2024, cotton fabric 143×360 cm.

The riverside vegetation lushly overgrows the banks of Poznań’s Bogdanka River, enchanting with its diversity and beauty. But its abundance often results from an excess of nitrogen and phosphorus, which get here from nearby fields and leaky sewage systems. On the riverbanks, I find plant species that shouldn’t be here and which testify to significant eutrophication, or over-fertilization of the river. They disrupt the ecological balance, displacing species typical of riverside banks. Their presence signals harmful substances, polluting the ecosystem.

A decoction of these plants, including water mint, gipsywort, reed canary grass, nettle, cladophora, and touch-me-not balsam, serves me as a base for dyeing the fabric. I collected the plants where the Bogdanka disappears from the Poznań landscape, hiding in underground sewage. I drew the water for dyeing from the upper course, where the Bogdanka is still clean. The fabric, dyed with natural pigments, tells of the invisible loss of the river’s harmony.

Exhibition documentation: Joanna Czarnota