‘Grassroots Base Station’ is a mobile exhibition project co-initiated by A4 Art Museum OPEN-class community curators RONG Yi, SU San, and ZHUANG Zhuang. Centred upon the theme of ‘Old Crops and Herbal Memories’, the project serves as a response to the 2025 community curation motif: ‘Flora, Fauna, and Urban Memory’.
From private allotments, parking areas, and balconies to street crevices, school ecology clubs, and heirloom seed guardians, we have witnessed the inherent complexity of ecological culture. Our research has extended into old neighbourhoods once inhabited by ‘Third Front’ defence industry workers, revealing that ecology is not merely about agriculture or the environment; it is a cultural process that is constantly being practised, misinterpreted, and reinvented.
In this exhibition, we utilise the half-playful, half-serious term ‘Ecological Yabī’ (Ecological Subculture) to identify ‘ecological betrayers’. These individuals have largely diverged from the disciplines of mainstream agriculture, education, and lifestyle. Perhaps they are simply engaging in small, daily, habitual actions—pursuing paths simply because they find them compelling. As old memories fade and new experiences emerge sporadically, we seek to encourage more complex and rebellious relationships between people and the land.
‘Grassroots Base Station’ aspires to re-weave social relations, allowing displaced plants and lands to once again share our tables and living spaces. This exhibition and its accompanying actions are about food, flora, and memory, but they are equally about the body, emotion, and the reconstruction of relationships.
