Soil Delivery Project

Patria Soli is a socially engaged art project that delivers soil from one’s homeland to the person who is not able to go back to their homeland. A great composer, Frédéric Chopin, who could never return to his homeland, Poland, until his death, carried an urn filled with soil from his beloved home country. Per his wish, when Chopin’s body was buried, a handful of the Polish soil was strewn onto his coffin. We hope that receiving soil could help people feel a sense of place and bring back the memory of the place. Collaborating with Reimagine, we would like to develop a network of people who can ship soil from where they live. In this workshop, we will explain how people can participate in the project as senders and receivers and discuss topics around soil; the idea of comfort, homeland, and memories. We also hope that this project could provide a conversation starter for necessary, otherwise difficult, end of life communication between people and their family. Our team consists of artist Miya Hannan and health communication specialist Jillian Tullis, in partnership with Reimagine. Questions: patriasoli@gmail.com