Gardenotopia
Spring residency 2022, “Extinction?”
Exhibition 21st of July, Fabrica (Treviso, Italy)
Collaboration with Prometheus_Open Food Lab
Gardenotopia is a research project developed during a 6-months residency in Fabrica, a communication centre based in Treviso.
Starting from the theme “Extinction?”, the inquiry looks at the local ecology of the Venetian Lagoon while testing experiential approaches in the exhibition space through the edible and food serving. Gardenotopia brings to the table a critical way of thinking around food and place, while developing an experiential tasting of the endemic plants growing in the sandbanks.
Barene (sandbanks) top view
Background
The project has its roots on the concepts of co-existence and environmental adaptation looking at localities and micro-contexts, in the age of mass-extinction we find ourselves in. The Venetian Lagoon has been a unique example of co-existence between humans and nature throughout history, where the society and the environment developed symbiotically over the centuries, keeping La Serenissima alive, a main commercial republic of the Mediterranean Sea.
The balance is now broken, with the lagoon being threatened by the pressures exerted by humans, compromising its own existence. One of the environmental and cultural symbols of the lagoon, the barene (sandbanks), are in fact undergoing a progressive erosion due to many anthropogenic activities, such as waves caused by the boats, infrastructural projects, and the sea-level rise. The barene are host to a type of plants called halophytes, which are able to withstand the fluctuations of salinity, temperature and tide. Their emotional potential in a renewed narration of the lagoon is being explored by many artists, chefs, activists and local communities over the past few years; this project is a collaborative research piece that aims to build on this narrative by testing experimental approaches through design.
The balance is now broken, with the lagoon being threatened by the pressures exerted by humans, compromising its own existence. One of the environmental and cultural symbols of the lagoon, the barene (sandbanks), are in fact undergoing a progressive erosion due to many anthropogenic activities, such as waves caused by the boats, infrastructural projects, and the sea-level rise. The barene are host to a type of plants called halophytes, which are able to withstand the fluctuations of salinity, temperature and tide. Their emotional potential in a renewed narration of the lagoon is being explored by many artists, chefs, activists and local communities over the past few years; this project is a collaborative research piece that aims to build on this narrative by testing experimental approaches through design.
THE GARDEN
Gardenotopia, combination of the words garden and heterotopia, becomes the space where the gathering and the dialogue of people, landscapes and food happen. According to Foucault’s idea of heterotopia, the garden is one of the few spaces where things co-exist simultaneously, where they are juxtaposed: a place of the near and the far, of the side-by-side and of the dispersed. Materials that exist in the world in different states and moments find themselves at the same table, being experienced through different senses. A connection with the barene’s ecology is made through a food experience where the plants get ingested and digested, possibly sparking a new imaginary and re-envisioning while critically thinking our own role in the disappearance of land, species and cultures.
Gardenotopia, combination of the words garden and heterotopia, becomes the space where the gathering and the dialogue of people, landscapes and food happen. According to Foucault’s idea of heterotopia, the garden is one of the few spaces where things co-exist simultaneously, where they are juxtaposed: a place of the near and the far, of the side-by-side and of the dispersed. Materials that exist in the world in different states and moments find themselves at the same table, being experienced through different senses. A connection with the barene’s ecology is made through a food experience where the plants get ingested and digested, possibly sparking a new imaginary and re-envisioning while critically thinking our own role in the disappearance of land, species and cultures.
Gelato Lagunare
Developed in collaboration with Gelatoteca Suso, Venezia
Field trip in Sant’Erasmo, Laguna nord (nella foto, “Erbario Lagunare”)
The Gelato Lagunare was developed in collaboration with Prometheus_Open Food Lab and Gelatoteca Suso, both operating in Venice. The three-flavors dish was served during the exhibition as a first dialogue with the public: mango and salicornia, peaches and inula, lemon and portulaca.
TA(E)STING EXPERIENTIAL APPROACHES IN THE EXHIBITION SPACE
credits: Francesco Reffo
Installation
Tadao Ando’s architecture became the space that the residents took over to exhibit their works. Gardenotopia’s installation was composed by wood elements displaced in the space as plinths, recalling the lagoon’s material language. The research and graphic materials exhibited in the lounge set a space of proximity with the specimen of the plants and the dish itself, composing a very-local gelateria lagunare.
credits: Francesco Reffo
KEYWORDS
Locality, sandbanks, post-tourism, food, futures, extinction, specimen
Locality, sandbanks, post-tourism, food, futures, extinction, specimen
RESOURCES
“Erbario lagunare”, Foucault’s heterotopia, Tim Ingold “Making. Anthropology, archeology, art and architecture”, The Preserve Journal
“Erbario lagunare”, Foucault’s heterotopia, Tim Ingold “Making. Anthropology, archeology, art and architecture”, The Preserve Journal