Analysis out of the box

Psychoanalysis of the garden

Analysis out of the boxContemporary Art | In his text Of other spaces, Heterotopias (1967) Foucault wrote : “ […] the garden is a rug onto which the whole world comes to enact its symbolic perfection, and the rug is a sort of garden that can move across space. The garden is the smallest parcel of the world and then it is the totality of the world. The garden has been a sort of happy, universalizing heterotopia since the beginnings of antiquity”. Foucault argues that heterotopias or “other spaces” have a double aspect : they are part of the daily environment we live in but they are also “apart » since their function is to act as mirrors of society. For thousands of years, in every civilization, gardens have reflected societies’ diverse states. In that sense, they are microcosms of the world as seen by a singular culture, we could even refer to them as “contractions » or densifications of the world.

Miguel Chevalier, Magic Carpets, Castel del Monte, Italie, 2014 © Miguel Chevalier
1 / 16
Miguel Chevalier, Magic Carpets, Castel del Monte, Italie, 2014
© Miguel Chevalier

Transportable microcosm

Gardens, like oriental carpets, are at the origin of structured representations and conceptual organizations of the world. Both concepts are formed by basic structures on which ornaments and vegetation are overlaid. The difference between them lies in a change of scale and a change of dimension. A rose-shaped design at the center of an oriental carpet becomes the basin of water in an oriental garden, which becomes the pillar around which the four corners of the world are often organized. The carpet is a transportable microcosm that artists refer to in order to question our representations of the world, and our relation to these representations. For instance, in his painting The Geographer,  (1668-1669), […]

You have 75% of the article to read ...

This article is free to read.
To continue reading it…

Subscribe
FREE
To our newsletter

Have you already subscribed to our newsletter?
Please enter your e-mail address

Read also

External Links

Suivez-nous sur FacebookSuivez-nous sur LinkedInSuivez-nous sur InstagramContactSearch

Version française

Miguel Chevalier, Magic Carpets, Castel del Monte, Italie, 2014 © Miguel Chevalier Vue de l’exposition Jardins, Grand Palais Giuseppe Penone, Verde del bosco con camicia (vert du bois avec chemise), collection particulière © Adagp, Paris 2017 / Archive Penone Vue de l’exposition Jardin infini,Centre Pompidou Metz,Ernesto Neto, Flower Crystal Power, 2014 © The artist and Tanya Bonakdar Gallery Johannes Vermeer, Le Géographe (1668-1669) © Städelches Kunstinstitut, Francfort Faig Ahmed, Wave Function, 2016, Liquid Series, 110 x 250 cm, handmade woolen carpet © Faig Ahmed Michelangelo Pistoletto, The Mirror of Judgement, 2011 © Serpentine Gallery, Londres Roman Ondak, pavillon tchèque, biennale de Venise 2009 © Photo: contemporary art daily Jean-Pierre Bertrand: Consubstantiellement ou l’instant unique, Musée Picasso, Antibes, France, 2004 - solo show © Jean-Pierre Bertand Planche de Hypnerotomachia Poliphili © DR Robert Morris, Glass Labyrinth, 2014 © Nelson Atkins Museum, Kansas City Ellsworth Kelly, Briar, 1961 © Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford Miguel Chevalier, Sur-nature, 2014, installation générative et interactive © Miguel Chevalier Robert Smithson, Bingham Copper Mining Pit, Reclamation Project, 1973 © DR Robert Smithson, projet pour Mangrove Ring, Summerland Key, Floride, 1971 © DR Piero Gilardi, Tappeto Natura, 1966 © DR Robert Irwin, jardin du Getty Center © Getty Center

Miguel Chevalier, Magic Carpets, Castel del Monte, Italie, 2014
© Miguel Chevalier

« 1 / 16 » ×


©

×