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Plant_Intelligence (#zotero2-2641719.RJ6V9PDT)

The Devil's Breath
(2025)


Castelblanco, Felipe (Director)
Tags
Basel Brugmansia arborea (Borrachero Andaki) Colombia Contemporary moving image art Ethnobotanical knowledge Expanded cinema Human–nonhuman relations Human–plant alliances Indigenous cosmologies Indigenous knowledge systems Kamnënstá people Plant Intelligence Plant agency Putumayo Speculative narrative Switzerland Territorial imagination (Amazon–Alps) Time-based media Video installation (three-channel) werke felipe castelblanco plant_intelligence
Categories
  1. Werke
  2. Plant_Intelligence
  3. Felipe Castelblanco

The film touches on the ethnomedicinal practices of the Kamnësnta people living in the Colombian-Amazon region, who still maintain a close relation to a potent plant from the Burgmansia family. Locally known as Borrachero Andaki, the toxicity of this plant has rendered it as a deadly and divine being at once. Ingesting -or even smelling it- can cause severe hallucinations and temporary loss of memory. Nevertheless, this plant is revered among the shamans for enabling those who take it to anticipate the future, not through visions but through feeling.

Equipment specifications: 85 inch monitor placed on vertical position

Institutional crdits:

A film Felipe Castelblanco, realized in the framework of the research project Plants_ Intelligence. Learning like a Plant (2022 - 2025). A research project by Yvonne Volkart, Felipe Castelblanco, Julia Mensch and Rasa Smite. Funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation and hosted by the Institute Art Gender Nature, Basel Academy of Art and Design FHNW. Co-commissioned by the Haus für Medienkunst Oldenburg and supported by Stiftung Niedersachsen.

Additional funding form: Haus für Medienkunst Oldenburg and Stiftung Niedersachsen.

Cast: Ayënan Quinchoa Juajibioy,  Taita Miguel Chicunque and Heraldo Vallejo. Camera and editing: Felipe Castelblanco

Voice: Syntetic Voice inspired and modulated based on the tone of traditional Siona storytellers, such as Taita Aristides Piaguaje.



Extra
SeriesTitle:  Tunda: A Quantic Plant and the Devil’s Breath
handle:  20.500.11806/med/4c0z-mtkw-s9
Language:  Spanish, EN and GE subtitles, GE transcription
DateModified:  2026-03-02T09:33:01Z
DateAdded:  2026-02-02T08:51:12Z
Rights:  This work is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
RunningTime:  00:06:30
Key:  RJ6V9PDT