Cookie Consent by Free Privacy Policy website “ECHOES OF THE FOREST”
july 29, 2021 - Venice Gardens Foundation

“ECHOES OF THE FOREST”


Maria Thereza Alves and #jimmiedurham #design collective LABINAC

Royal Gardens of Venice | May 19 – June 5, 2021 | September 3 – September 17, 2021

Press preview of the exhibition: May 18, 2021 | 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Architecture must begin with a specific place, considering the nature of the surroundings. Every building is created in a garden, whether or not that is recognized.- Maria Thereza Alves

Venice Gardens Foundation presents from Wednesday 19 May to Saturday 5 June 2021, during the 17th Venice Architecture Biennale the project "Echoes of the Forest" by the #design collective LABINAC and by its two founders, the artists Maria Thereza Alves and Jimmie Durham.

In the evocative setting of the Greenhouse at the Giardini Reali in Venice "The Human Garden", recently returned to its splendour in 2019 after an extensive four-year restoration project promoted and curated by the #venicegardensfoundation, which now manages the gardens, LABINAC is presenting under the title "Echoes of the Forest" a selection of #design works, some of which were conceived for the site.

Adele Re Rebaudengo, President of #venicegardensfoundation, and curator Chiara Bertola have invited LABINAC to #design the work tables for the Royal Gardens, in keeping with the Foundation’s idea that the Gardens should be also a meeting place where researchers and artists can develop the vast metaphorical concept of the garden, sowing signs, sounds and words, cultivating and nurturing new visions.

LABINAC presents thirty tables that were specifically designed for the Royal Gardens by the two artists. The tables that were donated by Alves and Durham to the #venicegardensfoundation will remain as a site-specific permanent installation at the venue after the end of the Biennale.
The exhibition also includes eight vases by #mariatherezaalves, from the series
Cloudstone, Perfectly Imperfect, Allelic Combinations and Forms of Life. All the objects are one of a kind. They were made at different glass workshops through a process of experimentation between the artist and the master glassblowers. Durham will also exhibit a chandelier inspired by trees and the play of light on leaves and on broken glass.

Both Alves and Durham drew inspiration from the Mediterranean Pine Tree. Alves designed eight research tables from Green Serpentine Marble to represent the trees as seen from above or below. According to Durham: “We humans always need to know that the rest of nature is close.”

LABINAC’s “Echoes of the Forest” scattered throughout the greenhouse opens the possibility of myriad lessons that flora can teach us and reminds us of our need to engage in an inclusive dialogue, which encourages relational practices, and the challenges that this involves.

OPENING DATES AND TIMES

Inauguration May 18, 2021 at 6 p.m. May 19 - June 5, 2021

Tuesday to Sunday, 10:30 a.m. to 5 p.m

Closed Mondays.