KBF Residency Artist Daniel Godínez Nivón Delves into Displacement of Vanilla

KOCHI:
It looks as if the bees serenade on a high pitch as if announcing their arrival; the tone turns from thunderous to jarring; the tempo rising and lowering down to an appealing note, as they pollinate a cluster of vanilla flowers, dream-like.

Flower Serenade 2025, the sound installation, exhibited by Kochi Biennale Foundation (KBF) residency artist Daniel Godínez Nivón on the first floor of Devassy Jose and Sons, Bazaar Road, Mattancherry, narrates the history of the vanilla orchid (Vanilla planifolia), believed to be the only edible orchid endemic to Mesoamerica where bees energise the vibrant flowers that radiate joy as they gather food, pollinate and spark other reactions.

The video depicts a dream-like stylised bunch of bluish-purple and whitish vanilla flowers against the backdrop of sound recording of native bees. A closer look reveals slight movements as tiny bees pollinate each flora; their bliss along with the flowers reflected in the tiny star-like specs sparkling around.

“My project is ongoing research on the nature of vanilla orchids outside their native soil across the seas deprived of the thrill of natural pollination by the stingless bee, Scaptotrigona Mexicana.

The displaced orchids have relied on human hands for reproduction ever since. Obviously, their pod will not have the original flavour of vanilla growing in tropical forests of Mexico extracted by the Spanish into Europe and later grown in other countries,” said Daniel Godínez, an educator and independent researcher based between Amsterdam and Mexico City.

Ever since Edmond Albius, a 12-year enslaved boy, found a way to pollinate the sterile orchids with toothpick or needle, followed even today, vanilla has found its way into world markets and culinary and cultural landscapes connecting the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Oceans.

There is something more than ignites viewers’ curiosity and enlighten. There is a frame on the wall at the landing, of a vanilla vine climbing a tree in Kerala with human hands holding its stems to feel the vibration from the fixed speakers. There is also the reprint of the oldest research paper on Vanilla planifolia along with a chart depicting the frequency of the vibrations of the bees.

Godínez has been trying to arouse the evolutionary memory of the plant and flowers to sense the feel of natural pollination through vibration speakers attached to the vines.

“I experimented this in a vanilla farm in Kannur where the farmers hand-pollinate each flower. I performed a sound offering by transmitting a 220-hertz frequency to the vines through vibrational speakers, the range produced by Scaptotrigona Mexicana derived from a lightning recording made in La Huasteca Veracruzana, the original habitat of the species. It echoes the vibrational imprint of the bee that once pollinated the orchid,” he said.

Godinez shared his reflections with growers, biologists, and caretakers, and documented them.

He has been studying plants separated by natural pollinators, soil, climate, and cultural bonds that once sustained them owing to colonialism and displacement. He researches on how these ruin ecological rhythms and bonds that once linked plants to ritual, memory, and care.

Once an exotic and very expensive condiment sacred to Mesoamerica, vanilla spiced their cocoa drink, which tantalised the taste of the Spaniards who stepped on the shores.

Today, after much travel, vanilla has many hybrids, across the globe, the main being planifoliai aka bourbon in Madagascar, Réunion and tropical areas along the Indian Ocean; tahitensis in the South Pacific; and pompona in West Indies, Central America, and South America.

Godínez who has been exploring connections between dreaming and the natural world seems to questions how dreams of all creatures can enlighten on environmental issues, stir imagination, and spur collective thoughts.