La Nación
Dig your hands into the earth to feel the art: Interview with artist Mariela Richmond
The Little School of the Earth is a project by Mariela Richmond that traces the links between agriculture, education, and art.
Erika Martin Arroyo, February 15, 2025
Visual artist and educator Mariela Richmond manages the Little Earth School project. (Mariela Richmond/Little Earth School Archive)
Images of Mariela Richmond in the garden: dried leaves, photographs of the earth, potatoes, cabbage, flowers, blackberries; small mounds of dirt, drawings of seed beds, a chayote, and above all, seeds—large, small, in jars of all types and sizes—some in boxes, others resting on bricks, books, benches; in the background, the collection, a refrigerator-like home where the seeds sleep and are preserved, before later meeting the earth, water, and germinating.
Upon entering the space, there is a small library of references that corresponds to the research of La Escuelita de la Tierra (#laescuelitadelatierra), a pedagogical project by Richmond, an artist in residence at Satisfactory Casa de Arte, in the Escalante neighborhood of San José.
Composed of about fifteen books, the library contains publications such as When the River Cries, by Mexicans Enciso Rivera and Graciela Gónzalez, a Guide for Seedbeds and Seed Companies , and The Elemental Garden: Dialogues with the Orchard, a beautiful publication with several voices of Colombian women.
Since February 3rd, Richmond has temporarily moved part of the Mojojoy-Agriculture agricultural project to this experimental art house. For three weeks, he'll be using it as his personal studio, meeting space, and exhibition venue. We agreed that he would come on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays during his three-week residency.
