Chaos (and) order in the garden

Chaos (and) order in the garden – Radicepura Garden Festival V edition

Climate change and conflicts have determined a new approach to the environment, which in turn calls for a new perspective in landscape design, keeping abreast with our day and age: lines, paths, volumes, functions and gardeners are no longer enough to turn a place into a garden. Gardens have always required planning, although they need not be educational but leave room to our imagination. As certainty of formal spaces is wavering, a change of style is blossoming no longer fearing to identify key values in small things. In the new gardens the wonderment of doing and making is not juxtaposed to leisure as it feeds on our greater awareness and respect for the environment, preferring slow time as the time of Nature.
Plants are the matter and the subject of all gardens in as much as they represent harmony and beauty: left unto themselves they initially require time find this balance, they change the shapes and sizes in a garden, they even need opposing forces to be controlled. Yet, a well designed project will enable plants to reach maturity, synchronizing with our expectations, completing the garden with virtuous variations able to fulfill even the most ambitious dreams.
We are aware of a biological network that draws energy from biodiversity: it means the boundaries between personal and collective spheres dissolve giving way to a more encompassing notion of Nature, an idea we are attracted to and which helps us recognize landscapes as a common good.
As we have changed, so have our ideas of Nature: garden designing will have to seek new forms based on a evolved concept of wilderness culture. New apparently chaotic gardens spring up, as an artistic expression to fulfill dreams, as a natural choice to create the most beautiful of gardens, where both the biological forces and the creative intuitions of the design blend into a balance. Nature lovers know that chaos is a transient state that does not pertain to us, but garden lovers know that nature accepts no imposition, unless care and constant presence are offered.

We are addressing designers from all walks of life who have good knowledge of Nature, artistic skills and humbleness, to identify style strategies and practices able to lightly balance order and disorder, to indulge Nature without domesticating it.

Antonio Perazzi, artistic director of the Radicepura Garden Festival

In the first STEP, designers are invited to answer our call illustrating an idea and will be selected. Following this, there will be a further selection of those who can access the next step: shortlisted applicants will be asked to send a detailed project for the specific area assigned to them. Lastly, the seven winners of the final selection will be asked to realize their gardens in the Park of the Radicepure Biennal. Projects will be on show throughout the Festival, visited, experienced and studied by thousands of visitors, as well as photographers and journalists from the world over who will appreciate their quality and beauty.

Applications
Applicants will submit their projects according to the guided on line procedure emailed to them upon registration. Applications must be received by (no later than) September the 15th, 2024. Participation is free

Selection
Selection will be a two-step process to identify winners.

STEP 1- IDEAS

Applicants will outline the idea underlying their garden design in a brief dossier in the form they choose: the project must include the garden concept with a title, a concise but exhaustive graphic project with a short text explaining by reference images and evocative sketches able to convey their vision. The Jury shall select the best projects. The shortlist will be drawn up for those taking part in Step 2. A specific area of the Festival will be assigned to them. They will have to finalize the project for the second step.

STEP 2 – SPATIAL POSITIONING

Designers shall locate their idea of a garden in the area assigned to them with an executive project, complete with technical drawings, construction details, project manager (aka developer) and planting plan, as well as costing estimates. Project costs shall not exceed €10,000, unless designers independently find sponsors to cover any costs in excess of the afore mentioned sum.
Gardens will be selected by a Jury of experts who will assess their technical and artistic qualities.

STEP 1
● A creative response to the 5th edition’s theme.
● Innovative, clear and consistent project proposal and its potential interaction with the public.
● The contribution of the project to garden art and culture and to innovation.

STEP 2
● Consistency of the design with the initial idea, feasibility and consistency with the assigned budget.

Step 1 participants shortlisted for Step 2 will be informed by email by 10/10/2024.

The 7 winning projects shall be created by the project team, guided and supervised by Radicepura staff members.

Further information is available contacting

website: www.radicepurafestival.com
email: [email protected]
Phone: +39 095 964154

Deadlines
Digital submission of project proposals:

STEP 1 deadline: September 15, 2024
STEP 2 deadline: November 25, 2024

Allocated Budget

€ 10,000 (ten thousand Euros) will be allocated to each selected project (person/group). The cost of materials should not exceed € 5,000.
To choose plants and get an estimate of costs, you can consult the Piante Faro Catalogue, with a 50% discount at the following link:
https://www.piantefaro.com/piante-faro-catalogue.pdf

In the event of the the Budget not covering all costs and if the project interests the Artistic Jury, participants can:

1) Add one’s own Sponsor who can:
a) send materials; and
b) subject to a prearranged agreement with those building the project, may proceed with the section not covered by the budget as set by the present call.

2) the designer may pay the balance directly to those building the project, subject to an economic agreement.

Every garden can be partly or wholly sponsored by one or more.
The Festval offers many visibility opportunities to donors and sponsors, according to the size of their contribution or of donated products/materials.

Bonuses and Sponsors

Each selected project will receive a € 1,000.00 (one thousand Euro) bonus to be used exclusively to cover travel, transport and food expenses. Bonuses will be managed directly by the Festival staff.

Throughout installation, designers will be housed in one of the guestrooms on the estate. Should designers choose alternative accommodation, they shall bear all costs and it will not be covered by the above bonus.

Designers are also encouraged to seek donations or funding for materials and other expenses and to involve any sponsors interested in the theme and to the value of promotion, dissemination and conservation of lansdcape culture pursued by the Radicepura Garden Festival and by each and every project proposal.

Further information is available contacting

website: www.radicepurafestival.com
email: [email protected]
Phone: +39 095 964154

Radicepura Garden Festival announces the Call for Ideas to participate at the fifth edition of the Biennale dedicated to garden design, which will have the topic

Chaos
(and)
Order in the Garden
from an idea of Antonio Perazzi, artistic director of the festival.

Gardens should be a celebration of biodiversity, the natural landscape, and the Mediterranean man-made landscape. Gardens should be innovative, attractive, usable, capture the attention of visitors, and clearly illustrate their design idea and message. The Festival encourages interaction with the public, an innovative approach with new ideas that support and develop a positive relationship between people, their culture and the natural environment where they live. The diversity of climate zones in the Mediterranean and the complex cultural vicissitudes of the area offer a wide range of creative ideas.

We are addressing designers from all walks of life who have good knowledge of Nature, artistic skills and humbleness, to identify style strategies and practices able to lightly balance order and disorder, to indulge Nature without domesticating it.

deadline: September 15, 2024