The assembly

Chestnut poles covered with hedera and hoya carnosa lend matter to a patch of forest and by peering through the trunks, visitors can get that something is going on inside the wood. A narrow passage leads to a green chamber where an assembly of plants is taking place. Visitors find themselves in the middle of a discussion among plants.

The circular shape of the place invites you to look towards the center where Modica stone paving intends to recall the cracks in the soil of arid lands. That void in the middle is the actual subject of the conversation, the urgent problem that nature is asking us to address.

‘What will the garden of the future be like?’ The 2021 edition of the Radicepura festival asked us this question. Yet if 2020 has taught us anything, it is how mountains, forests, rivers and all natural ecosystems would live much better without human intervention.

So wouldn’t it be better if plants answered this question? What would they want? Would they include the presence of mankind in their habitat?

Perhaps the garden of the future is a space of coexistence, where human beings interact with plants without a utilitarian approach: a large assembly of living organisms, where both humans and plants can take a sit …

As in other art installations created, the technologies used here are in harmony with the message that the work intend to communicate, so the garden of the future is designed to be respectful of the environment. All materials can be found locally and the installation is dry to preserve the permeability of the soil.

When the installation has to be dismantled, the reinforcing steel profiles can be removed and easily recycled, the stones can be recovered and reused, while the poles can be dismantled and allowed to degrade in situ thus enriching the soil with nutrients. The seats are simple poufs made by hand with natural fibers, with the idea of ​​recalling the close and healthy relationships that can be established between man and plant, once typical of rural communities.