HORTUS IGNOTUS
title. Official participation for the Pavillon of Cyprus at the 23rd Milano Triennale
overall title. Unknown Unknowns; an Introduction to Mysteries
curated by. Ersilia Vaudo
date. June - December 2022
city. Milano, Italy
type. exhibition design. curating. object design. ceramics. video installation
with. draftworks architects (Christiana Ioannou & Christos Papastergiou) and Spyros Nasainas
comission by. ministry of culture authority, Cyprus
photography. Jacopo Gennari Feslikenian
links. triennale milano; instagram; press release pdf
HORTUS IGNOTUS / THE UNKNOWN GARDEN
From Strabo, the Greek geographer who visited Cyprus in the first Century BC, to the Archduke Louis Savator of Austria, a member of the Hapsburg Royal family who visited Cyprus in 1873, recorded travelogues repeatedly refer to the gardens of Nicosia as an identifying element of the city. Either in the form of productive orchards during the Lusignan Era, a compound of exotic plants and animals during the Venetian Rule or a mystical domestic space with cisterns and small hammams during the Ottoman Rule, ‘enclosed’ gardens hidden at the rear of the house and aside of the daily domestic routines, have claimed their historical place in the Cypriot capital city as heterotopic islands referring mainly to the stimulation of senses.
Hortus Ignotus reintroduces the idea of the enclosed garden as a condition that can be both protected and unknown. The physical as well as the typological elements that constitute the traditional garden, are used as tools of investigation and negotiation of our relationship with the unknown, whether this lies within or in the perimeter of the enclosure of the garden walls.
CONCEPT
The national participation of Cyprus at the 23rd Triennale Milano International Exhibition entitled Unknown Unknowns. An Introduction to Mysteries, was assigned by the Deputy Ministry of Culture - Cultural Services and the Cyprus Architects Association to the curatorial collective formed by Christiana Ioannou, Daphne Kokkini, Spyros Nasainas and Christos Papastergiou. As curators, responding to the overall theme of the Triennale, we conceived and designed Hortus Ignotus, an installation which reintroduces the idea of the enclosed garden as a condition that can be both curated and unknown.
The garden, as a typology of the domestic space has developed historically in Cyprus and the wider Mediterranean area. The gardens of Nicosia appear so often in travelers’ narratives, and the accounts are so lyrically refined, that it seems as if the garden was informally recorded as the most important hidden element of the city, its ‘common secret’. The physical as well as the typological elements that constitute the Nicosian garden, become the tools of our investigation and negotiation with the unknown, whether this lies inside the perimeter or is even embedded in the garden walls. We acknowledge the garden as a primary element that condenses archetypal features of domesticity and the relationship of humans with the environment, while, at the same time it reflects religious and metaphysical perceptions of what lies beyond in the idea of paradise.
Hortus Ignotus consisted of an audiovisual spatial installation that triggered the physical and intellectual experience of the visitor, aiming to redefine the garden as a place for contemplation as well as introspection, a place that can be multi-sensorial but also reflective, a threshold for the transition from the familiar to the imaginary and unknown.
THE CERAMICS
The tactile part of the project included a limited series of tiles and sculptural ceramic objects, made to be touched but not seen. My initiating idea was to create tiles that would feel like the dark side of the moon. I enjoyed the experimentation with surfaces and imprinting of plants on coarse clay and i developed a concept for the hands in order to provoke and stimulate the mind. How far can you place your hand in a dark hole without knowing what is hidden on the other side? This hands-on research became a self-sufficient part of the project and introduced for the first time vv_ceramics to the public.