In the artist’s garden at the Jameel Center for the Arts, the Spanish artist, Asunción Molinos Gordo, presented an innovative work that monitors the concept of interconnection, mobility and coexistence, by installing a global garden that has grown from seeds that have traveled in the intestines of people who live in or visit Dubai. The artist relied on science to form her work entitled "Crossing: A Journey of Plants", which represents a case of tracking the concept of cooking, starting with food to reach the intestine and then to the sewage and treatment of human excrement, which the artist later used as seeds to produce the garden. The artist defies, through work, the romantic idea about nature, and gives us an artistic and biological expression, based on the combination of science and art, and she worked with engineers and gardeners in the Emirates, and a team of a beautiful art center, and was able to create a garden of these digested seedlings, which were cleaned and planted, Where the seedlings that were grown in the sewage were selected as plants, to be separated, classified and planted, the plantations varied between tomatoes, melons, hot peppers, eggplants, melons, zucchini, marigolds, mustard, citrus, sunflower, pomegranate, and pumpkin.
The artist’s garden, Gordeaux, reflects what was presented by the Jameel Center for the Arts on the production of works looking for our relationship with nature around us. It examines the gap between culture and nature, which separates human activity from other natural phenomena. It also aims to re-establish our concepts on the idea of connectedness in life.
And about this project, Gordo told «Emirates Today»: «Many nationalities live in Dubai in addition to receiving many tourists from different nationalities and from six continents, and the presence of this large number of nationalities reflects many food cultures, you find their shelter in the end at a station Treating the main wastewater in the city in the Al-Aweer area, stressing that through work it raises many questions about the process of digestion and the amount of seeds that have survived this process, until it remains seeds that can be grown to grow and grow as normal plants.
She pointed out that the idea crystallized when she was on a visit to Sharjah, entered the sewage plant, and spoke with an engineer and told her that heat affects the digestion process, and therefore some seeds survive the digestion process, which means that it can be cultivated, and grow, but it does not live for a long time Because the intestine contains a high percentage of acid.
Gordo indicated that she cooperated with the municipality and obtained treated materials from sewage in the Al-Awir area, noting that it chose Al-Awir as the region that handles sanitation for residential areas, and therefore contains a lot of waste from various and different kitchens. Regarding the cultivation of these materials, she confirmed that she dealt with them as normal seeds, as they put them on the soil, and covered them with sweet soil because it contains a lot of iron before adding coconut fibers to it, as it is a material that keeps the soil moist. She noted that she obtained two cubes of materials from Al-Awir, then put them in six cages to obtain various plants in this garden.
Gordo saw that this type of artwork carries a lot of tests, and therefore I was surprised during the work of the rapid growth of plants. Within two weeks, there was a similar forest and green plants. As for the types of vegetables that I found, I explained that they found 13 types of vegetables and under each type there are different categories of types of seeds, explaining that it is not available to eat these vegetables because they contain bacteria, and their damages are unknown. On the interconnection between her artistic project and science, Gordo stressed the close interdependence, explaining that she loves to carry out projects that carry a scientific tendency, just as art is likely to merge it with any other field, so we cannot give art a specific work or a single and specific aspect.
On cooperating with beautiful art, Gordo expressed her happiness at being in the center and in Dubai, especially as they were open to new ideas, especially that they carry an aspect of adventure, especially as it is not guaranteed that the seedlings grow.
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“Crossing: A Journey of Plants”, a work commissioned and produced by the Foundation for Beautiful Art, produced with the support of the Dubai Municipality, and “Spanish Cultural Work” through the Internationalization Program for Spanish Culture, the American University of Sharjah, “CIA Landscape”, “Zahra” farm, and the gardener Kumar Planesame.
Asunción said that she will obtain seeds from the plants from this garden, and later she will conduct more tests on them, and will be presented in the next session of «Art Dubai», within the program of the assigned artist, the results of the research.
- Gordo: I love projects with a scientific flair, and art is likely to merge it with any other field .