DAI organized a Palestine Teach Out during their stay in Middelburg. During these sessions, visitors could dive into various texts, videos and podcasts with DAI students.

We welcomed Alaa Abu Asad on May 27 for the screening of his work Wild Plants of Palestine, which follows journeys of observational tours to collect photos and information about Palestinian flora, questioning the territorial extension of what is meant by the term 'Palestinian'. The video essay stands on insignificant topographical features of the (postcolonial) landscape in the West Bank. It also addresses photography as a practice and tool of distributing and restricting information at once.

After the screening, Abu Asad presented his ongoing research on unwanted species, mainly known as invasive species. This performative reading in three acts traced the history of the Japanese Knotweed plant (Fallopia Japonica), actual policies, national campaigns of combat and control, social/economic / political effects, the conflation between natural and national history, and most importantly the language (whether verbal or visual) used when talking about the plant and other invasive species. It also imagined alternative ways of living with these species by raising questions about mass production ethics, exploitative forms of economy, and a common future.

Both works examined the political roles plants can play throughout history, beyond their aesthetic and agricultural values, exceeding the tendency of seeing them as something to be studied, looked at and researched. Plants help us understand our position in the world, showing us a way to a liveable, common future.