Banana Dreams is coming to Martinique

From 23 November to 22 December 2026, 150 m d’altitude hosts Janosch Dietrich and Schirin Shahed. They are coming from Germany to explore Martinique for a research and creation project around a plant we think we know: the banana.

Two ways of looking at one plant

Janosch Dietrich works at the intersection of design, architecture and material research. Circular systems, reuse, experimental construction: he comes to look at the banana plant as a resource and a material, and to explore what its fibres, leaves and residues can become.

Schirin Shahed is a transdisciplinary artist and educator with a background in geography. Nature journaling, comics, participatory formats: she follows the banana as a cultural, ecological and colonial symbol, through Caribbean foodways and the island’s agricultural history.

They share a common ground in Moviemiento, a Berlin-based non-profit that runs international projects together with local organisations and turns public space into a place for cultural dialogue and non-formal education, most often through film. This collective practice of creation feeds directly into the residency.

Research and creation, a transmedia approach

There is little to announce for now, and that is on purpose. It is research and creation at once, with a transmedia approach: drawing and journaling, material and construction, storytelling, image. The forms are not fixed yet; they will grow out of the encounters.

A family residency, in two phases

Schirin arrives first, on 23 November. Janosch, Julianne Becker and their two children join her in December. The residency is therefore hosting a family, which is also a way of meeting a territory: together, at a child’s pace, in everyday life.

Exploring, meeting

This residency is first of all a time of exploration. We are looking to make as much room as possible for encounters and for discovering Martinique. Already on the programme: the museums, one or several plantations and the Conservatoire botanique de Martinique.

The rest is taking shape right now. Growers, fibre craftspeople, architects, researchers, historians, cooks, associations, schools, institutions: if you would like to meet them, open a door or share some knowledge, write to us.

A subject that catches up with me

For me too, this is an opportunity. The banana is a subject that seems obvious here, that concerns me, and that I had never naturally explored. That is the magic of hosting residents: they arrive with a question, put it in the middle of the table, and suddenly you care about it.

A milestone for 150 m d’altitude

This residency is also a milestone for us. Until now, we had avoided hosting two residencies at the same time. This time, their stay coincides with that of Léna la Bouchère: we are entering something new.

To make it possible, we are opening a new accommodation, entrusted to us by someone close to us. It is an ambition we hold: to bring vacant or little-used homes back to life through this kind of action. Before they arrive, we are organising a big clean-up with the supporters of ANISOTROPIE, who will roll up their sleeves, elbow grease included, so that the place is ready.

Thanks to Culture Moves Europe

Their journey is made possible by Culture Moves Europe, the European Union’s cultural mobility fund, implemented by the Goethe-Institut.

You can follow the preparation day by day in the residency’s logbook.