(T)essere Giardino

“When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe”. [John Muir, ecologist]

Drawing on scientific and poetic texts by philosophers, scholars, and nature contemplators, (T)essere Giardino (weaving but also being a garden) is born – an experience of collaboration between humans (in the original Italian version, a pun between humans and hands).

It is an experimental and participatory work: accompanied by environmental artist Antonella De Nisco, listening to the music and sounds of Marco Prampolini through headphones, and the words of director Angela Ruozzi, with the dramatic complicity of Riccardo Tabilio, people become protagonists of a poetic act: in dialogue with each other and with the surrounding space, and immersed in the hortus simplicium, they feel like grass blooming.

Détendez-vous is the invitation extended to visitors entering the Dijon Botanical Garden, France. It’s the invitation each garden extends to us when we cross its threshold. As if passing through a portal, the garden changes our posture, our internal rhythm, and our perception of the world and things. The garden invites us to participate in the rhythms of nature, to reconnect with others, to be an ecosystem. Relaxing, reconnecting, and being creative through the work of our hands: these have become rare and precious experiences.

Together, a suspended curtain woven with natural materials is created, a filter that engages with the location, the viewer’s presence, gaze, and listening. Gazing and listening become tangible gestures in the practice of weaving, through herbs, medicinal plants, and stems (from the garden) that are woven together to create a garden of air and fragrance.

The Botanical Garden of Padua is the origin of all botanical gardens around the world and represents the cradle of science, scientific exchange, and understanding of the relationship between nature and culture. It has contributed significantly to the advancement of numerous modern scientific disciplines, particularly botany, medicine, chemistry, ecology, and pharmacy. In October 2014, the new wing of the Botanical Garden, called the “Garden of Biodiversity,” was inaugurated.