Sculptural Installation Garden 2123 is a sustainable public garden, designed to create inclusive space for communities and a platform for empowering societal memory via innovative strategy of reusing materials, leftover in the processes of regeneration of public spaces. It accentuates the immaterial inheritance and creates environment for bonding relationships between different cultures, generations and communities, enhancing a sense of belonging.
Local
Lithuania
Vilnius city municipality, Rasų kolonija district.
Mainly urban
It refers to a physical transformation of the built environment (hard investment)
No
No
Yes
2021-11-30
As a representative of an organisation
Name of the organisation(s): Lithuanian Interdisciplinary Artists' Association Type of organisation: Non-profit organisation First name of representative: Lina Last name of representative: Rukeviciute Gender: Female Nationality: Lithuania Function: International relations manager Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: Vitebsko 23 Town: Vilnius Postal code: 11350 Country: Lithuania Direct Tel:+370 631 11495 E-mail:info@letmekoo.lt Website:https://sodas2123.lt/
Sculptural Installation Garden 2123 (The Garden) is a sustainable public garden project in the city of Vilnius, shaped by sensitive aesthetic and architectural decisions, designed to create inclusive space for communities and a platform for empowering societal memory via innovative strategy of reusing materials and objects leftover in the processes of regeneration of public spaces. It accentuates the immaterial inheritance and creates an environment for bonding relationships between different cultures, generations and communities, embracing commonness and enhancing a sense of belonging.
The Garden was developed as part of the cultural centre SODAS 2123 – a space founded by the Lithuanian Interdisciplinary Artists' Association (LIAA), operating under the principles of community and self-government. It is located in a previously closed urban space in Rasų Kolonija district of Vilnius city, that lacked cultural and aesthetic content.
The aim of the project is special attention to outdoor public space, research of material cycles, new heritage, integration of forms of cooperation. The derelict site of former school building was transformed treating it as the city archive – re-articulating the disappearing layers or elements of the city of Vilnius, giving them new ergonomic shapes, which would together form an iconic public space open to all citizens.
A gradual development strategy was implemented by LIAA together with architecture studio Studio Isora x Lozuraityte and curator Danutė Gambickaitė in order to develop the Garden for SODAS 2123 and its surrounding communities. Over dozens of cultural creators and researchers from various fields gather at SODAS 2123 – there are rehearsal spaces for musicians, headquarters of film, design, visual arts organizations, more than 30 studios of creators from various fields; events, exhibition and discussion spaces, artist residencies, various workshops, a café, a public courtyard-garden space, allotments, a greenhouse, etc.
Societal / immaterial heritage
Public memory
Upcycling
Participatory visionary culture
Public space
– to collect selected disposed materials and objects in order to upcycle them into new functional and aesthetic sculptural installations, forming a new public space – The Sculptural Installation Garden 2123. Only those materials and objects were collected, which had been part of other public spaces and thus part of immaterial history of Vilnius city, embedded in peoples’ memory in relation to past events of societal and personal significance. Over 20 objects have been created for the garden out of collected materials and memories;
– to develop communication practice for smooth information exchange with municipality companies in relation to transportation of materials, in order to be able to access all needed materials and objects, starting from those from demolition sites, objects disposed from city infrastructure network (such as tiles, grills), to biological waste such as grates from cut trees etc.;
– to create a communication strategy to carry out the educational element of the project by connecting sustainability and upcycling problematics with regeneration of public spaces in the city;
– to create strategies for active community involvement in the process, following the ethics of living in accord with the welfare of the ecological community. Currently the developed public space has become a desired site for local community to spend their quality time, organize gatherings; the creative community of SODAS 2123 is now using this site and its functional objects (stage, benches, terraces) to extend its activities to the outdoor space;
– to develop a methodology for sustainable, lifecycle thinking approach to city renovation, foreseeing a possibility of further replication. This methodology has been successfully created, documented and publicly presented. The replications are taking place at present on a local level in other private developments in Vilnius, and it could be done further – on a regional, national, international level.
The project aimed to develop a public sculptural installation garden concept in the area of Vilnius which was significantly lacking creative and aesthetic content. There was a noticeable need of public spaces, public sculptures, cultural activities in the context of rapidly growing populations in the areas surrounding SODAS 2123 – Vilnius districts of Rasos, Markučiai, Paupys, Naujininkai. This project was designed to regenerate abandoned natural environment for local communities into open and freely accessible public relaxation space thus contributing to their positive emotions and quality of experiences at close proximity of their homes.
The aesthetic line of SODAS 2123 and Sculptural Installation Garden 2123 is closely attached to a concept of garden: SODAS means garden in Lithuanian, and it was chosen as the name for the site as a metaphor of cultural activities as fertility, seeding and growth. The aim of the current project was to maintain its concept of garden (dating back centuries ago when the site was a designed and known as a Garden of Paradise, according to old Vilnius city maps) balancing human intervention and carefully preserving natural environment, which had taken over during the time when the site was abandoned (2016-2019). Thus the designed sculptural installations complement the natural landscape and are arranged following organically formed patterns, serving the local community as sites of meaningful experiences.
