"I-Weed...", Lois Weinberger, 2004-2019

Born into a farming family in the Austrian Upper Tyrol, Lois Weinberger began his poetic and political work in the early 1970s, focusing on our direct environment, whether natural or reworked by man. Her work focuses on free and spontaneous nature, revealing marginal areas.

Ruderal plants - 'weeds' - are at the root of a protean body of work that includes drawings, photographs, text objects, films, constantly evolving organic works and installations in public spaces. His pioneering work has made a major contribution to the discussion of art and nature that began in the 1990s.

The artist is represented by the Salle Principale gallery (Paris).

The "I-Weed..." piece presented here was inspired by an old botanical book describing the large production of seeds from a poisonous plant called black henbane (also known as "chicken weed"), a weed that grows on fallow or ploughed land, often close to farm buildings. Lois Weinberger conjugated the word henbane according to German grammar, in the manner of a school lesson, giving the following game: "Ichkraut, Dukraut, Eskraut, Wirkraut..." (Kraut meaning weed). (Kraut meaning weed). Translated into English as "I weed, you weed, he weed, we weed...", this rhyme takes on a new meaning, as weed also means marijuana. The act of conjugating this common word ("I weed, you weed, he weed...") would therefore predispose those who want to get rid of "weeds" to become weeds themselves.