Artist work inspiration: 'Falling Garden' by Gerda Steiner and Jorg Lenzlinger

Falling Garden
San Staë church on the Canale Grande
50th Biennial of Venice, 2003

What?

·          Botanical curios suspended from the ceiling of a 17^th century church in Venice

·          3 dimensional botanic display against decorated Italian marble      

Gerda Steiner and Jorg Lenzlinger statement of the work:

 ‘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.’

•    Doge needed a church to have a monumental tomb
•     The church needed a saint to be built
•   The saint needed a miracle to be known as a saint
•    The miracle needs a stag in order to be seen
•    The falling garden is built for the stag

Motivation/ Why does it exist?

·          Tribute to the Doge

•     The ‘Stag’ in the artist’s comments is a metaphor for the Doge (Duke)
•  Stag symbolises strength, dominance within nature
•    The ‘Stag’ is an appropriate metaphor as the Duke was the ‘chief magistrate and leader of the Most Serene Republic of Venice’
•   The relationship between the Duke and his followers may be represented through how ‘The Falling Garden’ interacts with the interior space of the church.

-    The church represents the tomb of the Duke

-    ‘The falling garden’ represents the followers of the Duke

• ‘The falling garden’ is placed in a sporadic yet mindful manner that considers the architecture
•  Although the ‘falling garden’ could represent the peace and stillness of the Doge in his tomb
•  The installation also represents the contrast between life and death, past and present  

  Design site specific installations

-    Steiner and Lenzlinger design an installation in response to its surroundings

-    This contrasts with Nikohlauas Lang’s work, in which he creates art pieces that reference a site.

-    Although the botanic collection includes curios from different places such as Australia, Switzerland, Sweden, Canada, South Korea and India; which is similar to Langs process of creating art pieces specific to landscapes in different countries
 

·          Artists believe the Doge (duke) is entombed in the center with a grin on his skull:

-    Reflects the vibrancy of the dead curios of nature

How do people interact with it?

·   Visitors lie on the floor

·          As suggested by the artists, lie on the gravestone’s bed

-    Best view of the installation as if they were the Doge

·          ‘Visitors thoughts are free to drift as the garden thinks for them’

- This could represent the control that the Doge had over his followers