For the inauguration of Pharmakon’s new location situated on Armeneasca street, the opening show “Mulberries and Elderflower” presents works from 11 international and local artists from various generations, which together form an intimate and nostalgic space for (re)living our memories. The show’s title invites us to reflect and ponder on how we perceive and interpret our subjective relation to tactile, olfactive, sensorial and visual collective memories. The title was chosen based on”a walk in the city in the first weeks of autumn”, when melancholia and vivid memories are triggered and relived.

In communist Romania, mulberry trees were planted for silk production, their leaves being the main diet of silkworms. One of the oldest trees in Bucharest, a mulberry tree, approximated to 500 years, situated in the garden of Batistei church, becomes a sort of omniscient narrator of Bucharest’s multigenerational stories. Based on small interviews taken on the streets of Bucharest, we notice an almost absurd, but recurring answer:”Mulberries are annoying, but they taste good”. It also makes you wonder: how does the passing of time transforms the utility of living or material artifacts?

When asked about elderflower, we see people reminisce of their childhood, of their grandparents or the countryside. Elderflower is one of the oldest plants cultivated by humans. Its refreshing taste reminds us of simple pleasures, and celebrates our inner child. Elderflower juice is a staple in Romanian childhoods; even if their flowers bloom in spring, it’s normally drank in hot days of summer.

Mulberries and Elderflower, thus, become artifacts of the spring and summer, but in the same time, they become artifacts of our collective memory, unlocking known or unknown personal stories. Similar to these trees, which are often unnoticed when autumn and winter appear, traditional techniques such as weaving, painting or sculpture, become (living) artifacts which in our times, where the internet and digital techniques prevail, their use is repurposed, while their meaning remain in constant change or transformation.