27.4 - 13.10 2024
In many cultures, the garden has been a paradise and a place of refuge, a reflection of identities, dreams, and visions, a world in miniature. Be it a strictly arranged work of art or a naturalistic perennial paradise: the form that people give to their gardens always reveals their own relationship to nature – and sometimes that of entire cultures and eras.
The exhibition Garden Futures: Designing with Nature traces this relationship across time and societies. In small details and in big ideas, in guerilla gardens, on suburban lawns, and in artistic endeavours, it explores where the design ideals for today’s gardens come from, and looks for new models.
For many artists, designers, and landscape architects, the garden has always been much more than a romantic retreat – it is a testing ground for new ideas, a place to imagine and achieve a better future. Today, in the face of climate crisis, globalization, and food insecurity, the garden has again become a laboratory for new concepts of sustainability and social justice, a place of hope and promise.
Among others: Aino Aalto, Marjan van Aubel, Roberto Burle Marx, Derek Jarman, Alexandra Kehayoglou, Jamaica Kincaid, Piet Oudolf, Mien Ruys
An exhibition by the Vitra Design Museum, the Wüstenrot Foundation, and the Nieuwe Instituut
Foto: John Nelander