The Riga Garden
Garden, 2012
There is a little abandoned garden in the courtyard of the old industrial Tobacco Factory. During the days of Camilla Berner’s stay in Riga the garden will change day by day. Each day Berner will communicate with the locals with the intent to involve them in making the garden. They will be encouraged to donate a plant, a stone, a pot of grass or anything thought to be related to a garden. The garden will grow out of existing plants and local materials. In exchange for their kind donation, people will be given seeds from Berner’s former project, “Black Box Garden”.. The project becomes about cultural exchange with gardening and plants as a mutual interest, a meeting between strangers who share a reason to talk. Every donation becomes part of The Riga Garden yet each donor also has a share of ownership in this collective intervention. (C.B.)
Downshifting? One can question the idea of downshifting in the sense of “quitting” and “moving away”. It is romantic and based on an escapist idea where one thinks life is better lived disconnected from the rest of the world - it could be seen as a rather selfish and egoistic thought. I think we all like to slow down now and again but what I find interesting is rather to question what influences that which keeps us busy. Reducing expenses is related to the fact that money rules in many aspects of our life, our mentality, values and priorities - and keeps us busy, on a personal level as well as in society. It is not so much as where we live as whom we are relating to and how we relate.
Artist's Bio:
Camilla Berner is an artists who works both in the context of both art and landscaping. Her projects explore cultural attitudes to nature, the use of city space and the perception of urban and rural. One of her recent projects, entitled “Black Box Garden”, cultivated a garden in a wasteland in central Copenhagen. The garden was made out of existing vegetation and materials found on the site. The project not only mapped out the diversity of the plant species growing on the most expensive and contentious wasteland sites in Copenhagen, but also made note of the many interests involved in this particular place. Camilla Berner’s work has been shown in solo shows, exhibitions and public art projects in Denmark, Great Britain, Germany, Sweden, Slovakia, France, and elsewhere.