Dew Catcher Microclimate, Biotopas II

Biotopias II was an exhibition about art and ecology curated by the artist collective PSJM in collaboration with the City Council of Las Palmas. The art installation 'Dew Catcher Microclimate' created for the exhibition in Parque Doramas, Las Palmas on the island of Gran Canaria offered a solution to the desertification of the landscape. The proposal for this artwork was based on a visit to Gran Canaria by Joost and Annechien in 2014 where we spoke with a climate expert. She told us about the extreme deforestation on Gran Canaria due to the construction of banana plantations in the past. We planted a laurel tree and built a mini dew catcher from recycled plastic bottles around it to collect dew to water the tree in an open field near Sardina De Galdar. This mini pilot version of a Dew Catcher functioned as a starting point for a larger art installation in the park in 2020; a crater hill shape covered with banana leaves. In this way, the perpetrators of the problem can provide a solution and palm leaves can collect dew at night and in the morning.

This exhibition consisted of two works of art: an art installation in the park in Las Palmas by Joost Suasso and Annechien Meier. For the online artwork, a scale model of the landscape on Gran Canaria in The Hague was made. The visitor can click on a drawn banana leaf and then you see a hand placing this banana leaf in a circle in the scale model. When the circle is complete, mist appears and then a tree. The video clips for this work were made in collaboration with Gert-Jan Gerlach in The Hague. Fun to do!!: https://saladeartesocial.com/biotopias-2/laboratorio-para-microclimas/