CULTURA EMERGENTE
2021-22
Instalação arquitetónica
Jardim
Vídeo
Palestra-performance
Artigo
Projeto desenvolvido no contexto da Bienal de Arte Contemporânea da Maia 2021
Com curadoria de José Maia
Fórum da Maia, Portugal
Maia was a rural place before the beginning of its modernization in the 80's, to become what is now known as the City of Maia. Our research took place at the heart of this ubranisation, where the Forum is situated. We were invited to intervene in a public space, and were atracted to an abandoned house and garden, which was fenced soon after we started filming there for the first time. The front garden of the Forum was deemed as too visible for our 'experimental' intervention, so we were given a patch of grass that had been neglected by the gardeners when cement was left there after a construction. We used a microscope to look at soil samples, and realised the huge difference in soil life between the compacted and almost sterile soil of the Forum's garden with that of the abandoned lot. A film emerged from this discovery, which later became the material for a lecture-performance, alongside a physical regeneration of the Forum's garden itself.
The five columns of the installation next to the garden are a collage of microscope analyses taken from various samples of these soils, in order to create a gradient of the successional stages of soil - from almost entirely mineral to mainly organic, with an abundance of microorganisms and soil macroaggregates, more fungal than bacterial, and with all organisms the soil food web present. The Forum's garden was also regenerated in a gradient form, to show how if a soil is given more organic matter and is revived with the needed microbiology, it can itself go from a soil that can only host pioneer species, so called 'weeds', to then allow for cabbages, onto more demanding crops; to move from annual to perennial plants, to shrubs and then trees, to eventually become an old growth forest. In these sucessional stages we can find space to plant whatever is needed, and learn to identify and appreciate all the species that settle by themselves, without direct human intervention. The community around the Forum - the guard, the cleaner, the director, the producer, the office workers, the shop keepers - are now the guardians of this garden. They defend it against the official lawnmower and invite everyone to take part in this communal place of giving and taking which is, most importantly, a real space for the commons and an ecosystem that does not need to be tamed but indeed valued for what it is and what it can become.
2021-22
Instalação arquitetónica
Jardim
Vídeo
Palestra-performance
Artigo
Projeto desenvolvido no contexto da Bienal de Arte Contemporânea da Maia 2021
Com curadoria de José Maia
Fórum da Maia, Portugal
Maia was a rural place before the beginning of its modernization in the 80's, to become what is now known as the City of Maia. Our research took place at the heart of this ubranisation, where the Forum is situated. We were invited to intervene in a public space, and were atracted to an abandoned house and garden, which was fenced soon after we started filming there for the first time. The front garden of the Forum was deemed as too visible for our 'experimental' intervention, so we were given a patch of grass that had been neglected by the gardeners when cement was left there after a construction. We used a microscope to look at soil samples, and realised the huge difference in soil life between the compacted and almost sterile soil of the Forum's garden with that of the abandoned lot. A film emerged from this discovery, which later became the material for a lecture-performance, alongside a physical regeneration of the Forum's garden itself.
The five columns of the installation next to the garden are a collage of microscope analyses taken from various samples of these soils, in order to create a gradient of the successional stages of soil - from almost entirely mineral to mainly organic, with an abundance of microorganisms and soil macroaggregates, more fungal than bacterial, and with all organisms the soil food web present. The Forum's garden was also regenerated in a gradient form, to show how if a soil is given more organic matter and is revived with the needed microbiology, it can itself go from a soil that can only host pioneer species, so called 'weeds', to then allow for cabbages, onto more demanding crops; to move from annual to perennial plants, to shrubs and then trees, to eventually become an old growth forest. In these sucessional stages we can find space to plant whatever is needed, and learn to identify and appreciate all the species that settle by themselves, without direct human intervention. The community around the Forum - the guard, the cleaner, the director, the producer, the office workers, the shop keepers - are now the guardians of this garden. They defend it against the official lawnmower and invite everyone to take part in this communal place of giving and taking which is, most importantly, a real space for the commons and an ecosystem that does not need to be tamed but indeed valued for what it is and what it can become.