Visually the sculptures are designed to bare the aesthetic properties from their previous function – tiles, columns, chunks of trees, grills – so their previous locations in the city could be recognised by the garden visitors and so their memories would be triggered and their imaginations activated.
The design strategy of the Sculptural Installation Garden 2123 is based on accessibility and inclusion. The sculpture garden is now open 24/7. All the objects here are functional, can be touched, sat on, and used as a backdrop for various community events and mundane use. Residents of the surrounding neighbourhoods have started to visit this previously neglected place and use it for their own recreation, walks, conversations and meetings. The community of creatives of various disciplines from the nearby cultural centre SODAS 2123 also regularly use the sculpture garden for events and meetings, as well as for relaxation and respite. The sculptures were designed to become part of users’ memories and to contribute to formation and affirmation of the local identity. Following creative strategy behind the concept of the installation garden, its daily users gradually engage as further co-creators of the continuing narrative of the future city.
The citizens who visit the sculpture garden remember the past lives of the objects that have undergone a kind of reincarnation. For example, Arturas Bumšteinas, Lithuanian contemporary composer, remembers attending his first noise concerts as well as getting to know of the jazz music, or fluxus music performances at the Trade Union Palace hall. Indeed, both during the occupation in Soviet times as well in the first decade of the independence of Lithuania the Palace served as a hub for various underground cultures. The columns of the Palace have now been transported to the Sculptural Installation Garden 2123, cut and turned into benches – here the present actors of the contemporary music field look for inspirations and formulate their visions of the future.
Each of the objects from the Garden have similar sets of memories, that could be told by many other citizens, and therefore the narratives of the city, started by some of the citizens, are transported and continued in another site, by new generations – via materials and objects. Thus the sculptures contribute to formation of the local identity.
The project connects different generations of the country which has undergone governance, ideological, societal changes by empowering the public memory transitions from different public sites across the city and across different historical times and contexts.
On local level, the initiative of the project came from three sides:
The Lithuanian Interdisciplinary Artists’ Association – is an artist run organization representing its member artists, promoting contemporary art and developing artistic programmes. In this project LIAA was the main initiator, the legal tenant of the buildings (and the surrounding territory) from Vilnius City Municipality, the initiator and operator of cultural centre SODAS 2123, an applicant for funds for this project, responsible for legal and administrative procedures.
Architecture studio Isora x Lozuraityte Studio for Architecture is a studio based at SODAS 2123. Its architects Ona Lozuraitytė-Išorė and Petras Išora-Lozoraitis are the co-authors of the concept of SODAS 2123, as well as the authors of the concept of this project and its methodology.
Curator Danutė Gambickaitė is one of authors of the concept of SODAS 2123, the co-author and curator of this project, involved in researching the context of the site and overlooking the overall creative implementation procedures.
On municipality level, Vilnius City Municipality financially supported the implementation of the project, following the successful funding application, submitted by LIAA, to competition programme ‘Kuriu Vilnių’ (‘I create Vilnius’).
Municipality companies ‘Grinda’ and ‘Stebulė’ were collaborators of the project, organizing access, acquisition as well as relocation of the materials and objects, which were the ownership of the municipality.
Artist Antanas Gerlikas created and implemented the sculpture for the Garden.
NATYVAI – creators of furniture, who produced wooden objects.
Lightforms studio is a collective creating light installations. They developed, designed and installed lighting solutions.
Private company UAB ‘Jūrės medis’ was also involved in the project as a sponsor providing leftover wood material for the installations.
Architects were in charge of the visual and aesthetic result of the project and were involved in all stages and decisions regarding all knowledge fields, dealing with visual artists, light designers, the involved communities, municipality officials, archeologists, the curator.
They had to follow municipal regulations regarding acquisition of materials and transporting them across public spaces in the city.
Light designers were observing the community habits and consulting landscape architects in order to find out the most effective lighting structures and patterns of light arrangement, following their own aesthetic strategy.
Archeology and geoscanning knowledge was used. The site was geo-scanned in order to find out if there were objects, traces of activities, patterns, invisible at present date. Listed as the cultural heritage site the space required very special attention and a very tender touch to it, so the georadar scanned the site to make sure no valuable findings lay underneath. Its printed digital image provides geological information available for all visitors of the garden to observe. The gathered data is fixed in the form of a curtain and the designing done accordingly to the findings. Archeological practices of placing found objects on wooden holders have been implemented when designing functional objects for the garden such as benches.
Urban and landscape planning knowledge was also used. It helped to gather the knowledge of adjusting the space to best suit the needs of the communities.
Historical research of the site was conducted in order to contextualise the project in Vilnius city history.
Curatorial approach was important to have an overall perspective of the project development and contextualization, maintaining direct contact with representatives of local community of Rasų Kolonija as well as the SODAS 2123 community.
