The Killer Chrysanthemum

BUHAČ is a catalogue of stories, pictures and misconceptions about one of the world's first natural insecticides - the Dalmatian pyrethrum.

Known since antiquity, Pyrethrum plants were the first 'clean' insecticides used by man. As a natural biodegradable toxin, it is currently again in increased demand as an environmentally friendly insecticide in the field of domestic use, body hygiene, animal health and biological agriculture. Pyrethrum plants were already mentioned in the first century of the Christian era, in the Chinese book CHOU-LI, from the Chou Dynasty. It was traded along the Silk Road and from 1500 its use began to be widespread. In the Napoleonic Wars (1804-1815), the powder obtained from the dried Pyrethrum plants was used to control flea and body lice infestations by French soldiers. The first commercially produced insecticide began to develop around 1828. in Armenia by the title ‘Persian Insect Powder’, which was obtained from Persian pyrethrum (Chrysanthemum coccineum Willd.). Soon after it began to be sold in Europe through the Austrian Zacherlin company. But after the discovery of the more effective version of the species - the Dalmatian pyrethrum (Tanacetum cinerariifolium Trevis., folk name Buhač, eng. Buhach) around 1840 in Dubrovnik (then Kingdom of Dalmatia), the ‘Buhach powder’ became that of commercial interest. In order to keep the production to themselves, the Dalmatians were baking the seeds of the plant that were supposed to be exported for cultivation elsewhere in order to prevent germination. It was a futile attempt and the Dalmatian pyrethrum travelled around the world.

Following the flower's journey from Dalmatia to USA, Japan and Africa, we explore the strange and apparently invisible connections between the flower, its insecticide property, economics, politics, ecology, mosquitos and climate change. Working from multiple vantage points, the project considers the Dalmatian pyrethrum from different perspectives, (hi)stories, geographies and systems of knowledge.