SILENT FOUNDATIONS x Reykjavik Botanical Garden
Site Specific Installation
Eight second hand tinn and pewter rhododendron roots
March 2024
Reykjavik Botanical Garden, Iceland
The work “Silent foundations” is born from the thoughtful attention to what is hidden but fundamental: conceived as a site-specific work for the exhibition “Silent foundations” at the Botanical Garden of Reykjavik, it was generated primarily from the analysis of this place imbued with a strong but silent vital energy. The first deduction that gave to these sculptures the shapes of the roots, lies precisely in an energetic condition acquired by the vegetation of these places, which, faced with the impervious temperatures of winter climates, stores all its vital energy in these most hidden parts. Here the roots, from underground, are revealed, overturned and embellished, branching out towards the sky. Even the choice to place them in this pond is not accidental: what we now see as a botanical garden was previously a geothermal swamp, and jumping on some points we can still hear the traces of that void that has been filled, a light echo of the earth. The warm pond therefore has the value of a portal to the invisible, to what has been and silently continues to be. Furthermore, the sculptures take shape from casts of the roots of a rhododendron that also grew in a swamp, made with various recycled metals that determine the different colors. “Silent foundations” is a layered work that highlights the possibilities of symbiotic cooperation between man and nature that develops into eight entities as a tribute to the 8 people who, with dedication, take care of this Botanical Garden.
text by Richard Vailati