All feel welcome to join us for this free to attend lecture and talk on the origin of apples, as part of the exhibition Apple. An Introduction (over and over and once again) – Organised by Antje Majewski and Paweł Freisler.
LECTURE BY PAUL VAN LAER (COORDINATOR NATIONAL ORCHARD FOUNDATION OF BELGIUM)
15:00-15:40
If an apple tree produces fruit of good quality and you want to obtain several trees with the same fruit, you cannot do so by sowing out the pips. You can only obtain the same apples by grafting twig parts from one tree onto a conspecific. The art of breeding grew into a regular practice worldwide. In his introduction, renowned pomologist Paul Van Laer takes us on an apple journey through history, from the Tian Shan mountains in Kazakhstan to the Herb Garden in Leuven.
CONVERSATION BETWEEN ARTIST ANTJE MAJEWSKI AND AZHAR JANDOSSOVA (ALMA MUSEUM, ALMATY, KAZAKHSTAN)
15:40-16:00
Azhar Jandossova is the director of the small but beautiful Alma Museum, literally ‘Apple Museum’, in Almaty, the capital of Kazakhstan. Artist Antje Majewski conducted research in the region for her film The Freedom of Apples. The original ancestor of our cultivated apple, the Malus sieversii, comes from Kazakhstan. This variety is a source of genetic apple diversity, but unfortunately, it is currently threatened with extinction due to climate change and imported tree species. Jandossova and Majewski engage in conversation, discussing why the wild apple forests in the Tian Shan Mountains are not only important for Kazakhstan but for the whole world, and how we can make room for cultivated crops.
SCREENING THE FREEDOM OF APPLES, A FILM BY ANTJE MAJEWSKI IN THE AUDITORIUM
16:00
As part of the presentation, one can discover Majewski’s documentary The Freedom of Apples, which highlights the problems caused by the disappearance of less commercially viable apple varieties, and the importance of preserving Kazakhstan’s wild apple forests.
In the auditorium, Majewski’s documentary The Freedom of Apples will take you on a personal journey to the origins of apples and towards a deeper understanding of our relationship with apples.
