end of the symposium using the plants to play a musical soundscape using a Plantwave device.

Photo credit: Vjosana Shkurti