status:
Exhibition, Built
year:
2023
place:
Castello Ducale di Agliè, Turin, Italy
client:
Ripensare il Paesaggio (1ª edizione) Direzione Regionale Musei Piemonte, Direzione del Castello di Agliè,
Consorzio delle Residenze Reali Sabaude
with:
–
area:
50 m²
description:
The design consists of a circular garden that turns towards the sky and records and protects its changes along with the heliotropic movement of selected plants.
The eight mirrored surface seats represent lenses through which to observe the rotation of the sun and the passage of clouds, making the installation an ever-changing living visual work.
Three vegetated islands flank this atlas of the sky, reflecting the passing of time with three different aster species: Aster ageratoides ‘Asran’, Aster pringlei ‘Monte Cassino’, and Aster divaricatus. The so-called ‘star flower’ returns to the celestial theme again by creating a cloud effect in the different islands, also reflected by the mirrored cylinders. The botanical selection considers the flowering period of the species and the immediate effect necessary for the installation character of the work. The color white for the blooms is intended to evoke the image of clouds.
Asters, known to attract pollinators, are of extreme value for protecting biodiversity and become the symbolic plants selected to respond to the theme of coexistence between different species. The sky becomes the element of cohesion between the animated and inanimate protagonists of the installation, creating a constant effect of amazement and surprise for the festival visitors who can mirror themselves in the cylinders, observe the real and reflected landscape, or sit in the circle in the clearing among the clouds, the flowering asters, the industrious insects and the centuries-old trees of the park of the castle of Agliè.
The installation was filmed during the entire solar cycle to document the life of the celestial garden and its inhabitants.
