“Fleurs, gardens of the inert” rethinks the garden as an allegory of the relationship between man and the environment, between end and uselessness. Generated by the waste that is cyclically produced by trees – true monumental buildings – the garden is a changing temporary apparition, a “room” taken from the underbrush where leaves captured mid-air become a fragile cover, thus forming a pact between nature and its inhabitants.
The microenvironment created by a capturing accessory – the net – begins the formation of a space that learns from the adhesion of leaves to the ground. To strengthen this precarious balance, more plant species are invited to stitch together the habitable underbrush. Although it takes the form of a hunting trap, the garden significantly alters its purpose. The proportions and heights allow access exclusively to children or those – like them – who experiment and conquer always-changing forms of access, keeping away eyes that are already compromised and tired.
Under the canopy covered by climbing species, there is a fossil garden made from inert materials found on site – lava rocks, marine debris, or recovered from building rubble – in the form of dunes or small mountains that can be shaped by young users.
This inert landscape, where new interactions between the environment and human exercise are prototyped, invites a reevaluation of the disciplines and motives that shape the environment. More generally, the shadow cast by this small fragment of landscape is a tribute in the form of space to the Sicilian philosopher Rosario Assunto, who extensively studied and re-discussed the relationships between the utility and purpose of the garden, thinking of it primarily as a place, distinct from “nature,” distancing it from being merely a green filling.
Marialuisa Prestini trained at the Polytechnic University of Milan and IUAV University of Venice, where she graduated in 2017 with a thesis on the care of the landscape and ruins. She attended the Adrianea Academy in Rome and, in 2016, won the first prize of the Master Itinerante with a project for the museum intervention at the Archaeological Park of the Acropolis of Athens.
Giuseppe Ricupero is a PhD student at IUAV University of Venice, where he also collaborates in teaching. His research explores the responsibilities of contemporary design, intertwining the notions of ecology and heritage, its habitability, and cultural implications.
