ARCADIA
(2017 - ongoing)
collects a series of landscaped gardens that represent multiple interpretations of the Paradise myth. Arcadia takes the shape of a long poem in the making that is composed of a number of cantos exploring different symbols and archetypes (the island, the fall, the cave, the sacred tree...).
This project is a result of a number of journeys and residencies across the UK, France and Italy. Establishing tangential correlations between historical garden built in different temporal and geographical spaces this investigation uses a non-linear narrative that connects past and present as a means to imagine how a future landscape may look like.
With the collaboration of the Italian institutions FAI (Fondo dell’Ambiente Italiano), Soprintendenza Archeologia, Belle Arti e Paesaggio per l'Area Metropolitana di Roma e per la Provincia di Rieti (Lazio). Supported by the Institut d’Estudis Baleàrics, Institut Ramon Llull (Spain), and the residency program l’Aquila Reale Arte e Natura (Italy).
Canto I: The Valley of Hell
Canto II: The Island
A garden is an island
is an island
is an island
is a garden
Canto IV. The Sacred Tree
Fox-Talbot’s tree
a folly is glass,
and bones
and a hank of weeds.
Is at once cheerful and morbid,
both an ornament for a gentelman’s grounds
and a mirror for his mind.
a folly is glass,
and bones
and a hank of weeds.
Is at once cheerful and morbid,
both an ornament for a gentelman’s grounds
and a mirror for his mind.