I am taken with the concept that two Canadian designers,
Thilo Folkerts and
Rodney LaTourelle, have created in the middle of a forest. Using over 40,000 books, colorful wood planks and mushrooms, the artists have made a temporary living garden with a nod towards conservation by submitting their work back to the earth. The project titled
Jardin de la Connaissance (Garden of Knowledge) uses a large quantity of discarded books to form walls, walkways, benches and flooring:
Based on an open compositional principle, these elements are assembled to create a garden space, integrating it with the site and the structure of the forest.
The use of books to create this garden is twofold in its use of recycled paper completing the natural cycle and the obvious connection to knowledge which is infinite. The artists hope that
by exposing these fragile and supposedly timeless materials to transformation and disintegration, they also invite an emotional involvement of the visitor.
I have fond memories of mushroom picking with my father as a child and I happen to love every kind of mushroom, so am fascinated with the additional element of living art added to the books.
Eight different, edible mushroom varieties such as Winecap or Oyster mushrooms are cultivated within particular books and are nourished by the book walls. The mushrooms are pre-cultivated from spawn-sets and prepared for insertion in the book walls in well-watered book bundles.
All photos are by Thilo Folkerts.
What is your favorite living art project?
34 comments:
I love it..
would love to see it
Just love this, so special to incorporate the natural world as an art element. I guess you've alredy seen, but I remember learning about Andy Goldworthy's work in the "Rivers and Tides" documentary...his use of ice, stones, beaches, forests...
ohh this is so cool.
hmm i dont think i know of any other living art projects so this would have to be my favorite
This has such a visual impact. Great find!
Kay- Me too- I can almost smell it!
Jude- I love AG- I wrote a post on him a few months back and what really impressed me about his work is that my monkeys were so into it thus making his art so accesible to all!
Reina- You are so funny-
Noodles- Thanks- I agree looks great.
Thank goodness there are still people out there who care about the environment! Why have they chosen EDIBLE mushrooms? Do they think hungry visitors are going to help themselves to some....?
This is so cool! Thanks for sharing. I had no idea about this and it's in my own country!
Now that's not something you see everyday! Very nice!
Wowza! Truth be told, I get most of my art inspiration from your blog!
XO
Lenore
this is one interesting project~WOW!
Thanks Ren!
xo
Awesome...Last year I planted some shiitake mushrooms in logs...ok I didn't plant them, but put little dowels that had mushroom spores in the in holes I drilled in the logs...This week i got my first three mushrooms...I had no idea they could grow in old books!
That's a really interesting space.
I'm not sure about my fav. living art project...I just am not familiar with enough of them.
p.s. thanks for the lovely, lovely comment.
Ingenious indeed, and also commenting on our throwaway culture and the natural willingness of the reader to read meaning into unexpected structures.
this is one of the best things i've seen in a long time. it is amazing the amount of paper that people waste on an annual basis and how much we've taken away from the forests
That is so neat! I'd love to see it! Think those mushrooms would make me smarter? :)
Cafe B-I am sure they taste good!
Faiza- glad you like it- I am Canadian too.
Pat- glad you like it!
Lenore- You are so sweet!
LenoreNeverMore- Glad you like it!
Bo- Now that is sweet project- I guess living in the desert makes it unlikely I can try and grow my own.
Indie- thanks for visiting!
mise- I could not agree more!
PM- I agree- nice way to give what we stole back to the forest!
Smile- That is funny- you made me smile- yes I think they would make you smarter- either that or trip you out into thinking you were!
this is so smart! just brilliant!
This is so visually interesting.
Check out:
http://finstersparadisegardens.org/
It is not a living art project in the same way this is. It is "living" to me in the sense that grass, vines, trees, etc. wind their way into the art and sculptures. It is a surreal place to visit.
Very inspiring, captivating while being totally Green! Lovely post!
WOW...I had no idea....thank you for stopping by my blog...nice to meet you as well:)
Love this. What a great project and interesting piece of rhetoric.
Living among books, is my project as well !
Rêver dans un jardin de la connaissance... aussi !
Have a look here : http://grey-lemon.blogspot.com/2010/08/ellen-bell-story.html
;)
That is one of the coolest things I have ever seen! How clever, and it's quite lovely, isn't it! XX!
This is a great project! I'd love to see this in person.
Interesting, but......
"When I get a little money
I buy books; and if any is
left I buy food and clothes."
Desiderius Erasmus
The artist probably used books
destined for recycling, but the image of lost knowledge lingers, and is painful.
Clair
I Love this concept, I love the art and the wealth to the world this brings .. hope
Brooke
http://www.momentsofelegance.com
Oh my goodness, this is amazing! I'd love to see it in person.
This is amazing! I would definately like to see what happenes to this plca ein, say, 10 years!
this is so ridiculously cool!!
This is a powerful piece, yet modest somehow. I would like to visit it over time to see the transformation back to earth.
Very interesting... I love the unexpected mushroom aspect ; )
weird but in a good way! i love different ideas and not sure I would lave my garden to look like this but it's creative!
This is so cool. What a great idea. I love to pick mushrooms in the forest too. My favorite living art project are these colored pencil trees in Finland. I"ll see if I can find the link to them and I'll send it to you.
Wow! this is an awesome initiative and a super cool project!!
At the moment I'm very fascinated with the project of Let's Color. They paint in vivid colors different neighborhoods around the world with an active participants of its inhabitant with the aim to bring joy through colors.
Check one of their projects as an example here.
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