4/12/2010

The Falling Garden

: Sigh : if only I had known about this dreamy magical haven in Venice, when I was there last year.

I think these are by far the most inspiring images that I’m going to lay my eyes upon all week.

This installation is called The Falling Garden and is housed in The Church of San Stae on the Grand Canal. ( Gosh! Writing this is enough to make me nostalgic about our honeymoon in Italy last year...)

This work of wonder is created by Swiss artists Gerda Steiner and Jörg Lenzlinger. Here’s how the artists describe their installation on their website:

The Doge (Mocenigo) needed a church so as to be able to have a monumental tomb built for himself, the church (San Staë) needed a saint so as to be able to be built, the saint (San Eustachio) needed a miracle so as to be pronounced a saint, the miracle needed a stag in order to be seen, and we built the garden for the reindeer.


The visitors lie on the bed above the doge’s gravestone, and the garden thinks for them.

Components: Plastic berries (India), cow pads (Jura), waste paper (Venice), baobab seeds (Australia), beech, elder and magnolia branches (Uster), thorns (Almeria), nylon blossoms (one-dollar-shop), pigs’ teeth (Indonesia), seaweed (Seoul), orange peel (Migros shop), fertilizer crystals (home grown), pigeons’ bones (San Staë), silk buds (Stockholm), cattail (Ettiswil), cats’ tails (China), celery roots (Montreal), virility rind (Caribbean), wild bore quills (zoo), banana leaves (Murten), rubber snakes (Cincinnati)...

But why oh why didn’t I know about The Falling Garden before? What an experience it would have been to have walked through that exquisite white room or to have lied on that bed and drifted away into la la land!

14 comments:

  1. Hi Persis! When were you there? I was there last March... what a wonderful and amazing place... ah! Have a great day!

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  2. Woah i love that, so beautiful.
    kisses

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  3. How magical and beautiful!!!

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  4. Wow it looks like an utter fairytale landscape! Venice is on my "must visit" list of places to get too - dreamed of visiting their for years. I must get around to it soon!

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  5. This looks absolutely gorgeous!

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  6. Fantastic!! Breathe taking. Venice is my dream place and would surely make a point to visit this place. Thanks a ton of sharing..

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  7. This is one of the coolest things I've ever seen! Seriously!

    Thank you so much for your comments on my last post, I really do value your feedback!

    Have a wonderful week!
    Anne

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  8. This would be amazing to see... not to mention just wanting to be in Venice! haha :)

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  9. that's insane! I love it! Definitely going there if I ever get my butt to italy. :)

    x Emily

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  10. Thank you ladies for all your sweet comments. I was there last year in April...n so regret not knowing about this beautiful art then.

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  11. It looks so surreal!! something from Tim Burton's movie:-)

    sonali

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  12. Ohhhh I am wishing I was there right now.
    Gorgeous post!

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  13. there! I featured this in my Friday Faves: http://laviejaime.blogspot.com/2010/04/friday-faves_16.html

    Have a great weekend! :)

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