The results of the project can be divided into two groups – tangible (tangible objects, public space) and intangible (new and unique approach, methodology). In terms of tangible results, the new public space includes 24 functional sculptural installations, landscaping, pedestrian walkways, planting, a new light installation and bicycle racks. The objects can be sat on, touched, and positioned for conversations, lectures and other visitor needs. The new public space is well visited by the city's residents, surrounding communities and event participants, it has been discussed in public events following its upcycling and sustainability ideas, pictured and analysed in media locally as well as internationally.
Intangible and at the same time extremely important result is the new approach, the innovative methodology, based on immaterial inheritance, which is already being used (replicated) in other projects in the city.
The project has implemented a unique methodology, which reflects not only a sustainable approach to the newly created environment, but also a desire to incorporate the dimension of human memory into the conversion projects of buildings and sites. Conversion projects always involve old buildings and places that are in some way inscribed in the memory of the inhabitants, and in the approach developed by Isora x Lozuraityte Studio for Architecture, it is the memory that plays a central role. Through a careful and sensitive study of the site, the objects and materials that remain there are transformed into a new state and function without losing their recognisability.
This method and approach has already begun to spread to other places in Vilnius. New conversion projects have approached the authors of the idea with a view to applying the method they have developed to new architectural conversion projects. We consider this to be a very important result and benefit of the project to its authors as well as communities to which it was addressed to.
The innovative character of this project lies in the methodology of the development of the garden and its sculptural objects. The architects have created a new type of model to operate in public space in Vilnius city which has never been created and implemented earlier. They have developed the project as a prototype to learn the next possible take on how we can save the city's memory while resurrecting the non-tangible qualities of the city’s socioculturally important objects, also how the discarded materials from other public spaces could be upcycled into new objects, raising public awareness on deepening ecological crisis.
Following this methodology, the artifacts of the sculptural garden were designed from found and remade materials and objects, gathered from defunct, reshaped, renovated and in other ways refurbished and changing public spaces of Vilnius city. These were the objects which marked the most prominent public places for the Vilnius city inhabitants, associated with the public memory in relation to important historical, societal events, related public debates, personal stories and narratives. Considering the inevitable need for the transformations of those public spaces on the city level, the architects found their approach and methods for extending the existence of such culturally charged material, which gets discarded after upgrades.
The upcycled material creates further extensions of intertwined personal, communal, societal histories, it initiates new discourses around the new archeology.
The social inheritance is treated as important as material heritage. Finding a format to fix the traces of previous narratives and community-based knowledge creates a multilayered character for the newly designed surrounding – the Garden. Together it creates the experimental space for common learning for a new material dialogue –the possible alternative routes for architecture, situational architecture engaging the wider social, cultural and political contexts.
The methodology of this project is based on rearticulating cities’ past narratives and distributing them as building elements into emerging public spaces. As a strategy this encourages both liquidity of change and continuum through preservation.
Preserved and reused recognisable elements of public objects, spaces or environments are combined into new forms and purposes – new but familiar.
In this case former yard became a public garden and was complemented with sort of psychogeographical map of the city, combined of a collection of recognisable material fragments with articulated histories.
It activated connection of the place with new users, both provoking to discover new form - scenario and connecting to already familiar of what was experienced and is already a part of the history of the city.
The methodology of this project also benefited from developed strategy of getting access to discarded materials and objects, owned by the municipality. The strategy was based on properly identifying the connection of municipal ownership towards the land of the developed site and the materials and objects in question. This helped to avoid the questions of transition of ownership and to make processes easier, smoother and faster.
This project could be replicated by using the same methodology in regenerating public spaces in other cities or public spaces outside of cities, and this replication could be done on different levels – municipal, private, national, international level. The aim of the methodology of this project is based on preserved and reused recognisable elements of public objects/materials being transformed into new forms and purposes – for the new cycle of use in newly created public spaces, bearing the memory of older public spaces, thus preserving the immaterial heritage. It could work as an easily adapted strategy for cities anywhere in the world, going along with their constant need for renovation and refurbishment.
To this date, following the implementation and public presentation of the Sculptural Installation Garden 2123, some replications of its methodology have already started in Vilnius city, as more building refurbishment projects were inspired by this methodology and are using the knowledge accumulated during its development process.
The main global challenge that this project is tackling locally is ecology. By reviving a derelict site in to a public outdoor space with designed objects made by implemented upcycling solutions, this project is not only demonstrating an example of how to work on a public space level consciously avoiding the use of new materials, but also strengthens it by implementing an idea of preserving immaterial heritage, embedded in the objects and materials from public spaces in the city.
This project allowed to open up the vast storage/recycling sites of municipal city service companies, which are accumulating the no longer needed material from the city. Due to architectural strategy, this material again became a matter creatively transformed into new functional objects for further use of the city in public.
Being an exemplary site it serves as a starting point for educational programmes for the public and an experimental space for common learning for a new material dialogue – the possible alternative routes for architecture, situational architecture engaging the wider social, cultural and political contexts.
