"While the world faces an unprecedented climate crisis, with global temperatures reaching levels unseen in 125,000 years as reported by the latest IPCC findings (September 2023, Ursula Von der Leyen), humanity appears to be a mere bystander in the face of escalating conflicts over border control (Russia) and land ownership (Israel-Palestine). These conflicts persist despite the ongoing environmental catastrophes reshaping our planet, including wars for the control of essential resources, which disproportionately affect vulnerable populations, deliberately kept in conditions of extreme poverty. Additionally, natural disasters such as fires, floods, earthquakes, typhoons, droughts, and famines further exacerbate the refugee crisis, pushing people from their homes, ultimately leading to the creation of numerous refugee camps worldwide, from the Middle East to South America. Tragically, many of these individuals become victims of a desperation-driven market, exemplified by the perilous Mediterranean crossings in makeshift boats, resulting in open-air cemeteries.
Amidst these challenges, the architectural and landscape design disciplines struggle to engage in a meaningful dialogue, to jointly address the pressing issues of our time. Their ability to find common ground, unite their efforts, and approach design themes, reusing resources, and mitigating the ongoing catastrophes remains limited.
In 2018, Baracco & Wright Studio, recognizing the potential of a collaborative approach, curated a unique installation called "REPAIR" at the XVI Venice Architecture Biennale. They imported hundreds of endemic plants from Australia, sowing the seeds of a new way of making architecture that seamlessly integrated with the natural landscape. Responding to the repair narrative the 10th Barcelona International Biennial, proposed a Pop up event that distributed small oak trees among citizens willing to take part in a pop in exercice replanting trees in the Collserola mountains, in an eercice of ecological repair and awareness raising. Ten years before, in 2008, Elisabeth Meyer championed the idea of "Sustaining Beauty: The Performance of Appearance" during the fifth edition of the Landscape Biennial in Barcelona, celebrating the beauty of sustainability in landscape architecture and resilient, sustainable projects.
In 2021, during the post-COVID era, the LWCircus-Onlus Association curated a section on resilience, art, and landscape at the Italian Pavilion, showcasing the Sardinian Mediterranean landscape, including two tons of precious endemic species from the Sardinian Asinara National Park and 3.5 quintals of Posidonia oceanica. This exhibition aimed to highlight the importance of landscape architecture within the field of architecture and laid the groundwork for a collaboration with the XI Landscape Biennial in Barcelona, presented online during the Pavilion's Symposium.
For the XII edition of the Barcelona Landscape Architecture Biennale, coinciding with the closing days of the XVIII Venice Architecture Biennale, curated by African-American curator Leslie Looko under the theme of "Decarbonization and Decolonization," the partnership between these two significant events and their respective disciplines continued to strengthen. Among the key players in this expanded partnership, it was decided to physically relocate a part of the installation from Carlo Scarpa's iconic garden, created by the Hood Design studio in collaboration with the LWCircus-Onlus Association, to Barcelona. This installation, composed of 400 Chamaerops humilis plants representing an indigenous Mediterranean landscape from Sardinia, will be housed inside the Mies van de Rohe Pavilion. This Pavilion serves as a material embodiment of architectural rationalism and an iconic symbol of architectural practice throughout history.
This initiative gave rise to the installation known as "The Urban Green Migration," inspired by and aiming to emphasize the positive aspects of migrations. It focuses on the interconnectedness and prosperity that migrations can bring to both human societies and landscapes, offering a new perspective for the XII Barcelona Landscape Biennial titled "The Poetry of Remediation."
Scheduled to take place from November 27 to December 3, 2023, this initiative is the result of collaboration between the LWCircus-Onlus Association, the XII Landscape Biennial of Barcelona, the Department of Parks and Gardens of the Municipality of Barcelona, the Mies van der Rohe Foundation, and the Hood Design studio, with the involvement of the National Parks of Asinara and La Maddalena. This effort represents a piece of the Sardinian Mediterranean landscape, acting as a bridge between the two most significant Biennials – one focused on Landscape (in Barcelona) and the other on Architecture (in Venice). It aims to foster a coherent approach to addressing the ongoing climate crisis, leading to more resilient and inclusive futures.
Out of the 400 Chamaerops humilis plants that have thrived in Carlo Scarpa's garden during the XVIII Venice Architecture Biennale since May 2023, 176 of them, contained in 24 cm pots with 50 cm foliage, will be placed within the smaller of the two bodies of water outside the Mies Van der Rohe Pavilion. This placement will offer visitors a unique perspective, with the Venus sculpture reflecting on the unusual green surface, symbolizing the resilience and beauty of the Mediterranean landscape. Another 176 units will be situated inside the Pavilion, offering an unprecedented view from both inside and outside. This placement symbolizes the integration of Mediterranean landscape resilience with one of the most iconic architectural masterpieces in Catalonia, based on the principles of architectural rationalism, which extol the concept of "less is more."
The Chamaerops humilis plants serve as a symbolic bridge and a means of dialogue between the fields of architecture and landscape design. They enable the Mediterranean landscape to engage with two distinguished Masters of architectural rationalism, representing the architectural discipline. Additionally, they function as a regenerative Mediterranean garden in Sardinia, fostering social inclusion and the renaturalization of entire neighborhoods in the city of Barcelona, in collaboration with minorities, families, and students from the ETSAB University, Polytechnic of Barcelona, and its esteemed School of Landscape Architecture. This marks the consolidation of a productive collaboration that began in 2021 among the main partners, further enhanced with this opportunity, underlining the commitment to unity among all stakeholders in creating increasingly resilient and inclusive futures. This endeavor also includes the third edition of the LWC_CONVIVIUM Symposium, coordinated by the LWCircus Association, taking place on November 23 on the island of Asinara, serving as a collateral event and prelude to the XII Barcelona Landscape Biennial."
A. Piras, M. Cervera & A. du Solier
