Eden
2010 - 2012
Eden takes interest in the managed natural landscape. Our relationship with nature is a very paradoxical one. We live in the city. We go to parks. From time to time we venture into the countryside. Even more seldom, we go hiking in some national park comprising huge forests and snowy peaks. The need for nature, the appeal to it, is in our genes (see the Biophilia hypothesis). Yet none of these places is strictly speaking natural. These environments are made of natural elements but they were planned and designed. In 99% of cases, the natural landscape we face is managed or has been at one point in its history. As of today, 'unadulterated nature' doesn't refer to any reality.
Eden intends to explore this paradox as manifested in public parks, where some spaces are designed to feel wild while others are organized for the sight, where traditional or foreign elements of architecture coexist with historical or popular iconographic elements. Parks are an inextricable mix between the idea we have of nature and of how we should domesticate it and give shape to it and the idiosyncrasies of our cultural systems.
All the images of the Eden project are shot in 4x5 colour negative. So far, only the parks of the city of Wuhan, Hubei Province, have been covered. In 2012, Eden will be extended to other Chinese cities, provided that funding for this project can be found.
