Events

A special UK, Scottish and German tour of the artwork and film ‘Indexed Beings’, kicks off on the 13th November 2025. Please see the dates, timings and locations below. Follow the links on Helen Knowles website https://eur01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.helenknowles.com%2F&data=05%7C02%7Cl.finchett-maddock%40BANGOR.AC.UK%7Cc1e6bf8127d44b470b6b08de1af3eb0c%7Cc6474c55a9234d2a9bd4ece37148dbb2%7C0%7C1%7C638977832139937048%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=Bo1EnidSX3CIVzqYg0HHpminFlq3hzjqhXoII1nklpY%3D&reserved=0 to book your tickets or check the links on the attachments. Screenings will be followed by a conversation with artist Helen Knowles and Soraida Chindoy Buesaquillo — an indigenous guardian, mother, and activist defending the sacred Putumayo mountains. Soraida is a collaborator on the film. Our aim is to create spaces where difficult but necessary conversations about colonial legacies, intellectual property, and plant knowledge can unfold—centered on the voices of the communities most impacted. It has been important to find a series of diverse venues which are not only galleries but places which cross into other disciplines like botany and activism. Such contexts will further activate the work.

Indexed Beings is a 42-minute artist film by Helen Knowles, created in collaboration with the indigenous Kamëntsá, Inga, Cofan, and Siona communities in Mocoa, Putumayo, Colombia. The work re-enacts a real dispute between a scientist and a local taita (shaman) at the Herbario Etnobotánico del Piedemonte, exploring contrasting worldviews on plant life. For the scientist, the herbarium protects biodiversity and territory; for the taita, plants are sentient beings that cannot be classified. Through performance and dialogue, the film questions how scientific knowledge changes when we recognise more-than-human intelligence, and asks whose knowledge truly counts.

13 Nov
University of Brighton
Screening Room, Edward Street,
(No booking necessary)
3.30pm – 5pm

14 Nov
Psychedelic Studies Dept
University of Exeter
Sir Henry Wellcome Building room G17
Streatham campus
All Welcome
3.30pm – 5.30pm

21 Nov
Max Planck Institute,
dept. Knowledge Systems and Collective Life
Berlin
12 – 1pm

21 Nov
Spore Initiative
Berlin
7.30pm – 9pm

27 Nov
Galgael Trust
Glasgow
7pm  – 9pm

29 Nov
St. Andrews Botanical Gardens
in collaboration with Forgan Arts Centre
Fife
7.00pm – 8.30pm

2 Dec
Leeds City Art Gallery
Leeds
2.30-4.30pm

3 Dec
UCL Latin American Studies Dept
(Time TBC)

4 Dec
Chelsea Physic Garden
London
6.30pm – 8.30pm

NEORT forthcoming exhibition on media ecologies curated by Alex Estorick and Yusuke Shono will include the work Indexed Beings. The show will occupy two floors of their gallery NEORT++ in Akihabara in downtown Tokyo. It opens on Decemember 4th 2025.

Indexed Beings has been developed with staff at the Herbario Ethnobotanico del Piedemonte [1] based in Mocoa, Putumayo, Colombia with: Director, Jorge Contreras, members of Colectivo Selvas Vivas, Puerto Guzman, Manuel Mueses; Centro Etnobotanico, director and founder of Sana que Sana alongside members of the Kamëntsá, Inga, Cofan and Siona community who are indigenous to the territory of Putumayo, Colombia. Thank you to the following foundations for sponsoring the tour.
S-H-E-D &The Bernina Foundation.

[1] The Herbario Etnobotanico del Piedemonte is based in the Centro Experimental Amazonico of the Andean Amazonian Foothills Jajen Saima’a. It is based in Mocoa and was founded by the biologist Jorge Luis Contreras-Herrera. It is the first ethnobotanical herbarium in Colombia and aims to document the biodiversity of plants and the different cultural, spiritual and social relationships that the communities of this region of the country have with plants.