This exhibition at the Maison de l'enfance et de l'adolescence (HUG), in collaboration with the Fondation Convergences, presents the work of Pākehā* and Italian artist Ann Shelton. The exhibition I am an old phenomenon explores the systems of belief concerning the medicinal, magical and spiritual uses of plant materials, well established in the lives of European forest, nomadic and ancient peoples. This knowledge, often held by women - wortcunners, herbalists and witches - was marginalised with the advent of Christianity and capitalism, and sometimes violently repressed during periods such as the witch hunts. In the current context of environmental emergency, the artist revisits this forgotten knowledge by creating stilllifes from cultivated or collected plants, in an aesthetic inspired by Ikebana, the Japanese floral art. Adopting a feminist approach, the photographs pay tribute to these vanished practices and to the women who passed them on. The works, carefully selected according to the medicinal properties of the plants, invite us to reconsider our limited relationship with nature and to reconnect with ancient knowledge.

* Term generally used to designate New Zealanders of Anglo-Saxon or European origin.